Vapor Rub and Toenail Fungus

If you’ve heard of a vapor rub for toenail fungus, you may be envisioning holding your feet over a steaming basin while someone massages your toes, or spending relaxing time in a sauna. In fact, this home remedy for fungal nail infections is not quite so exotic. It involves the regular application of a substance that many of us met as children when we had head colds. Your mother may have smeared Vicks VapoRub on your chest, or put it in a vaporizer to help clear your breathing passages. Now, if you a fungal nail infection, you may want to apply it to your toenails.

The vapor rub and toenail fungus home remedy has a simple basis: this oily substance softens and penetrates the nail, and some ingredient (is it menthol, perhaps?) kills the fungus. Some anecdotal reports claim that this remedy works well, others claim that it does not work. Still others recommend it for children, but not for adults. It might be possible to sort all this out by remembering that topical treatments for nail fungus infection don’t work too well if the treatment doesn’t reach the fungus.

Children’s toenails are thinner that adult’s nails, so it makes sense that the vapor rub and toenail fungus remedy works better for them. Likewise, adults whose infections are not too far advanced, that is, the nail is not yet thickened by the disruptive growth of the fungus, may have better success with Vicks VapoRub. When the nail fungus infection has distorted the nail, and buried the fungus deep in a flaking crumbling shield, the Vicks probably doesn’t contact the lower layers, therefore it doesn’t work. In cases like this, it will be helpful to file away the thickness of the nail as much as possible to enhance penetration.

Another reason that the vapor rub and toenail fungus remedy doesn’t always work could be that it is very effective against some of the types of fungus that cause nail fungus infection, but less effective, or even useless against other types. While the majority of fungal nail infections are caused by one or two specific fungi, quite a number of others infect nails less commonly. Even the clinically tested prescription drugs have not been evaluated against all of them.

There's only one way to find out if the vapor rub and toenail fungus remedy will work for you: buy some and apply it several times each day and wait for improvement. If you decide to try it, you can at least be thankful that Vicks VapoRub is inexpensive and very easy to obtain.