Get Rid Of Toenail Fungus for Good: Dr. Berg’s $2.00 Cure (Note – IMPORTANT UPDATE, Please Read!)

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IMPORTANT UPDATE – November 2023:

Pure 100% tea tree oil on its own, as recommended by Dr. Berg, is no longer ideal, because of new resistant fungal strains – and using it may even make the fungus more difficult to kill. SOLUTION: Multi essential oil blends. Go here for the list of recommended oils to use.

Introduction

This nasty ‘nuisance condition’ has been estimated by the CDC to affect up to 14% of the population ^[1] – over 1.1 BILLION people! Crazy! I didn’t realize it was that common.

Toenail fungus is notoriously difficult to get rid of – and the situation is in fact worsening, as pathogenic fungi that attack the body are becoming progressively more resistant to conventional treatments. Candida auris, one of the common types of toenail fungus that is becoming more widespread, is now reported to be 80% resistant to fluconazole, one of the common antifungal medicines. ^[2]

Many people now report that they have “tried everything” to no avail and even doctors state that conventional topical prescription antifungals might take a year of daily use to work – and even, then might only work in 2/3 of cases.

At this point, most people simply either give up – or forget to keep up on applying the conventional treatment every day for a year.

There are also problems with some pretty nasty side effects of conventional antifungal medications, more on that below.

Natural Remedies To Get Rid Of Toenail Fungus

Natural remedies and supportive practices can be grouped into 3 categories:

1) Topical treatments.
2) Foot care and hygiene best practices.
3) Dietary shifts.

1) Topical Treatments

Part of the challenge of conventional topical antifungal treatments such as creams (Clotrimazole, Canesten etc) is that it’s very difficult for the treatment to get ‘right under the nail’ where it is needed.

However if you have ever dripped essential oil on your toenail you will notice how it spreads and absorbs under the nail quite well, which is very beneficial!

As a result, many people have defaulted to tea tree oil, which has potent antifungal qualities – and this is Dr. Berg’s simple “$2 antifungal hack” that has received critical acclaim.

However there is now a MAJOR problem with this: Tea tree resistant strains have now been reported, which means that tea tree on its own might be completely useless!!

SOLUTION: Use an oil blend. Given fungus’ rapid evolution of resistance, it makes perfect sense to attack it with more than one essential oil, which multiplies the difficulty for it to become resistant.

You need to hit it with a 1-2-3+ combination.

Don’t give the fungus the opportunity to get resistant to one oil! There are numerous oils that have antifungal effect – so you could either 1) use a different oil daily from the “approved list” or 2) use a multi-oil blend. This will amp up the number of active molecular components and provide a broader spectrum of action.

We can now see why a properly formulated oil blend might be the best weapon available in this war: Go here to check out a top quality professional formulation that contains multiple essential oils that have been scientifically verified to be antifungal.

2) Foot Care And Hygiene Best Practices

The first thing to note here is that fungus of any kind likes damp conditions. If you continually wear the same boots, all day, day after day – then you are setting up the ideal humid circumstances for it to develop.

The second thing to remember is that fungus multiplies from spores. So the longer you wear the same socks, the more particles of fungus will be in them.

With the above in mind, here are 10 simple strategies to consider.

1) Wear open-toed sandals or other “breathable” footwear wherever possible: This will allow the feet to ‘breathe’ more and stay drier in general. Going barefoot will of course give your feet “air” but might perhaps not be best advised if you share accomodation with others.

2) Wash feet often and allow them to dry fully before putting footwear on. Some have reported benefits from adding ACV (apple cider vinegar) to foot-baths for an “added natural disinfectant” effect.

3) Change towels frequently. Wash and tumble them on the hot setting.

4) Scrub and disinfect baths and showers more often and more thoroughly.

5) Change socks as often as reasonably possible. At least twice per day.

6) Wash and tumble the socks on high heat to help kill off spores.

7) Use UV light santizers to sterilize shoes: There are special ‘shoe sanitizer’ UV lights available such as this one (the best rated one on Amazon). You pop them into your shoes, press the button, and 20 (typically) minutes later the job is done. Note that these lamps can be harmful to the eyes so do not look at the bulb when it is on and ideally do the treatment session in a room that you are not in, and close the door. I would do this every night. Also consider sterilizing the shower with a UV light wand. Here’s the top rated UV light sanitizer wand on Amazon.

8) Rotate footwear: It makes sense to switch to different shoes often. Do this in combination with #5 above, so for example wear one pair of shoes on day 1, then switch the next day and do the UV treatment on the alternate pair – thus providing a newly-sterilized pair of shoes daily. This might seem excessive until you find yourself fighting the toenail fungus. Don’t underestimate it: It is incredibly stubborn and you simply need to do all you can! Also note – avoid sharing footwear not only for your own safety but to avoid spreading the fungal spores to others.

9) Reduce / eliminate mold in living environments: It makes sense to minimize the potential for opportunistic fungi to have places where they can lurk in the human environment. Mold in homes can require professional remediation if severe but in simple cases a few steps are valuable: a) eliminate damp. Be sure there are no leaking pipes, roof leaks or other damp areas in the home. b) HEPA air purification. This will assist greatly in removing mold spores from the air (good for overall health also). c) As already mentioned, thoroughly clean bath, shower and other areas regularly that might have come in contact with the toenail fungus.

10) Avoid communal bathing facilities: Swimming pool showers, gyms and other public areas may be “higher risk environments”. Also, if you move to new accomodation be sure to clean the bath, shower and bathroom floor thoroughly before use!

3) Dietary Shifts: The “Antifungal Diet”

This is very simple to understand – but somewhat challenging to stick to; because it requires elimination of some of the most common (and yummy) foods. I’m sorry 🙁

Candida (the fungus responsible for toenail fungus) is a mold – and molds thrive on certain foods. Refined / added sugars, alcohol (especially beers), fruit juice and bread make fungus grow like crazy.

So you need to eliminate these.

Ginger, garlic, onions, olive oil and coconut oil are all regarded as having antifungal properties. So up your intake of these. Many other natural, healthy organic foods – especially veg and seeds, are regarded as generally beneficial for immune health, so increase those too.

You need to do everything you can to make it harder for this evil critter to live in your system. An antifungal diet may also have the benefit of reducing the risk of deep fungal infection (a potentially deadly condition).

Note of course that any significant dietary changes should be discussed with your doctor or care provider, especially if you are already taking medications, are elderly, pregnant, nursing, immune compromised or have other existing conditions.

Probiotics

Probiotics may also be beneficial as these are known to have a positive effect on reduction of candida in the body. ^[3]

Probiotics have been found to inhibit the growth of fungi ^[4][5]

Numerous probiotic strains have been found to have an antifungal effect, including the common probiotics Bifidobacterium spp., Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Sacctiaromyces boulardii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. ^[6][7]

The Serious Problems With Conventional Treatments

Problem #1: Resistance.

One of the great problems with conventional antifungal medications is that resistance to antifungal drugs is increasing – leading to a similar worldwide problem to antibiotic resistance, which has the potential to be one of the great medical problems of the 21st century. ^[8]

The issue of antifungal resistance is exacerbated by overprescription, which accelerates the appearance of resistant strains – and could send us spiraling into a medicinal “arms race” scenario similar to that of antibiotic resistance.

This should rightly be regarded as a battle that cannot be won, with the disastrous “end game” being the appearance of deadly superstrains that cannot be eradicated by any known medication.

Existing strong medications may work on individuals, but they are in once a “Pyrrhic victory” on a species level – both pushing back and increasing the severity of the final “payback day” where it all comes tumbling down, with disastrous consequences.

If this sounds dramatic, consider that while “superficial” fungal infections such as nail fungus are typically not life-threatening, “deep” fungal infections already kill more than 1.5 million people worldwide per year. ^[2] This problem can be quite dangerous for those with diabetes, cancer or other immune issues.

Fungi can develop resistance to “monomolecular” chemical medications quite rapidly due to the small size of the fungal genome. In addition, its fast rate of proliferation means that fungus can quickly develop variant strains, leading to quick adaptation to the new environment.

Problem #2: Side Effects.

Another of the issues with antifungal drugs is side effects, which may be considerable in the case of systemic / internal medications, which have significant toxicity.

Dr. Berg (video below) gives some important data on Lamisil, a common medication for toenail fungus. It can cause a huge list of side effects: problems with liver enzymes, liver damage, lupus, central nervous system damage, depression, loss of taste, jaundice and alopecia.

All this for a medication that is only 30% to 40% successful? Forget it!

A further issue with antifungal drugs is that, similar to antibiotics, they can lead to a long term imbalance in the flora of the body and a reduction in the body’s immunity.

If you have already taken antibiotics, probiotics may also be beneficial / required to address this imbalance.

That’s all for now. Here’s Dr. Berg’s video: