Q: Is foot odor and foot odor the same thing?
A: People usually confuse the two together, but in fact they are not necessarily related. There are many reasons for foot odor, mainly occurs in the foot skin sweating more, poor shoe breathability, or hygiene habits are not very good people, sweat is decomposed by bacteria to produce odor. The people often say that foot odor is actually a skin fungal infection called tinea pedis or ringworm. Simple foot odor only requires changing shoes and socks regularly and paying attention to hygiene. Tinea pedis, on the other hand, requires medication.
Q: Will all foot odor become “rotten toes”?
A: Not necessarily, “rotten toes” is only one type of tinea pedis. Tinea pedis does not always result in erosion, and some people with tinea pedis also have rough, thick feet. There are three types of tinea pedis: vesicular, blistering, and scaly keratosis. The medication used for different types of tinea pedis is different.
Q: Is tinea pedis contagious?
A: Tinea pedis is very contagious, especially in the south, and the disease rate can be as high as 80% or more in some types of work where rubber shoes are often worn, and more than half of coal miners have tinea pedis. The main ways of transmission include: shoes, socks, and especially sharing foot wash basins, foot towels, and slippers. Also, tinea pedis is an important source of transmission for ringworm.
Q: Is it possible to relieve the itch of tinea pedis by scratching repeatedly?
A: Because tinea pedis is caused by fungi and is contagious, if you scratch it repeatedly with your hands, the fungi on your feet may spread to other parts of your body and cause ringworm, ringworm, and tinea corporis. About 20% of people who have tinea pedis also have ringworm of the hands.
Q: Is ringworm of the feet harmful to the body other than itching and erosion?
A: Tinea pedis is not only harmful in terms of itching, peeling, blistering and fungal transmission, but it can also be a source of other diseases because tinea pedis destroys the barrier function of our skin itself, allowing many pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, to invade the infection from the bottom up, most commonly inducing dermatitis and cellulitis, and patients can develop many systemic symptoms, such as fever and chills. Furthermore, the impact of tinea pedis on the patient’s quality of life should not be underestimated.
Q: How can I relieve the unbearable itch of tinea pedis patients?
A: Many people with unbearable itching choose to soak the affected feet in boiling water or vinegar to relieve the symptoms, but it is actually almost ineffective and can easily worsen the condition if not well mastered. In fact, now there are many drugs can quickly stop itching, we can choose compound antifungal drugs, these drugs contain antifungal ingredients, in addition to anti-itch ingredients, such as a certain amount of glucocorticoids, etc., so the best early use of this type of compound antifungal ointment quickly stop itching.
Q: Why is tinea pedis prone to recurrence?
A: There are three reasons why tinea pedis is stubborn and prone to recurrence: first, it is reinfected after being cured; second, it is not treated thoroughly at all and recurs again; third, the patient also has gray nails (onychomycosis), which are more difficult to cure, making the cured tinea pedis infected to reappear. So active attention needs to be paid to the treatment of gray nails to avoid it becoming a source of infection in the future.
Q: Is it possible to cure tinea pedis?
A: Tinea pedis can be cured, and most patients can be cured with only topical medication. The reason why many people think that tinea pedis cannot be cured is because there are some misconceptions about how to deal with it, and the common treatment misconceptions are
Myth #1: Seeing is believing. The fungus is very hardy and the symptoms can be relieved after a few doses of medication, but the fungus is not completely killed, so it is necessary to keep using medication for at least 4 weeks;
Myth 2: Treatment is all the same. As mentioned above, there are usually three types of tinea pedis, and for different types of tinea pedis, or different stages of tinea pedis, different methods of treatment are usually used. For example, drugs containing salicylic acid are suitable for keratotic tinea pedis, while antifungal ointment is appropriate for late keratosis exfoliation;
Myth 3: Apply the medication only to the affected area. Tinea pedis is a fungal infection that can spread through many ways, so it is important to treat it along with other ringworm diseases on the body.
Also, two things should be noted in the treatment: you should not use hormonal ointments alone to treat tinea pedis; patients who have gray nails need to get rid of them first.