Athlete Foot - Causes, Symptom and Treatment. by James S Pendergraft

The name athlete's foot is given to a disorder for the reason that it was commonly found on the feet of athletes. The athletes, who spend much time in showers following exercise, steam baths locker, swimming pools etc, are the ones who are highly exposed to this disorder. In fact, those places will absolutely hold good to form a breeding ground for almost all fungus. These fungus bred in such areas could easily find their living place in your shoes since the environment inside your shoes is dark, moist and warm, which are the most required conditions for fungus. As a matter of fact, since 1970s, there are hundreds of athletes suffered as well as suffering with this disorder.

Causes of Athlete foot

Tinea pedis is the name given for athlete's foot in Latin. Well, the name Tinea pedis also refers to a skin disorder that is caused by tiny parasitic fungi classified under dermatophytes. These dermatophytes will thrive in moist and warm places. The area between the soles and the toes is actually where athlete's foot basically occurs.

Symptoms of Athlete Foot

In most of the cases, the symptoms of athlete's foot are quickly witnessed and thereby helping the people to get started with the treatment. On the other hand, there are also possibilities wherein the symptoms can appear only when the disorder turns out to be serious. At early stages, some common symptoms witnessed are like appearance of blisters, dryness, cracking, redness, heat and obviously intense itching. When the patient fails to take these symptoms seriously, he might be put to face some drastic skin disorders later. The reason is that breaking of blisters could enable the fungus to enter the area below the skin surface, which could be quite dangerous to health of your skin. Once the fungus enter underneath the skin surface, recovering and saving the health of the skin could be a complicated task. Another unfortunate thing about the symptoms of athlete's foot is that they pose the ability of recurring later and thereby, once you are infected, you need to be careful about your skin throughout your life

Treatment for Athlete Foot

As mentioned before, since the fungus have the ability to penetrate below the surface of your skin, it could be quite difficult to treat this disorder, especially when the patient fails to realize this disorder at the early stages. Oral medications will not be much effective, as the fungus will not reach the blood stream, although it penetrates underneath the skin. In all types of treatments available for athlete's foot, the patient will be asked to take the treatments continuously for several weeks and sometimes months. You can also make use of some products for treating like anti-fungal sprays, creams as well as liquids. In most of the cases, the physician will also recommend using aluminum acetate for treating this skin disorder. There are also quite a few home remedies available as well. Some of the major home remedies are like bleaching and water soaking your feet, soaking feet in mouthwash etc.