Experiences with

Athlete's foot

Athlete's foot is a common fungal infection that affects the feet. You can usually treat it with creams, sprays or powders from a pharmacy, but it can keep coming back.

Check if you have athlete's foot

Symptoms of athlete's foot include:

It can also affect your soles or sides of your feet. If it's not treated, it can spread to your toenails and cause a fungal nail infection.

Athlete's foot sometimes causes fluid-filled blisters.

A pharmacist can help with athlete's foot

Athlete's foot is unlikely to get better on its own, but you can buy antifungal medicines for it from a pharmacy. They usually take a few weeks to work.

Athlete's foot treatments are available as:

  • creams
  • sprays
  • powders

They're not all suitable for everyone – for example, some are only for adults. Always check the packet or ask a pharmacist.

You might need to try a few treatments to find one that works best for you.

How you can help treat and prevent athlete's foot yourself

You can keep using some pharmacy treatments to stop athlete's foot coming back.

It's also important to keep your feet clean and dry. You don't need to stay off work or school.

Important

Keep following this advice after finishing treatment to help stop athlete's foot coming back.

Treatment for athlete's foot from a GP

Your GP may:

  • send a small scraping of skin from your feet to a laboratory to check you have athlete's foot
  • prescribe a steroid cream to use alongside antifungal cream
  • prescribe antifungal tablets – you might need to take these for several weeks
  • refer you to a specialist called a dermatologist for more tests and treatment if needed

How you get athlete's foot

You can catch athlete's foot from other people with the infection.

You can get it by:

  • walking barefoot in places where someone else has athlete's foot – especially changing rooms and showers
  • touching the affected skin of someone with athlete's foot

You're more likely to get it if you have wet or sweaty feet, or if the skin on your feet is damaged.

HealthUnlocked contains information from NHS Digital, licensed under the current version of the Open Government Licence

84 public posts

Athletes foot. I've had enough.

I've had athletes foot for as long as I can remember. Decades. Mostly on my left foot and is manifested by the usual insane itching between and on tops of toes and over the years my toenails have become thick and brittle. Again only on one foot.
in MY SKIN

Lupus, prednisolone and athletes foot

Just started for the first time predosolone 5 mg once daily for a month ( summer in Greece you see:) and i had an athletes foot for some time now. Does it get worse on steroids? I forgot to ask my doc although he claims that the dose and time is too small to actually make it worse.
in LUPUS UK

Trial IPT Drug rapamycin

First, in trials as a cure for (I think) athletes' foot, it was never marketed for that because it was a powerful immune suppressor.
in ITP Support Association
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What a difference

Looking back, it is difficult to remember all my medical conditions which have improved, largely through IF - so I made a list: The bottom right photo is recent Toenail fungus - bottom left Athletes foot Peripheral oedema Peripheral cyanosis (blue foot disease) bottom right.
S11mVolunteer 70lb IF20
in Fasting and Furious

Intermitent Discomfort Right Toe been happening for 2-3 years.

It felt either athletes foot or if my toe nail was catching the skin. It would only come every few weeks or months. I thought maybe it was my footware or because I had been on my feet for along period.
in Men's Health Forum

Food intolerance test

After my last couple of posts, I have come to the conclusion thanks to all the lovely people in here that I should probably check myself for food allergies so I have ordered the smartblood food intolerance test (only the 1st step though)... Although I am almost certain I have no allergies it would be
in Thyroid UK

Old Jokes to Make You Smile Today

If athletes get athletes' foot, what do astronauts get? Mistletoe In the Bible, who made the coffee in the morning? Was it the man or the woman? The man---Hebrews Who was the first person to break all 10 Commandments at the same time? Moses. He threw down the stone tablets.
in Anxiety and Depression Support

Food allergies

Due to having IBS and food allergies I can’t eat onion in any form, Mayo , olive oil. Most of recipes use onion any idea what alternative ingredient I can use.
Patchwork19432020 February
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PAD at 27?!

Then I was told I had athletes foot from the open skin so was given a cream & told to use for a year. Nothing I was given helped.
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Who is the best Healthcare Professional to see

[i]Who is the best Healthcare Professional to see for the following conditions: Abdominal Pain — Acute Asthma — Alcohol Advice — Anxiety — Athletes Foot — Back Pain — Blocked ears (wax) — Blood Pressure Monitoring — Blood Tests — Blue Badge Forms — Boils — Breastfeeding Advice — Breathlessness — Bruised
helvellaAdministrator
in Thyroid UK

Allergies to Food

Hi, I used to think that I was unique in having so many food allergies. I was wrong. In the last 10 plus years, I've been getting more sensitive to foods - so sensitive that I've actually been diagnosed with "Food Phobia" by a medical doctor. A few years ago, after experiencing a horrible anaphylactic
in EFA

Can someone help figure out what the heck is going on with just my right foot?

Only for the past 3 or so years, my right foot subddenly is constantly peeling, cracking, and what looks similar to athletes foot with thick and rough skin.. but no athletes foot medication has ever improved the situation.
in MY SKIN

APS and food allergy

A recent study supports a link between antibodies and food allergies. https://www.empr.com/home/mpr-first-report/acaai-2019/food-allergy-presence-associated-with-antiphospholipid-antibodies/ My Antiphospholipid antibodies dropped substantially when I started a high fiber diet and limited eggs and dairy
in LUPUS UK

Food Allergy Testing/igE

Hi. Me again! Wearing this forum out I think.... Food allergy testing. I am going for some blood tests for food allergy testing. In other posts I've mentioned I'm having coeliac reaction to a whole new range of non-gluten foods, and it's all a bit confusing. Can anyone tell me if the igE blood test for
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Stomach acid-reducing drugs may raise risk of future allergies

I really don't feel the need to say much as an introduction after all the PPI posts here. However, I shall take one sentence from the paper: We report an epidemiologic relationship between gastric acid-suppression and development of allergic symptoms. And then suggest, while PPIs might have their
helvellaAdministrator
in Thyroid UK

Burning feet

Hi I need advice, my niece has been struggling with her feet for over a year and all the doctor has done has recommended steroid cream and athletes foot treatments that haven’t worked. We have now been referred to a foot specialist but have to wait until July.
in MY SKIN

Struggling to get a diagnosis?

At this point I became aware that Ella had also been experiencing recurrent thrush and she had a fungal nail infection, was prone to athletes foot and she has been prone to fungal ear infections on and off for several years.
in Crohn's and Colitis Support

Coimbra Protocol 2 and vitamin D.

I’ve struggled with athletes foot under my toenails (yellow nasty toenails) for more than 10 years. I’ve taken medicine for it to go away twice and it just came back as soon as I quit. I just noticed they have cleared up nearly completely?
in Parkinson's Movement

Coimbra Protocol 3

I’ve struggled with athletes foot under my toenails (yellow nasty toenails) for more than 10 years. I’ve taken medicine for it to go away twice and it just came back as soon as I quit. I just noticed they have cleared up nearly completely?
in Parkinson's Movement

Borderline.. what do the results mean?

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