Psoriasis is one of the most common reasons of disturbed nail morphology and the spectrum of nail changes in psoriasis is very wide. Thus, there were suggestions that dystrophic nails in psoriatic patients lose their natural preventing barrier and therefore are more predisposed to fungal infection. Nail fungus, defined as fungal infection of the nail, represents up to twenty percent of all nail disorders. The most frequent etiologic agents are dermatophytes, followed by yeasts and nondermatophyte filamentous fungi.
Tinea unguium and tinea pedis are two cutaneous fungal infections highly prevalent in the general population. Although these disorders are not serious in terms of mortality or physical and/or psychological sequelae, they have significant clinical consequences given their infectious nature, esthetic consequences, chronicity, and therapeutic difficulties. Tinea pedis, which is fungal infection of the interdigital toe web space as well as the skin of the feet, is caused solely by dermatophyte fungi, with Trichophyton spp. and Epidermophyton floccosum being the most frequent agents identified.
Interaction with bacteria is also possible in the toe cleft spaces. This mixed dermatophyte and bacterial infection is clinically more severe and has a polymicrobial etiology. The clinical features of the nails affected by tinea unguium were onycholysis, hyperkeratosis, and decoloration of different grades of severity. The nail most commonly affected was the first toenail, and the nails least commonly affected were the fingernails. The prevalence of tinea unguium was higher in men than in women. The risk of tinea pedis was also higher in men, being independent of age.
The increased prevalence of tinea unguium and tinea pedis in men compared to that in women could be the result of more traumas in the nails and the more common use of occlusive footwear, which favors the appearance of both diseases. The increased prevalence of tinea unguium in the elderly members of the population could be explained as a consequence of nail trauma and slow nail growth. The small number of subjects represented in each of these categories reduces the strength of this statement.
The present study did not find a significant relationship between factors such as concomitant diseases and the frequency of tinea unguium and the practice of sports or the use of common showers and the risk of tinea pedis. In conclusion, the frequencies of both disorders were higher in men and increased with age in the case of nail fungus. More than half of the subjects with tinea pedis were asymptomatic at the time of evaluation. Importantly, the relative risk of having either of the two conditions increased substantially in patients who presented with the other disorder.
Existing chemicals cannot fully meet the need of the community. Natural medicine awaked in the calling of 'back to nature' all over the world in the last twenty years and has improved and developed greatly. Multiple clinical trials demonstrate that the extracts of plant medicine completely inhibit fungi causing nail fungus infections in just trace quantities and play a curative role. The results of these studies showed that the organic extracts in plant medicine display strong antifungal activity against dermatophyte fungi, a common cause of nail fungus infections.
Plant medicine has pronounced inhibitory effects on the growth and germination of dermatophytes. The extracts in this treatment exhibit significant activity against fungi, mainly due to destruction of their cell walls and a considerable reduction of the ergosterol content. Thus, the antifungal agents in plant medicine work by killing off the fungal organism without causing any dangerous side effects to the human host. The antifungal agents in plant medicine actually bind with the cell membranes and cell walls of the fungus. To learn more, please go to http://www.naturespharma.org.
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