Dr. Stoll,
I wrote over two years about toe nail fungus and you suggested the vinegar. I have really been faithful about applying it morning and night for at least a good year and I still have it. I finally went to a Podiatrist and he suggested the $500 drug. What aboutthe Tea Tree Oil? Do you recommend it and how would I use it? Also what about Lotromin?
In Reply to: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Patricia Hand on April 01, 1998 at 11:42:47:
Dear Pat,
I would dearly love it if you would describe EXACTLY how you did this. In more than 15 years, you are the first person to have this fail. I know that people are not machines so I have always said that I expected that eventually there would be someone for which this did not work.
I am sure that there are many substances out there that will suppress fungal mycelia's growth into healthy new tissue. Tea Tree Oil is one of them. Before I would spend a dime on the ridiculously expensive stuff conventionally recommended, I certainly would become a student of alternatives first.
By the way, I wish you had not done this for 2 years before asking aobut it. Unless your nails take more than 4 years to grow out, you should at least have seen normal nail moving up the nail bed at least 18 months ago. ANYTHING you end up using will work the same way. Remember, nail tissue is dead. NOTHING can remove the fungus from already formed nail. ALL topical (and internally administered) remedies have to work by the new nail being free of the fungus and the old nail growing off the body.
Please let me know exactly how you did what you did with the vinegar. I would like to be sure that it was the material that failed & not how you did it.
Thanks for the feedback!
Walt
P.S. By the way, the reason why people are susceptible to foot fungus is well explained in the chapter about this subject in my book. Even when the toenail fungus is gone, it will recurr without continuing treatment unless one deals with the susceptibility factors.
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Walt Stoll on April 03, 1998 at 12:47:57:
Dr. Stoll,
I did see new growth at the base of the nail. But as it grew it eventually turned yellow and yuccky again. I did the vinegar thing for so long that I guess I didn't realize it had been quite that long. Then I found your original response to my original question in my briefcase and I couldn't believe it had been that long since I wrote you about this. I am a firm believer in something other than the medication prescribed! I am really thinking about trying the tea tree oil, especially since Bonna e-mailed me and swears by it.
I am not perfect and I know I skipped a morning or evening once in a while when I first started trying the vinegar but not lately. I have been devoted to that stuff and the nail starts looking normal at tne base as it comes in and then begins to discolor. I continue to treat it but I do paint my toenails for summer. Maybe this is the clincher!
If I can't do this then I can't wear sandals and I live in Texas! I'll die.....(nah) but really, I hope this hasn't affected treatment.
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Patricia Hand on April 05, 1998 at 15:58:29:
Dear Pat,
Painting your toenails tends to hold in moisture which is a factor that would encourage the fungus to "jump" to the nail that was formed on the days you missed an application. If you have not missed an application in the past 6 months & the fungus is still "jumping" you need to read the chapter in my book about the susceptibility factors that would make you expecially susceptible.
EVEN with that, you should have done better. You may be the first person for whom the vinegar is not enough. I would try the tea tree oil next. Just remember, the mechanisms are the same. If you miss even one application, you are GREATLY reducing your chances for resolution.]
I am very interested in how you progress once you know (and deal with) your suscpetibility factors.
Walt
I have been battling for the past 5 years with a recurring plantar's wart on the ball of my foot. I was successful with removing it completely for about a year, but it CAME BACK!
To get rid of it the first time, I religiously applied the commercial product called DuoFilm pads, which are made of salicylic acid. Then I would shave off the built up dead skin around the wart, so as to expose more of the infected area when I applied a new pad. This technique is basically what a podiatrist might do. WELL, when it reoccured, I tried the same procedures, but this time it is being more stubborn and it is very painful, because now, a callous is surrounding the wart on the ball of my foot. Thus, my walk is being affected, my knee aches and sometimes my hip. I do not want to cripple myself and hurt my back inadvertently! So, if anyone or you Dr. Stoll, have any suggestions, PLEASE pass them on to me.
I have been to my internist, who has in turn referred me to a poiatrist. But, I want to have a second opinion from some alternative medecine practioners or enthusiasts, because I may not want to do the "quick fix" thing that I am afraid the podiatrist may prescribe. The only other thing I have heard about is an orthopedic shoe insert... BUT, if diet can help, etc. I'd like to hear some suggestions.
I teach elementary art, so I am on my feet all day, on a concret tiled floor. HELP!
In Reply to: Plantar's wart with callous on ball of foot posted by Holly on April 09, 1998 at 09:40:07:
OK Holly prepare yourself for a step WELL outside mainstream medicine. My duaghter had a plantar wart when she was 6. We treated it in much the same way you did with the same results. We also had liquid nitrogen treatments to burn it off with some success. Nothing was fool proof.
I then read Andrew Weil's suggestion for visualization. For my duaghter this involved visualizing little Smurfs (a cartoon character if you haven't heard of them) marching through her blood stream and digging away at the wart. We went through a little visualization routine just before bed each night for about a week. We also used Dr. Schole's plantar wart remover at the same time, so you can be the judge of what worked.
Give it a try. Smurfs may not work for you, so try something creative like the IRS digging through tax receipts.
Peter
In Reply to: Plantar's wart with callous on ball of foot posted by Holly on April 09, 1998 at 09:40:07:
Hi Holly,
I don't know if this will work, but my mom swears by it:
Soak your feet in warm apple cider vinegar for 5 to 10 minutes. After the feet are dry, apply garlic oil to the wart.
She had Planters Warts that covered the bottom of her feet. Her chiropractor suggested it. It worked for her in less than a week. Garlic oil also works wonders on empentago, if you can stand the strong odor.
Lynn
In Reply to: Plantar's wart with callous on ball of foot posted by Holly on April 09, 1998 at 09:40:07:
Hi-
I had significant pain and trouble with warts on the
bottom of my foot. After making the rounds at my HMO
I contacted NIH for references. They sent me info
about clinical trials using a compound "Bleomycian."
I contacted a doctor outside my HMO that was willing to inject a diluted solution of Bleomycian into the wart
infected areas once a week. Within 3 months the warts had
receeded significantly. Now 4 1/2 years later they are
not visible.
1- HMO's will not treat or authorize the use of
Bleomycian inspite of good research trials.
2- Find a doctor that is willing to read up on the
subject and administer the treatment.
3- The treatment does not work for everyone.
Based on what I read and was told- roughly 40-60%
of the popluation will respond.
4- Foot surgery to cut away warts is not very successful
(20%) and has a prolonged recovery.
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Walt Stoll on April 07, 1998 at 09:22:56:
Dr. Stoll, My boyfriend has been using the vinegar treatment for well over a year also. He is very faithful and never ever misses a day. He uses straight vinegar directly on the toenails and he also soaks his feet twice a day in a water,vinegar solution, plus he uses an eye dropper to put the vinegar right on his toenails and you can see some improvement but it has been a long time and he is determined to get rid of this fungus but it has been a long time with very little positive results.Is there something else he should do? Also, can soaking his feet so often in vinegar be bad? Thanks, Barbara
In Reply to: Plantar's wart with callous on ball of foot posted by Holly on April 09, 1998 at 09:40:07:
Dear Holly,
Even the conventional medical monopoly has known for more than 100 years that the most consistantly effective approach to recurrent warts is visualization (Peter Wray discusses it). Even when I was in medical school, the conferences we were sent to by the mecical school each had a booth about removing multiple warts (or recurrent ones) by self-hypnosis--a very effective way to do visualization. Mark Twain even wrote about it in "Tom Sawyer". Remember, the sumpwater in the light of the full moon & the dead cat?????
In my more than 30 year of practice, I rarely had "magic" fail to remove warts like this.
It is true that PLANTAR warts are more difficult because they act like a corn on the bottom of the foot so you are not only dealing with a viral infection (very amenable to focusing of the immune system---visualization) but the very real mechanical causes of a corn on the bottom of the foot.
If you use visualization, it has to be done from the alpha/theta brain rhythm produced during the "relaxation response" we discuss nearly every day on this BB and which is described in depth in the resource section of my book. I know you have a copy. The foot must be visualized as already being normal---NOT seeing the wart going away (by wahtever mechanism)--for best results.
Also, you need to know how to treat a corn of the bottom of the foot & WHY you have to do it that way. I have not seen visualization get rid of corns because there is a mechanical ongoing cause for THAT part of the problem.
You need to do both the visualization AND the corn pads approach at the same time. Once you start, you must NEVER, NEVER put the least amount of weight on the area without at least a double thickness of corn pads in the proper position. Ask your podiatrist. If s/he is a good one, s/he will take the time to explain to you why corn pads work and how compulsive you have to be about using them till this is gone.
ANYTHING that you believe might work will help you focus the visualization. So long as it is not harmful, why not use it? ANYTHING that is working will resolve the problem in less than 2 months so don't keep working on something that is not working. It takes an average of 4 weeks to replace your skin on the bottom of your foot. If you are dealing with what will actually remove it, it should be gone in that length of time.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Barbara Santos on April 10, 1998 at 21:48:53:
Dear Barbara,
Tell him to IMMEDIATELY stop the foot soak in the vinegar water! The more moisture there is inthe nails & skin of the foot, the harder it is to resolve this. If I knew of some safe and inexpensive way to acidify the base of the toenail, without the water in the vinegar, that would be an even more effective way to do this.
However, doing it exactly the way I recommend: 2 drops of 4% distilled vinegar at the base of the offending nail twice a day, while keeping the feet as dry as possible, will do the trick for nearly everybody. I mention it since it is so inexpensive and very available.
If anyone has any idea as to how to acidify the growing root of the nail without damaging the surrounding tissue, I would be VERY interested in hearing it.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Walt Stoll on April 12, 1998 at 12:56:40:
Thank you. I will tell him to stop the soaking. The vinegar he uses states that it is diluted with water to 5% acetic acid. Is this vinegar the right one?
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Barbara Santos on April 13, 1998 at 19:57:19:
Dear Barbara,
That is OK. He should put no more than 2 drops of this on his toenail base since we really only want the acidity & not the moisture.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: TOE NAIL FUNGUS posted by Walt Stoll on April 14, 1998 at 19:21:29:
He stopped soaking his feet, so we will see what happens. He really is determined to get rid of this fungus. Hopefully, he will soon. Barbara
There is a drug on the market now that you take internally (presciption only) that cures toenial fungus for good. I had it so badly that I had no nail left. Finally I broke down and went to a dermatologist. He had me take the medicine for about one year. It's gone.!
In Reply to: Re: Toenail Fungus posted by Diana on April 23, 1998 at 20:51:57:
Dear Diana,
There are several such internal medications. None of them work better than the simple & cheap vinegar drops I have been talking about and ALL of them have very serious potential side effects. They certainly cost a LOT more.
Congratulations on a successful experience. NOW is the time for you to learn WHY you have had it or you will be going back through the experience over & over till you "get it right". This is not different than with the vinegar, you still would have to deal with WHY you have the susceptibility or the problem would come back.
Walt
Dr. Stoll,
First I want to thank you for sharing "the cure" for nail fungus. The homeopath that I was seeing prescribed a homeopathic for the condition but it did not work. After trying many over the counter topicals as well, I resorted to taking Lamsil (sp?) for 5 months. It did nothing for the fungus, but I'm sure my liver will never be the same.
It was about 2 years after the treatment, last October 1997, when I found your write up on the internet. Within 3 months of applying the vinegar I could see a remarkable change at the nail base and now April 1998, it appears to be completely clear. Too bad I did not take a before/ after picture. If people only knew. I cannot thank you enough for sharing this information. I am sorry that I did not find you sooner.
What I was hoping to get some information on is plantar's warts. My sister-in-law has been battling warts which started on her feet, under the toe nails as well as on the surface of the foot. She now has them on her hands as well. She has been to numerous podiatrists (they cut and burn them) and dermatologists but her condition continues to get worse. Will the vinegar treatment work for this as well? Do you have other suggestions I could pass along to her?
I also benefited from your information on Candida as I was suffering from chronic fatigue (fribromyaligia - diagnosis) another excuse for "we can't really find anything wrong with you". Luckily I did not fall prey to the anti-depressant treatment and worked hard along with a homeopath to try to resolve the problem. (Made the Dr.s really mad)
I don't know if I've finally started on the up hill climb, or if the problems I was having are being masked by my pregnancy. I usually feel my best when pregnant, happy and healthy. I wonder if the added hormones are the key? Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this long posting and in advance for any info you can provide on the warts.
Thanks again for helping me.
Donna