Podiatry: Athletes Foot and Ingrown Toenails

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Spring, Ramblers, Athletes Foot and ingrown toenails

Spring is a lovely time of year. Even on a grey day like today, the birds are singing, and the apple-blossom outside my office window is a brilliant mixture of pinks and whites.

I live in a small rural village in Leicestershire. We don't have a shop, but we do have a school and a pub, so the planners obviously got something right! As I'm writing this I can see, from my window overlooking the pub car park, a bunch of ramblers preparing to do a walk along the revitalized canal tow-path. Ramblers as a group are pretty sensible about their footwear. They wear good boots and are generally clued up about foul-weather clothing - good thing too in our uncertain climate. Do they have foot problems? Some of them certainly do.

As the weather becomes warmer our feet tend to swell a little. Anyone on their feet for any length of time may find old problems like Athletes Foot, and ingrown toenails starting to reappear in Spring. There is another problem with the weather warming up - it creates, in conjunction with a little sweat, thick socks and sturdy boots, the ideal breeding ground for germs, So foot infections where the skin is already damaged (as in Athletes Foot and ingrown toenails) can be more prevelant in the Spring too.

Athletes Foot

This is a skin infection caused, not by germs, but by one of several different types of fungus. It's usually found between the toes, and is capable of producing an intense itch. There are over-the-counter preparations which will give some relief, but probably not get rid of the infection.

To treat Athletes Foot successfully, a Health Professional (who may be a Podiatrist, GP or Dermatologist) should take a skin scraping from the affected area, have it analysed to find out which particular fungus is present, and then use a preparation which is specific for that type of fungus. Treatment should be continued for twice as long as it takes the symptoms to clear, since stopping treatment early can allow dormant fungal spores to regroup and attack the skin again at a later date.

Ingrown toenails

These, as the names suggests, are toenails which, for one of several reasons, have grown in against the side of the toe (sulcus) causing, initially, inflammation but followed by infection if any part of the nail penetrates the skin. In long-standing cases the toe can swell to twice its normal size. Needless to say, this is a pretty uncomfortable experience.

Self-treatment is not normally an option for most patients. Either they find it difficult to bend to their feet, or the toe is just too painful to mess around with. A Health Professional (I would recommend a Podiatrist here, since this is a big chunk of what they're trained to do) can treat the nail conservatively, by gently cleaning out any infection, and packing the nail to ease it away from the skin, or surgically, by removing the nail-side under a local anaesthetic. A good Podiatrist should be able to do this completely painlessly, and that includes the injection beforehand, and the hour or two afterwards when the injection has worn off.

Happy walking everyone!

Please feel free to use the enquiry form at www.ortho-pedclinic.com for all foot-health and foot-related matters.
David Holland BSc(Hons), MSc(Dunelm), MChS
Consulting Podiatrist.