Athlete's Foot

How do you PREVENT Athlete’s Foot and Nail Fungus?

 

There are literally hundreds of advertisements and articles out there supporting this or that treatment for fungal infections of the skin on the feet (athlete’s foot) and toenail fungus. Most of these are for products with basically the same active ingredients but with a different spin or packaging. 

Why are there so many foot fungus products out there?

There are probably several reasons for this, but the main ones (and the most obvious) are:  

  1. Fungal infections of the feet are a huge problem affecting a large percentage of the population. That means there is a huge market for anti-fungal products, which also means that there is lots of money to be made selling these products!

  1. Fungal infections of the feet are difficult to get rid of. Usually, if there are many available treatments for a certain medical condition it means that there is no single treatment that is overwhelmingly successful. Fungal infections fall into this category. They are easy to get but quite challenging to eradicate.

Knowing that athlete’s foot and toenail fungus is so easy to get and so hard to treat, maybe we should be asking ourselves a different question:

How do we PREVENT these types of fungal infections from happening in the first place?

fungus and athletes foot sol foot and ankle centers

To answer this question, we have to think about where the fungus comes from and in what type of environment it thrives. The fungus that gets onto our feet and causes problems survives best in a dark, damp environment. Doesn’t this sound very much like the environment that exists inside of our shoes? Inside our shoes (and even on top of our sandals) is where foot fungus lives, eats, and multiplies like crazy!

So the best way to prevent foot fungus is to reduce, or even eliminate, the fungus that lives in our shoes. There are a few different ways to go about doing this and some work better than others:

  1. Regularly apply anti-fungal products, such as sprays, powders, or creams on the skin of the feet. This will help some, but you don’t want to have to think about using medication on your skin daily just as prevention.
  2.  Regularly wash your socks. Of course, you should do this - it would be disgusting not to! However skin cells, with the fungus on them, easily go through your sock fibers and remain in your shoes no matter how clean your socks are
  1. Wash your shoes. Of course, this would help, but shoes generally don’t do very well in hot water with detergent strong enough to kill the fungus. Your shoebill will certainly increase
  1. Use an anti-fungal product specifically made to reduce the fungus in your shoes. Now we’re getting somewhere! There aren’t many of them out there, but regularly using an anti-fungal shoe spray will go a long way toward keeping fungus off of your feet. shoe spray foot traffik

  2. Use an ultra-violet (UV) shoe sterilizer. Now we’re talking about the BEST way to prevent foot fungus infections. The UV shoe sterilizers literally kill fungus (as well as bacteria and viruses) that are living in your shoes within just a few minutes.

Shoe zap

 

 

 

So let’s make a resolution to prevent those athletes’ foot and toenail fungus infections from ever happening or returning in the future.

Find the preventative measure that works best for you and look at the special deals in this article on the top-of-the-line fungus prevention products available at our shoe store, Foot Traffik (no doctor appointment necessary!).

 

 

questions or comments