Nail Fungus and Tea Tree Oil

by Debbie Gifford
(Henderson, NV)

My thumb nails on both hands have looked terrible since my second year in college. That would be 1977. I can remember looking at the one on my right hand and seeing a big valley in the thumb nail on my right hand where is came out of the cuticle. It was never the same after that and soon after the left hand started doing the same.

I went to a doctor after a while and he gave me some mycolog creme to massage into the cuticle. It was helping, but when I stopped it would quickly go back to growing irregular. The thing is, is that not only were they ugly, but they were sort of irritating and caused me to pick on them obviously making them worse.

My right thumb nail looks awful now, I am 55 and I hate it. 5 years ago I tried Lamisil (sp) but it didn't work, and I believe it got worse. I figured that was the way it was and that too much damage too long would prevent them from straightening out.

My son got some kind of red irritated skin behind his ear and while shopping at Trader Joe's I saw a small bottle of tea tree oil and thought, what the heck. Well, it didn't do anything to that and it worsened so the tea tree oil didn't help with that.

A year later, I was looking at that bottle and really not knowing what tea tree oil was for, I decided (I knew it was antiseptic sort of) to rub it into my cuticles. After just a short time I could see that the new growth was much better.

They are not perfect, but have improved immensely and they are half grown out so I am certain the effect is positive. They are also now not irritating me so I am not picking on the cuticle all the time. I am really excited about this, and am anxious to see the final outcome.