The fungus is a rather unpleasant infectious disease that is transmitted from one person to another. In addition, this disease can get both a woman and a man. Summer is undoubtedly the most beautiful season, which not only tells us about relaxation and light t-shirts, but also about excessive sweating, as well as the extremely open surface of the legs. This seemingly simple nuance acts as an excellent predisposing factor, helping to spread quite different infections, including fungal infections. Symptoms of a fungus on the legs can have pronounced features or even hidden ones at all.
The zones of infection of this unpleasant disease can most often be distinguished by the fact that people in their territory usually move barefoot or at least take off their shoes. Athlete's foot can be easily picked up in a public bath or sauna, in a swimming pool, in a beach shower, in a gym locker room, and also in any beauty salon that offers the most common pedicure services.
Key Symptoms and Signs
Athlete's foot, the symptoms of which begin to manifest themselves in the area of the toenails, can often be seen with the naked eye.Why specifically nails? It's pretty obvious: the nail contains a huge amount of a substance called keratin, which is perfectly capable of feeding any fungal infection.
The first sign of a fungal infection is a change in the shade and shape of the nail: it can be yellow, red or brown, the structure also changes. It is extremely problematic to cut a diseased nail plate, it can easily deform and constantly crumble, you can also find a lot of cracks and stripes on the nail. Also, the shade of an infected nail plate often depends on the type of fungal infection, such as yeast or mold. A mushroom cream will help get rid of this problem.
The nail plate immediately shows a reaction to infection, and the result is keratinization: the nail becomes thicker, which is why quick treatment is simply impossible.
But that's not all. The fungal infection continues to manifest itself and spread to the fingers and feet - this can be recognized by redness, itching and burning, in certain advanced situations the formation of vesicles with inflammation and deformation can be noted. This stage of the disease can leave many severe ulcers and erosions.
But even the most detailed information about the symptoms of a fungal disease cannot tell with 100% accuracy about the type of this or that fungus.
As you know, today the types of fungal diseases appear in large numbers, and the symptoms of fungus on the legs remain similar or even almost the same. For this reason, the best solution is a medical examination, during which the damaged area of \u200b\u200bthe nail is examined exclusively in a laboratory. It helps identify the disease.
In order to have a clear idea of what foot fungal disease looks like, it is important that you familiarize yourself with the basic symptoms, which include:
- flushed skin;
- exfoliation of the skin;
- blisters filled with fluid;
- change in the shade and structure of the nail plate;
- Deformation, delamination of the nail.
Not in every situation such states indicate that it is a fungal disease of the legs. Signs can easily point to a very different wound. Only an experienced doctor can make an accurate diagnosis. Differentiation occurs in many different skin diseases: from eczema and lichen planus to psoriasis and others. Sometimes it is also important not only to know the symptoms, but also to carry out tests.
In general, it is fairly easy to determine the type of fungal disease once you know the symptoms. However, if the disease has not yet gone beyond the nail plate, it is necessary to determine the type of onychomycosis in order to choose the right drugs and quickly get rid of this unpleasant disease. Three types of fungal diseases cause deformation of the nail plate, and the symptoms are different. It depends on what subspecies of the disease is on the nail, and there are several of them:
- Dermatophyte is a fungal disease that produces off-white, yellow spots with an uneven base. Spots form on the edges of the nail plate at the initial stage. The edges can also peel off the skin and have a yellow tint.
- Yeast disease acts as a disease in which the nail plate acquires a dark or blackish color with a yellowish admixture. The structure begins to ripple and the edges break. A distinctive feature can be called severe redness, swelling and at the slightest physical exertion in the affected area. You may feel pain. A purulent mass often accumulates in the center of the nail roll, the rupture of which can serve as a reason for the addition of other infectious diseases.
- Mold infection can be easily provoked due to weak immunity after a cold infection. The nail plate, when deformed by mold, can have different shades. Also, you can observe the formation of cloudy blurry spots. The main feature in this situation may be the fact that the nail itself is able to detach from the base and delaminate, preserving the integrity of its structure.
prevent athlete's foot
The first thing that contributes to the development of a fungal infection is increased sweating of the feet when a person wears closed shoes practically all the time. The patient must remember that a fungal disease easily withstands low temperatures, even after freezing, he still saves himself as the causative agent of the disease.
A high temperature easily fights the disease, so it is better to boil your feet as a preventive measure. If the clothes are processed in this way and additionally ironed, the fungal disease will simply disappear. To disinfect shoes, you can use formaldehyde: using this solution, infection can appear within 20 minutes.