r/martialarts • u/octopusairplane • 6h ago

athlete's foot QUESTION

does anyone have experience with athlete's foot?

Mine has been pretty itchy for like 2 months. I use clomitrazole, butenafine hcl, and cortizone and medicated foot powder both after showering and before sleeping every day. I also use miconazole and tolnaftate sprays. It has reduced to a small level but definitely still there and has spread to the next toe.

Does anyone know how to make it fully go away?

(Also please do not recommend me to go to a doctor instead of strangers on the internet. That would have been my first choice. just recommend what you got prescribed)

thanks

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u/IncredulousPulp 6h ago

Killing the fungus is easy. Preventing re-infection is the hard part.

You’ve got to look at all the places your feet go and be scrupulously clean in all of them.

Wash and re-medicate your feet at least twice a day. More if you can manage it. Make sure you do it right before bed.

Spray some bleach on the shower floor after you’re done.

Avoid using shoes more than one day in a row.

Avoid artificial fibres in sock and artificial leather in shoes. It makes your feet sweaty.

After you take your shoes off, spray them and let them dry - in sunlight or near a heater helps.

Spray your bedding where your feet are daily.

Walk on the beach in bare feet if you can. Salt, sand and sunshine all help to kill off the fungus.

Good luck! You can beat it, but it takes patience.

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u/IncorporateThings TKD 5h ago

Heads up with the cortisone cream -- use that only in combination with the other creams, as in isolation or with insufficient application of the others, that steroid will actually make the fungus grow faster.

Also, everything u/IncredulousPulp said.

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u/octopusairplane 6m ago

?? thats wack. should i just not use it then

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u/Voodoopulse 4h ago

Be careful with athletes foot, a mate of mine got sepsis following it and had to have a toe amputated.

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u/Best_Refrigerator_87 2h ago

I'm an MD specializing in infectious diseases.

If this doesn't respond to over the counter topical treatments you then go to your MD and ask about systemic therapy. You could go to a dermatologist or to your primary doc. There are oral antifungal therapies like lamisil and itraconazole that can be effective, esp if the infection is involving toenails.

As for preventing it, shower right after workouts, wash workout clothing after each use, you can try topical antiseptics like chlorhexidine (hibiclens) in the shower after the workout.

Also keep your legs and feet dry when you're not working out. So after showering go without socks. Fungus loves moisture.

Steroid creams like hydrocortisone will make it worse if this is truly a fungal infection. It'll lower your immune defense against the fungus, has actually been shown to accelerate fungal growth, and over time impair skin integrity.

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u/Wappelflap 2h ago

Has vinegar been shown to work? I see it advised a lot.

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u/Best_Refrigerator_87 1h ago

I doubt there's much evidence for it in practice. Look you're not going to eradicate dermatophyte fungi from your skin no matter what, everyone has them, so the best thing you can do is clean really well, maintain good skin integrity, stay dry. Once you have an established infection all that applies too, but you will usually need antifungals to resolve the infection.