Our feet do so much for us everyday, that it’s easy to not think about them as you walk, run, jump, and do everything else that would be impossible without them. They are complex biomechanical parts of the lower body that have only one less amount of bones in our hands (26 total), over 100 ligaments and about 30 joints that make them so useful in our daily lives.
Using them as often as we need to, we often don’t pay attention to them until something’s wrong, and athlete’s foot is a form of infection that can not only affect one of both of them, but can be spread to other people. If you’re dealing with repeated athlete’s foot problems, it’ll be helpful to know why it’s happening to prevent more infections.
Residents of the Tarzana or Inglewood, California area looking for treatment of athlete’s foot or other podiatric problems can find help with Drs. Ashkan Soleymani, Michael Salih, Arash Jalil, Saman Tabari, and their staff at Cedars Foot and Ankle Center.
Also known as tinea pedis, athlete’s foot is an infection caused by the fungus that also causes ringworm (tinea actually means ringworm and pedis means feet) and is commonly located between your toes. It can also affect your heels and the top and bottom of your feet, and when it appears it’s irritated with your skin appearing red, gray, purple, or white and scaly. It also comes with cracking and peeling of the skin, itching, and a burning sensation. Anyone can get athlete’s foot, and millions of people have, including up to 15% of athletes and 70% of the overall U.S. population.
The infection also comes in different types:
Also called interdigital athlete’s foot, this is the most common type, stemming from the Trichophyton rubrum fungus and is most likely to go away on its own (which happens up to 40% of the time), or with the help of over the counter methods.
This is also called moccasin foot or chronic scaly athlete’s foot, and is the version that moves from between toes to other toes and other parts of your feet. It can cause the skin on the soles of your feet to become thicker, and lead to cracking and peeling.
The most rare type of this infection, this form is derived from the Trichophyton mentagrophytes fungus and begins like the other forms but can’t be treated with the standard antifungals. This type presents with blisters on the top or bottom of feet, and may be followed with chronic outbreaks that turn into foot ulcers.
Because this condition is also quite contagious, once you’ve managed to treat it getting it again is unfortunately easy under specific conditions:
The less common types of athlete’s foot can also become chronic and come with more severe side effects. It’s not likely to go away on its own because the fungus feeds on a protein in our nails and skin called keratin, so if you have, you need to treat it and remove it from any surfaces or objects in your area.
If you’re struggling with this or other foot infections, make an appointment with Drs. Soleymani, Salih, Jalil, Tabari and the team at Cedars Foot and Ankle Center as soon as possible to get treatment.
