You check to see no one is watching; then, you slip off your shoes and press your toes against the leg of a chair or desk. Up down side to side, you rub your itching toes until the little buggers nearly drop off. But they still burn. Itch. Crack. Drive you nuts.
Don’t worry there are treatments. Over the counter medications are what we usually think of when we mention simple remedies. Antifungal creams are fine, but they can make your toes feel like they’ve been glued together.
Sprays are another treatment. Sprays are effective on most fungi and the powder sprays have a fragrance that doesn’t make you nauseous. There’s a drawback with sprays. My dogs gag as they race from the room whenever I start painting my toes with a can of toe jam killer.
Like sprays, antifungal powders have enough medication to kill the athlete’s foot before you go off the deep end and take a jackhammer to your toes. With powder I always leave white mounds on the floor while only a sprinkling reaches me feet. In the end, my bathroom looks like a CSI episode with toe prints cluttering the place.
Tea Tree Oil is a more natural and neater approach. Soaking twice daily for ten to fifteen minutes and there is a good chance of killing the fungus. Plus, you add a distinctive scent to your body.
Sosa is another herbal remedy, but it has not been studied thoroughly enough to garner recommendations or condemnation.
Another home remedy: soak your infected feet in warm, salted water (1 teaspoon of salt per cup) or aluminum acetate solution for 5 to 10 minutes every day and then dry them thoroughly. Be patient with this treatment.
All this space devoted to treating athlete’s foot when Ben Franklin reminds us the value of prevention.
Wear cotton socks, and shoes that breathe. Skip the dyed socks. Keeping your feet clean, dry, and powdered with an antifungal will help avoid the agony of de feet. Avoid spreading the fungus among us… don’t share socks or towels. If you get athlete’s foot, wash your cotton socks and towels in the hottest water – or boil them. Do NOT re-use the boiling water for cooking.
Not the type of chef who likes stewing your socks? There is one other option that not only prevents but has also been shown to cure athlete’s foot. Bamboo socks. Bamboo fabric is highly water absorbent, which gives the fabric an excellent wicking ability so it pulls moisture away from the skin so it can evaporate. Bamboo fiber is filled with various micro-gaps, making it cool in hot weather.
Because of the structure of its fibers, bamboo fabric is soft, quite smooth and comfortable. Bamboo clothing looks and feels like silk but can be machine washed on the gentle cycle and dried in a dryer or hung.
Fashion aside, bamboo possesses a property referred to as bamboo kun, which Karen Biers, a clothing and textile specialist at Utah State Unversity, states that this gives it a naturally occurring antimicrobial property.
A bamboo socks case study was performed by Karen Biers. Fifty individuals suffering from athletes foot were asked to wear socks made from antimicrobial bamboo fabric. All athletes foot sufferers who began wearing bamboo socks reported that the burning and itching associated with the condition disappeared within one to two days after the test began. Within two to six days, the blistering and sores characteristic of the condition disappeared and the skin returned to normal. Great news, the fabric seems to retain its anti-fungal and anti-bacterial nature, even after several launderings making it an ideal choice not only for clothing but also for bamboo sheets.
The only drawback to bamboo clothing is that it won’t hang itself up after washing.
Related posts:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article.
However, bamboo fiber is NOT antimicrobial. Bamboo itself is proven to have antimicrobial propoerties, but bamboo fiber undergoes strong chemistry to become cellulose. In this process, the antimicrobial effect is completely lost and bamboo is … exactly the same as if it came from pulp or any other cellulose based product. Google “bamboo antimicrobial” and you will find lots of clear evidence against its effect. Makes a nice hype, but treat it for what it is, nothing else.
John,
Ah yes, google it and you will find claims by the FTC all over “google” stating bamboo fabric is not antimicrobial. So in a sense, you are correct that this claim is all over the internet. What you won’t find is scientific data by the FTC or any other source backing up this claim.
However, what you will find is scientific data in addition to case studies stating that bamboo fabric is in fact antimicrobial. We have gone to great lengths to acquire data on both fronts, as well as performing our own case studies. We are all about getting to the facts and truth in everything we write. And, as you see in this post on athlete’s foot – this information was pulled from a direct case study performed by a textile specialist at a university. You can’t argue with a case study John. We simply tell it like it is.
Now I ask…if bamboo fabric does not maintain any of its antimicrobial properties, how is it that this magical fabric has the ability to heal wounds such as athletes foot? How is it that a person could wear bamboo socks for 4 straight days without building up any foot odor? How is it that a t-shirt can be worn for a straight week without emitting a rotten stench?
It is quite evident that “rayon from bamboo” is a completely different beast from standard rayon and has qualities that no other fabric offers. We have actual lab results from a well known source that we will be publishing here soon that will show some of the other characteristics of this amazing fabric source.
So until we are provided with scientific data that totally negates all data we have seen, we believe bamboo fabric is indeed antimicrobial. Now can we say this with 100% certainty…no, not quite yet. But as in building any case, you research at great length and accumulate the evidence and you scrutinize the heck out of it, and thus far, we have seen no evidence showing it is not antimicrobial.
John – your comment is a direct quote from the FTC’s claims and yet you state there is clear evidence against its effect. Are you a textile chemist? Do you have scientific data to back this up? Have you reviewed actual lab results as we have? Have you ever even worn bamboo clothing or touched bamboo fabric??
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so by all means, if you have solid scientific data that disqualifies all of our research, please do share. We would love to get to the bottom of this ourselves.
We certainly appreciate your comment on this post, however, it’s these types of “matter of fact” comments circulating the internet, based off of the FTC’s claims that have spun this into what it is today – GOSSIP – while leading consumers to be naïve in believing what our government tells them even though they offer no proof to back up their claims.
-[url=http://www.sunglasseseason.com/new-d-g-sunglasses-348.html]new D & G sunglasses[/url]certainty…no, not quite yet. But as in building any case, you research at great length and accumulate the evidence and you scrutinize the heck out of it, and thus far, we have seen no evidence showing it is not antimicro
{ 2 trackbacks }