Acetic acid

Treat nail fungus with acetic acid? A nail fungus can be treated with a number of externally applied medicines and home remedies. Also the external application of acetic acid represents a treatment possibility with light to moderately heavy and superficial nail fungus infestation.

Acetic acid is a strongly corrosive and highly concentrated acid. Aqueous solutions of acetic acid (i.e. less concentrated acids) are trivially referred to as “vinegar”. For example, vinegar essence contains 25 percent acetic acid.

Nail fungus needs a basic environment under the nail to grow. The effect of acetic acid is explained by the fact that the strong acid penetrates the entire nail and also accumulates in the nail bed where the main nail fungus is located. Thus the alkaline environment is disturbed, which the nail fungus needs to grow and the fungus is killed.

Since the nail fungus treatment with acetic acid does not represent a systemic (internal) therapy, undesirable effects can occur at most superficially at the treated place. Acetic acid is a highly corrosive substance and due to the high concentration of the acid (compared to low doses of vinegar essence) it can be very aggressive in combating nail fungus. For this reason, however, skin reactions or a strong burning sensation may occasionally occur in the area of the infected nail during application with acetic acid.

This side effect can be reduced by creaming the cuticle with Vaseline before the application of acetic acid. The external treatment of nail fungus with acetic acid often requires a longer period of application and should be continued for some time after the nail fungus is no longer visible. It can take several months for a new healthy nail to grow back, and until then the treatment with acetic acid should be continued.

The first noticeable improvements should occur within a few weeks. There are different possibilities to treat the nail fungus with acetic acid. For example, the acetic acid can be put into a foot bath and the affected foot can be bathed two to three times a day for about a quarter of an hour.

Alternatively, a cotton ball can be soaked in acetic acid and placed on the infected nail and squeezed out a little. Used twice a day, the acetic acid can effectively inhibit the growth of the nail fungus and kill it. After application (footbath or direct application) the nail should be dried in the air.

If the nail is very thick due to the nail fungus, you can file off the nail carefully before treatment and remove the upper layers of the fungus so that the acetic acid can work better. At regular intervals, the deposits on the nail after a foot bath can be carefully removed. The treatment is very effective and can make the nail fungus disappear completely. If the treatment is successful, the nail grows back healthy from below and no longer shows any deformations or thickening.