Episode description

Summer is approaching, at least for us here in Australia and for some of us, looking down at our toes might bring on a "yuck" reaction. Why are those nails cracked, fragile or showing discoloration? Are you embarrassed by this? What's causing it? How do I stop it?  Is this a sign of something worse?

That's the topic of this week's show. And importantly, we're going to be talking about how the health of your toenails and even the health of the nails on your fingers can be used as an indicator of overall health. 

To do this, we're going to go through some of the most common questions around nail fungus including symptoms and which groups of people are most likely to get fungal nail infections? What are the terms about this microbial infection and what are the typical fungi that cause this? We'll also talk about some of the environmental hazards for foot fungus as well as how it's diagnosed at the lab and then move on to how you can prevent fungal nail infections and discuss some of the treatments from the research literature. With this foundation we'll then move on to the central topic of today's presentation, which is looking at the association between foot and nail fungus and COVID 19 clinical outcomes and we'll be discussing what the scientists discovered and why it's very important to deal with fungal nail infections because they do have an impact on the clinical outcomes of respiratory illnesses like COVID-19. 

REFERENCES:

Rakita U, Kaundinya T, Guraya A, Nelson K, Maner B, Manjunath J, Schwartzman G, Lane B, Silverberg JI. Associations between onychomycosis and COVID-19 clinical outcomes: a retrospective cohort study from a US metropolitan center. Arch Dermatol Res. 2021 Nov 12. doi: 10.1007/s00403-021-02299-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34773138. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00403-021-02299-8

Elewski B. E. (1998). Onychomycosis: pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management. Clinical microbiology reviews, 11(3), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.11.3.415

Robres P, Aspiroz C, Rezusta A, Gilaberte Y. Usefulness of Photodynamic Therapy in the Management of Onychomycosis. Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2015 Dec;106(10):795-805. English, Spanish. doi: 10.1016/j.ad.2015.08.005. Epub 2015 Oct 1. PMID: 26427737.