The hot weather appears to be causing a flare-up of the dreaded athlete's foot.

I thought I had it knocked, but I guess I picked it up again somewhere.

What's the most effective anti-fungal these days? Lamisil? That seems to be the newest, right?

Get this stuff instead, it's amazing.

http://www.johnsonsfootsoap.com/

I deal with athletes foot frequently, and my experience is that different types of fungus respond differently to different types of the medications.

Medications containing "tolnaftate" (sp?) are usually the least expensive, and IME, are the fastest at providing relief from the symptoms.  Do continue to apply them for several days after symptom relief though to ensure that the fungus is gone.  On rare occasion though I have had some AF that the tolnaftate didn't take care of.

If the tolnaftate product hasn't provided a noticable improvement in a day and a half, I switch to Clotrimazole (Lotrimin).  It's more expensive but will knock out the fungus on the rare occasion that the tolnaftate product isn't successful.

The foot soap stuff is good, do that in the evening then put on a dose of your medication of choice before bedtime.

You also need to clean and disinfect your shower, bathroom floor, etc so that you don't just get reinfected.  Also wash your socks with borax in the wash to kill any fungus in them.  Bedsheets too.

This. It's not going to be the same fungus every time so you cannot rely on the one medicine to be most effective on all of them.

The aboved mentioned antifungals are excellent, and provide fast releif.  

The problem is that most folks, when the symptoms subside, stop treatment.  Tinea is a rather persistant fungus. the spores will linger and the fungus will reappear at a later time.

The best thing is to make the treatment a strategic campaign.  Whatever antifungal you use, continue the treatment for several months,  3-4 minimum.  Get a powder and apply to shoes;  The fungus & spores will get into fabric, foam components, and leather pores, seams ect.   Keep the feet and shoes as dry as possible.,   Fungus loves warm moist places.

Old time remedies used mild acid as treatment.  I picked up a bad case of atheletes foot back in the very early 60's in high school gym shower.  The family doctor had me fill a large pan with water as hot as I could stand , put in a cup or two of cheap vinegar and soak the feet every night.   It worked!

Bleach, (sodium hypochlorite) will also work using it the same way


The older  OTC remedies most often contained salicylic acid, which killed the fungus and the upper layers of infected skin, making it peal off.  Desenex as a power and solution contained a compound of zinc and undencyclic acid which was the gold standard for years for prevention, and is still quite effective, and a good choice for everyday use to avoid the use of the modern antifungals, where continued use could  aid in the formation of resistant strains of the fungus.

If you have the time, exposing the feet to bright sunlight will help.

Temovate.  You'll need a prescription but it's awesome.