Fungal and bacterial infections

The most common foot infections affect the nails —onychomycosis, which thickens them, makes them brittle and changes their colour— and the skin, particularly between the toes and on the sole, where they cause itching, flaking or cracks. The warm, damp environment inside footwear is what encourages them.

The first step is knowing what it is, and that is not a detail: a dark nail may be fungal, but it may equally be an old knock, and a thickened nail may simply be the result of pressure from footwear. Treating something with antifungals when it is not fungal achieves nothing and delays what is actually needed. Once an infection is confirmed, treatment is long —a nail takes months to renew completely— which is why reviewing and correcting what encourages it matters so much.