Symptoms of nail fungus will depend on the type of infection you have. An infection can cause discomfort but is usually not painful. Distal subungual onychomycosis, the most common fungal nail infection, is caused by dermatophytes. It affects both the nail and the skin underneath the nail. Dermatophytes cause 90% of all fungal toenail infections. Symptoms include yellow streaks in the nail bed and on the underside of the nail; buildup of bits and pieces of skin and nail fragments under the nail; a discolored and thickened nail that may separate from the skin under the nail; a brittle, broken, and thickened nail.

White superficial onychomycosis is a fungal infection of the nail surface. It is the second most common fungal nail infection and is also caused by dermatophytes. Symptoms include white spots or streaks on the nail surface; soft and powdery nail surface, as the infection gets worse; damaged, crumbly, and brown or gray nail surface. But the nail does not separate from the skin underneath. Two other types of fungal nail infections are uncommon. Candida onychomycosis is a yeast infection of the nails. Proximal subungual onychomycosis accounts for about 3% of all fungal nail infections. But it is more common in people infected with HIV.

Only half of all nail infections are fungal infections. Conditions with similar symptoms are as following. Darier disease is an inherited skin disease in which the skin slowly hardens. Eczema is a long-lasting skin disorder that may result in thickened and scaly skin. When it occurs on the hands, it may look like a fungal infection of a fingernail. Pachyonychia is a very thick fingernail or toenail. Psoriasis is a long-lasting skin condition that causes raised red or white patches topped with silvery, scaling skin. The patches can appear on the nails. But the pitting of the nails that occurs in psoriasis does not happen in fungal nail infections. Reiter's syndrome is a bacterial infection that may result in changes of the nails.

Most doctors erroneously believe that nail fungus is only treatable via oral medicines, and quickly reach for their prescription pads to treat nail fungus infections. It is true that treatment of nail fungus is indeed a challenge because the infection is embedded within the nail and is difficult to reach. As a result, full removal of symptoms via current prescription medications is very slow and may take a year or more. Of course, there are always possibilities of side effects with these medications, including headaches, stomach disorder, and liver damage. Further, mixing these with other drugs can be extremely dangerous.

Oneadvantage of natural plant medicine for nail fungus is that they are not drug resistant in application. Chemical drugs such as antibiotic used clinically can cause drug resistance of microorganism and parasite easily, thus reducing the sensibility to drugs. Abuses of antibiotic and other chemical drugs have already cut down the role of these antibiotics severely and produce new viruses consequently. Application of chemical drugs aggravates chemical pollutions in the body, make body over-burdened and immune response wrong, and cause immune hypersensitivity; hence autoimmune diseases and immunodeficiency increases.

In the past, people looked up to the success of modern biomedicine and believed that infectious diseases had been almost eliminated and the rest can be controlled by immunity and antibiotics. However, it is found that malignant bacterias present apparent drug resistant ability and acclimation ability. Old infectious diseases reactivate again and even outbreak seriously. Some unknown deathful viruses in the past emerge; what's more, factors such modern life style, communications, environments and so on increase the possibility of transmission of viruses. Health of animals and human has been under serious threat; as a matter of course, in the struggle with disease people pay their attention to natural plant medicine.

Natural plant medicine is taken from plants and preserves nature and bioactivity of various structural constitution. These substances are components of living organisms on the earth and necessary to maintain ecological balance. At the same time, they are useful, harmless and most easily accepted exogenetic essential materials that are selected and left by human and animal's long-term practice. In addition, before these substances are applied to body, profitless factors to organisms are wiped off by natural processing method created by the ancient in order to keep their purity. To learn more, please go to .