Black Toenail Causes

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Recent trauma to your toe may have caused the toenail to become black. This is because it is bruised. Runners may experience black toenails from running in new shoes or without socks. In this case blood has gathered under the nail. Most common among people who have developed black toenails is toenail fungus.

Nail fungus is caused by a variety of factors. Wearing shoes still laden with sweat increases risk of toenail fungus. Cutting your toenails too short increases infection risk. Also public areas such as pools, gyms, showers, and saunas are common places to spread fungus. It is advised to wear sandals as much as possible around these places to greatly reduce infection. Cutting your toenails too short may cause minor cuts giving a chance for a fungus to take hold.

Toenail Fungus Symptoms

Symptoms of toenail fungus include a discoloration of the nail. Usually discoloration is black, green, brown, or yellow. Nails might become brittle and crack. Often they'll become thick and foggy as well. You might experience a slight plain when walking on your infected toe. Perhaps you'll also smell a faint smell coming from under the nail.

Steps For Treatment

Ingested prescription medications are not recommended for treating nail fungus. This is because they have extremely negative side effects. The powerful toxins in these pills fight fungus however they'll also cause damage to your liver and kidneys. This could result in liver disease and in rare cases result in death. Over the counter medications usually are ineffective at treating fungus.

I found the best remedy was to treat my toenail fungus first with regular beer. Beer has natural anti-fungal properties. For treatment, I would soak my nails in beer for thirty minutes each application. I applied this twice a day. Following my remedy with beer I used a natural toenail treatment.

With this combination of approaches along with prevention methods I was able to see noticeable results of my black toenail fungus healing in about two weeks.