Fungal Foot Infections
What Is A Fungal Foot Infection?
Fungal foot infections are common conditions that can affect both the skin and nails.
Athlete’s Foot (Tinea pedis) typically causes itching, redness, and flaking of the skin, often between the toes.
Fungal nail infections (Tinea unguium) can lead to thickened, discoloured, or brittle nails.
These infections thrive in warm, damp environments but are manageable with appropriate treatment and care.
Athlete's Foot
It’s estimated that one in six people in the UK currently have athlete’s foot.
It is caused by a fungus that makes your skin itchy, flaky and red, occasionally blisters, and causes white cracks to appear, especially between your toes and on the side of your foot.
It is often picked up from walking bare foot on damp, contaminated floors such as in communal changing rooms.
If you don’t wash your hands after touching a contaminated area, it can spread to other parts of your body, including your groin and underarms.
Toenail Infections
These can occur on any part of your nail and take a long time to develop. They cause your nail to discolour, become crumbly or thicken. Your toenails may change colour or become thick, misshapen, and brittle. Normally the nail will be discoloured with a yellow or brown mark, or it may appear as white flecks on the nail.
Quite often the infection will start at the tip of the nail, usually to one side, but it may spread to affect the whole nail plate, and may even spread to other nails.
Sometimes the surrounding skin and nail bed may become inflamed and irritated, but quite often there is no pain involved. The nails may also become smelly.
It is most common in people who already have athlete’s foot as this infection can penetrate the nails.
