Athlete’s foot is a fungal infection that is caused by the foot being encased in shoes and socks the entire day. The darkness and warmth of the covered feet cause the foot to become moist. It is this environment that lets Athlete’s foot breed between the areas of the toes.
Generally Athlete’s foot occurs in the areas around locker rooms, swimming pools and showers where the atmosphere especially on the ground is warm and damp. Athlete’s foot is a contagious disease. For this reason walking around areas like those mentioned above can leave you vulnerable to the infection.
The way you can identify if you have Athlete’s foot is by the symptoms which are dry skin, scaling, inflammation, itching and blisters. At any time that your feet have blisters you should take care as the blisters may break. When these blisters break open small areas of raw tissue are exposed. This exposure leads to lots of pain and swelling of the foot area around the Athlete’s foot infection. Should the Athlete’s foot infection spread you will feel an increased amount of burning and itching in those infected areas.
As Athlete’s foot is highly infectious it can be transmitted to other parts of your body. This will happen when you scratch the infected area and then touch other parts of your body with that hand. The most commonly infected areas are the soles of the feet, toenails, groin and the underarms. It can also be spread by contaminated clothing or bed sheets.
As Athlete’s foot can last for quite a long time you should see about getting treatment for this condition as early as you can. The treatments that are used for Athlete’s foot are usually fungicidal and fungistatic chemicals, also topical or oral antifungal medications. Generally these treatments work to cure the existing Athlete’s foot and prevent a reoccurrence of Athlete’s foot.
There are some things that you can do to make sure that you do not fall prey to Athlete’s foot. You should try and avoid walking barefoot in areas where Athlete’s foot may be breeding. The foot area should be thoroughly washed and dried to prevent moisture buildup. An application of talcum powder will help to make your foot dry. You might want to wear shoes that are light and airy or open-toed. The best way to stop Athlete’s foot from occurring is to prevent it in the first place.
