EP #11: Unveiling the Fungus Among Us: Conquering Foot Fungus with Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff

Ever found yourself doing the itchy foot shuffle and wondered if something more sinister than your socks is to blame? You're in luck because on the latest LMD Podiatry Podcast, we're getting to the bottom of foot fungus, and trust me – it's a toe-tally explosive topic! Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff, alongside your favorite sidekick Jeremy Wolf, is here to unravel the mysteries of those uninvited guests lurking between your toes. We're not just scratching the surface; we're cracking open the playbook on how to spot, stop, and sidestep the fungal fiesta that's throwing a party on your plates (and by plates, we mean toenails).

Get ready to be equipped with the knowledge to keep your feet in tiptop shape. We'll share some eyebrow-raising truths about where these spores love to spawn and why that post-gym shower might be a highway to the danger zone for your digits. Your gym bag's about to get a new best friend, and spoiler alert: it's not another pair of sneakers. With a healthy dose of wit and wisdom (and maybe a few too many foot puns for your taste), the LMD Podiatry Podcast is about to become your sole-mate in the journey to foot freedom. Tune in, learn something new, and walk away with the confidence that your footsie woes are a thing of the past!

To learn more, visit: LMDpodiatry.com or contact (954) 680-7133

Transcript

: 0:02

Welcome to the LMD Podiatry Podcast. Trust us to get back on your feet. Here's your host, Dr Lauren DeBakeroff.

Jeremy Wolf: 0:15

Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the LMD Podiatry Podcast. I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf, joined by your host, dr Lauren DeBakeroff. Dr Lauren, always a pleasure, seeing you. Always a pleasure. Podcast. I'm your co-host, jeremy wolf, joined by your host, dr lauren de beckroft. Dr lauren, always a pleasure, seeing you always a pleasure. So there's a fungus among us, as I like to say, topic of the discussion today is foot fungus. So what is foot fungus and how does it affect the feet?

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 0:42

Okay. So a lot of people they see foot fungus. They see things you know discoloration and flaking and weird stuff growing on their feet and their toenails and they have no idea what it is. Fungus in general, it's a microorganism. Just like you can get pus and an infection from a bacteria, so fungus can also infect your body, but it's just a different species completely. There's yeast mold fungus. You know that's the type of things you know, just like when your bread goes moldy, you know that that's a mold. It's a. You know, yeast and mold. Those are, you know, all in the family of fungus, right? So unfortunately, sometimes these things can land in your foot, your toenails and your foot. Could also be in your hands and other places in your body, but it's actually very common to have it appear on your feet.

Jeremy Wolf: 1:45

Interesting. So I don't think I've encountered that, not yet anyway, but if I notice some strange mushrooms growing on my feet, I'm going to have to. That will be cause for concern. Go ahead. I was going to say how does it typically spread and what ultimately causes it, and what are some preventative measures that people can take to ensure they don't get fungus on their feet.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 2:10

So typically it happens from all. Fungus starts with moisture.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 2:16

Okay, that makes sense so when you have a moist environment, that actually starts giving a chance for fungus to grow. Okay, and then the reason why it's so typical in the foot is because feet are trapped inside shoes or someone has sweaty feet or you're wearing shoes without socks and anytime you have a situation where you trap the moisture inside your shoe. You have a situation where you trap the moisture inside your shoe, then that becomes a breeding ground for the fungus to grow and spread. Now you could also get infected from other places. It's very common for women to get a fungal toenail infection from the nail salon because you share nail polish with thousands of people and nobody sterilizes the nail polish brush. You know different things like that. You could also get it from. You know if you wear someone else's shoes that has fungus, so it does spread. But you know you can catch it from anywhere. Catch it from walking barefoot, you know, on a mat and a gym mat and because you know nobody cleans that, like if you go, if you go to, like, go to karate, or you know you're doing yoga, you know and you're using someone else's mat, you know it's an infection.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 3:38

You can get infected from almost any surface. But then some people you know, have good hygiene, they don't get that. But you know, let's say I go do yoga, use the. You know the mat that someone else used that had fungus, that, and they didn't clean it. And then all of a sudden I go to yoga and then I trap my foot inside a shoe. You know that little microorganism gets a chance to spread and that's how I get infected. Just like different scenarios, a lot of people wonder where is it coming from? Why did I get it? You could literally contract it from any surface, from the floor, walking barefoot, you know, walking on a mat, yoga mat, gym mat, sharing a shower with other people that do have it from somewhere else. Walking barefoot, you know, uh, even patient, I have people who like, uh, they like, go hiking barefoot or like they walk through water and mud, and again, that's when the moisture gets trapped and that's the breeding ground for the, for the fungus to grow.

Jeremy Wolf: 4:44

So I've heard the term athlete's foot before and. I know that that's a type of fungus. What's the primary difference between something like athlete's foot and then something like you mentioned earlier toenail fungus? Is it just a different strain of the virus?

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 4:58

Yes, so they present. No, it's the same. It's the same, you know, fungus. It just presents differently on skin than it would on the toenails. So athlete's foot is when fungus appears on the bottom of your foot. Why is it called athlete's foot? Because a lot of athletes they they sweat in their foot, they're, you know, and they're like it's hot outside, they're playing basketball, whatever, and then the moisture gets trapped in their shoe and then that's how they get the athlete's foot, which is fungus on the bottom of the skin, on the bottom of their foot. And then toenail fungus is when you get fungus on the actual toenail. So they present differently.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 5:36

Fungus on the skin presents, you see this, like flaky type of skin with circular patterns, and that's athlete's foot. And then when it's on the toenail, it's usually dark, thick, yellow, black nail. You know, sometimes it could be white, sometimes it could be, and there's a lot of times it's 100% fungus. When patients have like this, like crust appearance underneath their nail, and that's clinical, clinical, uh diagnosis of a fungus in your toenails. It just presents differently on the nail versus the skin sounds lovely, yeah so.

Jeremy Wolf: 6:22

So treatment options right. So somebody obviously, aside from like preventative, aside from making sure you air your feet out, like not sitting around in wet socks, that kind of thing, and you know, if you do develop athlete's foot or some kind of foot fungus, what are some common treatment options, I guess, both over the counter and prescription, and when should somebody actually come to see you over this?

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 6:44

So a lot of. For athlete's foot, which presents on the skin, a lot of the over the counter-counter stuff does help, but most people just they don't use it consistently. And you should come and see me if you know. You've tried a bunch of different antifungals over-the-counter and it's not working. Sometimes you need like a scraping of the skin. Maybe you have a specific fungus that the typical over-the-counter medication is not treating. So that's when you and sometimes an antifungal on its own is not enough for the skin because it you know it can be very itchy. So sometimes so I do a combination of steroid cream with an antifungal cream to help the itch and kind of calm down the itching and help the fungus kind of get killed faster. Whereas toenail fungus in my experience nothing over the counter seems to work. I see a ton of patients every day with toenail fungus and the problem with the over the counter meds is that they cannot penetrate the nail because the toenail is 10 times harder and thicker than the skin.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 7:59

So you know your average over-the-counter cream cannot penetrate the thick layers of the nail. So that's why you know there are medications that I can prescribe orally that will help kill the fungus from the inside, that are safe as long as you don't have any other medical issues. And I also have, you know, prescription and non-prescription. You know top of the line topical products that do help debride and kind of thin out the nail to help the medicine penetrate deeper to have a more effective way of killing the toenail fungus.

Jeremy Wolf: 8:34

Are there any natural home remedies? Like I'm sitting around with my foot covered in fungus, I could stick my foot in a tub of vinegar or something like that. What works good around the house? What are some things people could do around the home if they're just trying to find a new remedy?

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 8:50

So a good natural homeopath, like home remedies, are vinegar soaks for both the toenails and the athlete's foot. Um, you basically do one part vinegar, three parts water. It doesn't matter which vinegar you use, you just want to dilute it so you don't burn your skin and you soak your feet in that for about 20 minutes a day and it does help kill a lot of the fungus in your toenails, on your skin. Another home remedy for the toenails I do like tea tree oil. Like, if you want to use the essential oil, tea tree oil, you could just put a couple drops on each toenail every day and it does help kill a lot of the fungus. But again, with these things you just have to be very, very consistent with it. But again, with these things you just have to be very, very consistent with it and apply it daily.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 9:34

Another home remedy for toenail fungus is, believe it or not, vicks Vaporub. Really yeah, because the menthol and the camphor in it. You know it actually helps kill a lot of the fungus and some people like to use like it. Actually, I actually tried it myself. If you mix like Listerine or mouthwash with the vinegar and make a soak, it actually helps peel off all the skin that looks like athlete's foot.

Jeremy Wolf: 10:11

Much better than just vinegar on the phone Mixing up medicinal potions in Dr Lauren's lab at home.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 10:17

Dr Tim Jackson. I was reading up about it and it does work. The other thing is people don't have the patience to do that, so they come to me for more quicker, effective medical treatment, fast ways to do it. And there's, you know there's pills, there's topicals, there's lasers. You know I also have fungus laser, you know, to help debulk the nail a little bit, help penetration of the medicines, help everything work more efficiently.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 10:47

You know, and then, even after we kill all the fungus completely, it can always come back. So I'm always very strict with preventative measures.

Jeremy Wolf: 10:58

Yeah, prevention is key. So long-term complications right? Let's just say hypothetically I got some foot fungus and I'm not very proactive and I just sit around and it festers and it festers. Is there a point where I all of a sudden now I have gangrene and my foot has to be amputated? What are the long term complications of not doing?

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 11:15

anything. So there aren't any long term complications. The only thing, like the most severe things I've ever seen happen with untreated athlete's foot, is it can get very inflamed and then it can get infected, like I've seen athletes foot, you know, get very inflamed because they itch it and scratch it. Foot, you know, get very inflamed because they itch it and scratch it and then they cause, you know, patients get a skin infection and then you have, like this, combined like fungus, with you know, cellulitis or, you know, infected skin and that's when it gets really bad. I mean, it doesn't it just it's annoying to the patient. But you know, you just need, you know, more medications to kind of calm that down. But you really should not neglect it. You should definitely. You know, if you want to get rid of it, I would say you have to kill the fungus. They you need, you know it needs to die.

Jeremy Wolf: 12:09

You hear that everyone out there. If you're listening to this and you've been looking at that foot and it's like black and purple and green and funky, go see your podiatrist. Go see Dr Lauren. Let her come check you out. Get a handle on this before you have to get your foot amputated. No, I'm just joking.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 12:24

No no, no amputation. Well, there is one complication with toenail fungus. Sometimes it can make the nail so thick with toenail fungus. Sometimes it can make the nail so thick Like I've seen patients with, like their toenail is so thick with the fungus it's probably maybe three or four millimeters thick like this.

Jeremy Wolf: 12:45

And you need a bone saw to cut the toenail off.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 12:48

No. So yes and no, but you know the biggest issue with that it actually, when it's so thick it causes a lot of pain and then it's very uncomfortable in a shoe and it presses like on your toe and causes a lot of pain. So it can cause a lot of discomfort if you don't treat it or at least keep your nails filed and trimmed. But yeah, it can cause other things and other issues. I've seen patients with like really bad fungal nails that they're so thick and they neglected it. It actually caused an ulcer in their toe Like it grew like thick and curly and then it grew like back into the skin. I had some older gentlemen and it actually dug into the side of the toe, the nail, because it was so thick.

Jeremy Wolf: 13:42

You get that ingrown toenail that goes into the toe and it's very uncomfortable.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 13:46

Yeah, it was probably great for the nail, but basically it was like thick and then it curled like back in on itself and sort of digging up the toe. Poor guy, little ulcer. But you know we fixed it.

Jeremy Wolf: 14:02

That's what you do, right, that's what you do, yeah.

Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff: 14:03

Yeah, no, I'm saying like you shouldn't, you definitely shouldn't ignore it, because it can spread, and it can. I mean, it's not something, it's not cancerous or anything like that, but it is something that can cause a lot of discomfort, itching, you know, pain in shoes and things like that. So you definitely want to treat it before it gets severe.

Jeremy Wolf: 14:26

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, that's the old idea right. We'll leave it at that. Dr Loren, always a pleasure seeing you have a great day. All right To our listeners. Thanks for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the LMD podiatry podcast. Everyone, take care, have a wonderful day.

: 14:56

Thank you for listening to the LMD Podiatry Podcast. For more information, visit LMDPodiatrycom. That's L-M-D-P-O-D-I-A-T-R-Y dot com, or call 954-680-7133.