I have had great success with Vicks Vapour Rub on toenail fungus, and am wondering if it would work on the skin fungal problems. On my hands I have some areas where the skin seems to come off in patches. Recently my feet have developed some mild scaling/flaking where shoes rubbed and caused blisters.

The ingredient in Vicks that is supposed to help fungal problems is thymol, so if you have some thyme growing you might try making a tea from it for external use. Please do some research before using thyme. It might be more potent than we expect. I’ll try the Vicks on my feet and let you know.

Hi:

I think your tips are fine for symptom relief, but they don’t eliminate the problem. What helped me is scaling back on these products:

Flours
Baked stuff: anything with flour, flour and yeast,
Sugars: sucrose and frustose, both refined and from fruits and berries.

I heard many of the skin disorder come from damaged stomach lining because some foods are irritating it constantly.

I don’t like corticosteroids, because using it for a long time will make things worse (it makes skin thinner which is terrible when you already have Dyshidrosis). What helps me is

keeping it dry – wearing gloves when dealing with water
cream with serum
salt baths
saline nasal gel + vaseline to seal it

I’ve had this hand eczema for years come and go: dry, flaky, cracking, tiny PUSTULES that break and weep when I scratch them. I was an esthetician for yrs and think the constant moisture and harsh disinfectants started it.
I’ve found keeping them in gloves that are non-latex, non-powdered ex. Nitrile or vinyl when doing any wet work or cleaning helps. Anti-fungal cream when dry, vaseline and cotton gloves at night. Cortisone cream made mine MUCH worse in the past, thinned out my layers of skin on palms >:(
Cetaphil gentle eczema soap(Walmart) is good at home and to carry around with you as public soaps really aggravate the problem. Avoid fragranced products. Don’t give up, just be conscious of how you baby your hands everyday, and hopefully kick this thing!
Hope this helps a little :hug:

I live in an out-of-the-way country in Central Asia and have to do a fair amount of self-treatment. After searching the internet for my cracking hands condition and finding the image above, I was encouraged to discover that I’m not alone in facing this strange affliction. My hands looked almost identical to the posted photo. I got this 4 months ago when I gouged the palms of my hands while tightening polyethylene irrigation pipe fittings.

I sent photos to my US doctor whose first guess was that it was a fungal infection. He recommended I try 150 mg of fluconazole 1 x per week for 4 weeks. I have had 2 doses of fluconazole and, coupled with the ACV treatment at 3 x/day, the recipe for which I got from this blog, I have seen great progress in 10 days. I wanted to post in case this is of some help to others. Thanks to everyone who posted. I really think my hands will be better within a week.

I also want to add that I have been supergluing and moisturizing to minimize the pain and cracking.

I have the same thing. I was to the doctor and he said it was a fungus and the small bumpy rash was an allergic reaction to the tamanu cream I was putting on it. He prescribed a lamisil type cream. It is not helping at all.Right now I am using oil of oregano cream…which kills fungus. It seems to be getting better but has spread to the other hand now. I will try the ACV and gloves with vaseline at night. Other fungus killers are tea tree oil and coconut oil.

Hi back again and pleased that some have been having success with the superglue! I had my Dermatologist appointment and he immediately diagnosed it as psoriasis. For over a year now I have been on a 5% LPC and salicylic acid cream which has helped but not “fixed” it. He said I had it for life. It shifted to my finger tips as well which was incredibly painful. 2 weeks ago today I took flour out of my diet and within 3 days I noticed a huge improvement. I had been tested for celiac with a negative result. I took gluten out of my diet as well (apart from a few mistakes) and I now have almost clear hands and feet (years of steroid cream then suddenly stopping will cause a few problems) and I now just use a bit of moisturiser as my hands settle down a bit as well. I have had no internal problems normally associated with celiac. I can’t believe the transformation! I urge you all to at least try a week of just meat and salad or similar. Please report back if you find it helpful. I don’t think this will help those who have an infectious problem. I have emailed my Dr and Specialist asking for a referral to an allergy specialist, I’ll let you know how this goes.

Awesome, Danny! Thanks for the update!!

I had the same hands until about 2 days ago. I was told I was allergic to wheat and all its by products as well as candida and that I should not eat any sweats, or other products that are fungal, like yogurts, etc. Over the past 48 hours I have seen great improvement. Also I did a skin test and they told me it was dermatitis, but some one else told that problems with floral bacteria can cause allergies. Please remove flour, yeast and dairy products from your diet for at least a week. If we all see improvements then we might have discovered the cause for our common problem.

Hi, my mother has it, too. And nothing helps permanently. She had few shot of diprofos injection, and it helped for a while, but it came back in three weeks… The skin is always red(ish) and then it became a yellow death skin. I accidently run over on this site, and I show it to my mother. She took a blood test, too, but it didn’t work, all her hormones are normal. she’s 53years. They, farmacist, have related to stress, but it has no sense… it would go till now, since it lasts for almost 2 years. I hope some of these “therapies” will be helpful.

Thank You :yahoo: My son has had this for most of his young life and I did not know what to do and the doctors had no idea they gave him a steroid cream and hydro-cortisone.

Hi poor fellow sufferers.

I too have exactly the same =hands and feet for over 6yrs.
Done docs and hosp regularly and tried all the above [except ACV, and will try that today]. I have the learned the following from my experiences:
Fungal test negative and Dermol and Flucloxacillin = no change.
Salicylic = no change but homeopathic Petroleum sloughs off all hard, dead skin relieving deep cracks. Superglue recommended and has kept me sane.
Hydromol for washing and under gloves at night is much better than Vaseline.
Allergy tests suggest possible wheat/dairy and Antihistamines helped for a while [Cetrizine Hydrochloride].
Soaking hands/feet in warm water with oatmeal [wrapped in tights/socks] helps itchiness and dryness.
Aveeno oatmeal Skin Relief [blue] helps a lot.
Patch testing proved allergy to Thiuram Mix [in rubbers]. Improvement since re-rubberising my life, esp feet].
Complete blood test = all normal inc. Thyroid.

Sorry this post is so long but hope it helps someone!!
As earlier posters said… it makes even getting dressed a nightmare and is def not a walk in the park.

Good Luck

Hi – I have this, too – it’s also on the back of my hand and is running up my arm! It is itchy on and off…and sometimes I wake up after scratching it raw in my sleep!

Both dermatologists said it’s “dermatitis” and prescribed cortisone creams which I haven’t used yet because I’m going to a Chiropractor who is giving me herbs first…Both dermatologists refused to biopsy or scrape it to view under microscope!

I also have a rash on my eyelids and hairline….not sure if it’s the same thing or different…

By the way, I eat a clean, organic Paleo diet and am a crossfit athlete…no sugar, no processed foods…TONS of green veg…still, the Chiro muscle tested me and said I am allergic to coconut, goji berries, raw cacao, my tomato plants and pumpkin seeds! He said this may or may not be the cause…He also said I have cadmium in my body (probably from being an artist and using paint with cadmium) – I am not doing any painting for a long time because of this rash.

So I stopped eating the allergens and the rash is even worse this week.

I’m beginning to suspect the iComfort memory foam bed we purchased last year. I had the rash on the hairline and the eyelids and lip last summer…maybe the outgassing from the bed is worse in summer????

Does anyone else here have the rash on their face in addition to the hand?

I will try the ACV and see what happens.

My husband has this on his hands and has for 2 years. It is terrible! He finally saw the doctor about it and the dr said its a painful and hard to treat for of eczema. He was given a corticosteroid but I will have him try the suggestions on here as well. I have been trying to figure out what has changed in the past 2 years that would have caused this. It completely sucks for him and I wish I could just fix it for him!

The hand looks just like mine did in the past. I am almost 100% certain this is contact dermatitis. I went to multiple dermatologists and got a bunch of steroid creams but nothing worked. Finally, I started wearing cotton gloves all the time. I ordered cheap disposable cotton gloves for during the day (look on amazon for these), driving gloves for the car, and rubber and latex gloves for the shower, hair products, etc. Then I put the gloves everywhere. For two months I didn’t touch anything. The only tricky part was when I figured out that I was allergic to the latex and nitrile gloves themselves ( I started wearing cotton gloves underneath them). After 2 months the symptoms resolved completely. Then I started reintroducing things one by one. This is also tricky because contact dermatitis takes over 24 hours to show itself so you have to introduce new things very very slowly. Its been about a year and a half and my hands look great. I still wear driving gloves, and I wear disposable cotton gloves underneath my latex gloves at work (I’m a dentist). I also wear football gloves to the gym as they cover the whole hand unlike weight-lifting gloves. I know that I will have to wear some form of gloves during certain activities for life, but I think its much better than having my hands cracking, wrapped in band-aids, and covered in super glue. I hope this helps, if you have any more questions you can email me at abelani9@yahoo.com, hopefully that helps.

I had exactly the same thing. I basically tried the same thing with the gloves and did order cotton gloves on-line and had convinced myself that I would be wearing them for a very long time. Well, one day I was in the health food store and a young lady was setting up a display. She asked me if I would be interested in the skin product she was marketing. I showed her my hand and asked if she thought it would help my hand.

She looked at my hand and said she knew what the problem was. A friend of hers had the same thing. She asked if I used a wireless computer mouse. Yes, I do. She said it was either caused by the plastic that the mouse was made of or by something to do with how a wireless mouse works. Anyway, I bought her product but I also reduced the amount of time I spend on the computer using the wireless mouse.

I only used 2 pair of those gloves that I ordered on-line. My hand cleared up almost magically within a week or so. Was it the product I bought …bodyceuticals calendula body oil? I can’t be sure but the condition is gone and hasn’t returned. I bought a Kindle and use that for my computer needs and don’t use the mouse much anymore.

I don’t know if y’all are still following these replies. I came across it this morning and felt compelled to tell you that I had the same issues with my skin. A miserable, living hell, with no real help or knowledge from my doctor after many, many visits. On a trip to the ER for stitches for my youngest daughter, the PA saw my hands and said it was dermatitis herpetiformis and that I had celiac sprue. One look. She had just finished training on celiac and other autoimmune diseases. I eliminated gluten from my diet completely, and my skin is now clear. I can use my hands. Reach in my pockets. Wash dishes. It’s been 9 months now. I was stubborn in the beginning & would revert back to eating gluten after my skin cleared. And the skin flares would begin immediately. Try it. Read up on gluten and remove it, completely. It has saved my life.

Amanda! Yes, I’ve been following these replies for over a year now, I think. I’m curious if my condition might be treated in the same way as yours! Do you have a picture of your hand when it was still there, and how long did it take in a gluten free diet for it to go away?

Thanks for the tip! I liked Elaine’s tip about the gloves, but I’m more likely to try the gluten angle, at least as a first (Nth?) step.

🙂
-Alan

I have these same kind of condition on my 3 fingers.
It’s really painful when stretch 🙁
Any approved therapy yet?
I read most of the comment and they suggest a lot.
Which one is effective?
I’ve been suffering from this kind of skin problem for almost 2months.
Help.

That hand looks exactly like mine. i have been struggling with this for 4 yrs of my hand being like this. and only one doctor has found a cure for it. they misdiagnosed me 10+ times and 7 yrs ago when i first got it i thought it was eczema but in fact it is a fungus and they gave me 2 antibiotics and 2 creams to use for 14 days. after day one the itching quit after about 8 days it was clear but it was a 14 day process, i cannot remember what kind of fungus it was and have moved thousands of miles away from my hometown and got it again now i am on a mission to clear it up again.

My mum has this on her hands and feet, the skin is so hacked that it has formed deep crevasses in the palms of her hands and they constantly bleed. She is now finding it difficult to walk. She has been to the doctor numerous times, they have said its stress related and they can do nothing for her. They have given her a small tube of steroid cream that’s about the width and breadth of a finger and does her no time at all before she has to get another one, which makes it hard to do the glove thing with cream to keep the area moisturised (we’ve tried that too). I know she is at her whits end, especially when i found her at my front door crying tonight because standing on her feet was so painful. Any suggestions would be great as it seems they have tried every cream that’s possible to try on her and have now seemingly given up all hope. I hate seeing her in pain and feeling so helpless.

By chance, as I was searching for macro photos, my attention was caught by the image of your loved one’s hand. I have what looks like the same thing.
I do not have a solution yet, but believe that eventually the right one will present itself if I keep an open mind. Meanwhile, I can share my experience which might prove helpful from an investigative standpoint.
About two years ago, suddenly my hands began to peel like crazy! I assumed it was due to exposure to bleach which I had used recently. As the (painless) condition did not clear up, and both my feet did the same thing, I suspected something else was the cause.
I apologize in advance for this long post, but I believe my “big picture” may help.
Eventually my hands and feet cleared up, but I developed a fungus in my thumbnail, which spread to ALL of my other fingers, and even most of my toes!!
I used ACV, in conjunction with coconut oil, as well as everything else that I thought may help, but I believe that the silver bullet for my nail fungus was an herb called Colorata Wintera sold under the brand name Kolorex.
Nail fungus all cleared quickly, but the peeling hands, and eventually the painful cracking fingertips, palms, and feet and red, extremely itchy patches on my knuckles took hold and I am pretty miserable with it! After reading all of the posts here, and given my history with the nail fungus, I am leaning in the direction of it being fungal.
In my occupation as a tattoo artist, I wear gloves (non latex) constantly, and wash my hands frequently. I am a painter, and I am in contact with oil paints a lot too. And while I am a messy painter at times, I seldom get any on my bare feet! hahaha .
I hope that in all of my wordiness, there are helpful clues to someone, and maybe even me if we get to the bottom of this! In any case, I would like permission to send out positive vibes to everyone here suffering from this! I plan on getting more of the Kolorex to try and will update with my findings!

Hi All!

I have the same thing on my hands and a foot. I was treated for a fungus then as eczema. Nothing worked, finally it was confirmed to be psoriasis by a specialist! After 9 months I fond the correct treatment.

I have also tried ACV and it does help with my psoriasis. The best thing though was keeping a bottle of hand cream (e45 or cetaphile) with me at all times!

I must say that having this skin condition was very stressful and hard to deal with, but with patients it reduced and will soon be gone, but this was only possible with treatment for psoriasis.

Best of luck to all, and please don’t stree about it!

Hello, I have had the same thing on my hand. It started out on my finger and now it is on the palm of my hand, well almost all the way around my hand. The doctors do not know what it is. All I know is it hurts at time so bad. If you ever find out what it is please let me know.

Also I have had this now for 15 years and still going crazy with it.

HI, I thought you all might like an artical I wrote for a NZ web based news site. If anyone would like any further info please contact me,
Kindest Regards
Danny

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/have-you-made-a-huge-health-change/8990848/How-I-cured-my-painful-skin-condition

its definitely a fungus. Mine started last year while working out at the gym. I knew it was gym related but the doctor insisted it’s hand eczema; however everything he prescribed failed. I have been research it for over a year and since vinegar,ointments, etc didn’t work, I started online; however mostly guesses like on this site.I remembered someone on another site mentioning it could be a fungus. What do I have to lose. I went to the store and looked over all of the fungus meds and found one that kills 6 different types of fungus. I applied it in the car and a few times that day. In 24 hours, my hand looked like a hand again. I could cry. This has been an awful experience and I said I will go to every website and most this.

Hi, I have this as well and am sure I got it when fixing a guys watch, whose hands were horribly scaly and thick. While working on his watch I stabbed myself with the screwdriver and two weeks later I started on my ‘adventure’ in that spot.
Countless doctors and homeopaths later, I was told it was psoriasis, exzema… but no one would go with fungus (or as I like to call it ‘Jungle Rott’).
During my dad’s cancer research we came across Doug Kaufmann, who says it is all about fungus; and it can mask itself as anything, making it hard to diagnose as 1 thing – fungus. He says you can’t really get rid of fungus, but he has a plan.
When I did his restrictive (fungus starving) ‘phase 1’ diet for about 4 weeks and then ‘phase 2’ for 4 weeks, it got rid of the issue for about 6 months. When it came back it was on my other hand. I let it grow too long on the other hand, but I did the phase 1 diet again years later and largely helped the issue on that hand as well… for 6 months. Doug says to do the phase 1 diet for a minimum of 4 weeks, longer if you can, then do phase 2 and slowly add in minor things… but generally alter your diet to exclude processed foods (WHITE flour \ milk \ rice \ sugar) to keep from feeding the fungus and help keep it at bay.

http://www.knowthecause.com/

I am excited to try the ACV approac along with Phase 1 again shortly. I also like the latex \ plastic comments as I was wearing gloves, but stabbed through them… maybe it was the gloves not the skin debry under the customers watch.

I currently use a nail file to keep the scaling down, which keeps the cracking down and allows any topicals to actually penetrate the skin.
I try to stay away from steroids, but I
– sometimes use Triamcinolone Acetonide ointment0.5%
– sometimes use a Triamcinolone \ Acid mixture (supposed to help break the scaliness and help penetrate better)
– and only in sever cases – Fluocinonide Topical (forgot %)

Hope that a ACV and Phase 1 approach will help me avoid all of these for a while.
Anthony

Hello. My hands look exacly like the photo above and also on the top of one foot. I had this about 13 years ago and can’t remember what ended up clearing this up. This summer it came back with a vengeance. I believe it started after coming in contact with harsh chemicals from working on my car. I have been trying many things listed on this thread but nothing is working. I believe now that it is a fungus so I am going to look for the stongest over the counter anti fungal like a Lotrimin or Lamisil. At this point I have nothing to loose. I’m trying to avoid the Dr. if at all possible however as last resort I will seek out a dermatologist. Thank you everybody for all the information, I will check back in periodically.

stlrealtor — what was the fungus killing product you used?

I’ve used over the counter anti-fungals like lamisil but nothing worked so far. I just assumed it was “palmo-plantar psoriasis”. I’m using steroids from my doctor (second try) now just to give it a shot, which is after a few years of doing nothing and just dealing with it using lotions. The steroids seems to be helping a little, but it’s not getting smaller, just less cracking. I had a similar patch appear in a place where i thought it was jock itch, but anti-fungals didn’t do anything there either, hence my second attempt at steroids.

PS. I’ve been receiving updates from this post for years now, and am so thankful it exists!

What seemed to work for me was the 40 percent urea cream at night and Bag Balm during the day. When the outbreak is at bay-just the Bag Balm at night and lotion during the day.

This looks like Dyshidrotic Dermatitis. I have the same thing and it looks just like this. It affects the hands – which is exactly where mine is.

My skin is different, yellow colored on my palms and feet. Worse thing about my hands and feet. Is wen i have a shower my hands go white and puffy also start to peel I also have tried everything. My grandmother had this, and it inherited in the family. I just want something to help cure this. Does anyone suffer the same problem?

I believe I have the same thing and finally did get a little relief from the scaling by getting some strong steriod cream from the dermatologist. It appeared to work for about a month or so then it came back full force. Those darn little nodules flare back up and it starts to itch uncontrollably again which in turn starts to thicken the skin again and cracks and flaking starts all over. This is frustrating beyond belief. It’s almost unbelieavable that there doesn’t seem to be anything out there to cure this. Being as active as I am and constantly having to have creams and ointments on my hands is so very frustrating. If there is some miracle cure for this I hope we see it soon.

ok my hands look just like this. to cut a long story short I am soaking my hand in hydrogen peroxide for about a minute then rinsing them off, then applying moisture creams on them through out the day. started seeing a difference in about a week. has not totally cleared up my hand but its closes

i have the same thing on my hand,thumb,foot. the dr told me to wash my feet every day and put cream on. one told me to use lamisil, once a dr gave me a shot of anti fungal stuff not sure it was, maybe something like lamisil, but after 4 yrs it went away but came back that next year.this has been going on for 10 yrs, 2 yrs ago we got a pool and all the swimming i all that chlorine it went away,that make me think its fungal, but that winter came back now i taking a steroid cream for 15 day wt good results but now 15 days later its back. im going to try gluten free and the acv also hope it helps, its been going on to long:(

My condition which was on both palms of hands and bottom of feet has not returned in over a year. The 40% urea cream was what I was using when it went away, prescribed by the dermatologist. Hope it works for someone else.

Hello all my boyfriend has the same thing have tried creams for anti fungal not much help ????. Has anyone noticed if taking an antibiotic helps? He had been taking some for a bad tooth and noticed that it went away. So confused right now!!! Gonna try Apple cider vinegar. Good luck to everyone!!

My hands have been this way since 2007. I have been to some dermarologists just to have them say its my occupation as a mechanic. I was prescribed all sorts of crimes and I’ve tried all types of home remedies just to find out it is a wheat allergy of all things. 3 weeks ago I cut out all wheat by going on a gluten free diet and my hands are finally healing!????