We all love summer season, with its warm, better yet hot days, when all we want to do is have a swim and enjoy a cold and fresh fruit juice. We do not have to wear anymore those thick clothes which can be now replaced with comfortable and loose shirts and short pants.

Even though we do not have the sea nearby our house, we can always find a perfect swimming pool in town where we can fully enjoy a so needed bath. But did you know that these places, along with public showers and saunas are some of the most frequent places to catch a nail fungus? The thing is that in these places the environment is most of the time a humid one and so there is a high risk of getting such infections.

Any abnormal aspect of the nail should be immediately noticed and act upon because, most probably, it is caused by a mycotic infection’s attack. This is extremely important because the sooner we take action the better we will recover.

What exactly is this nail fungus?

The nail fungus, known in medical terms as onicomicose, is a frequent disease. Many surveys show that the whole world’s population is bound to deal with such an infection at some point in their life. However, there is a certain age category that is more exposed at getting a nail fungus and experts say that people over the age of 60 years are most likely to deal with it.

Of course, this does not mean that they are the only ones who can get it because there also are other categories that can experience it. Even children can deal with it, even though this is a quite rare situation, because most surveys reveal how less than 1% of them have such a health problem.

How to recognize it?

Doctors say that it is really easy to notice when you are dealing with a nail fungus. This is due to the fact once the fungus attacks the nail or the bed nail, the healthy and normal aspect changes dramatically and so one should be blind not to notice it.

The nail changes its healthy and normal color to white, yellow or light brown. Also, it loses its irradiance and transparency, and it gets thicker. In some cases, the nail can also detach at the pick and so it becomes quite brittle.

Initially, the symptoms can be observed at the nail’s margins and afterward, once the fungus starts developing it gets extended on the whole nail’s surface. A very important to bear in mind aspect is that a low functioning immune system and lacking an adequate treatment, the micose can develop, by attacking deeper layers of the skin and nail.

Always remember that onicomicose will never treat by itself, without a proper therapy. Moreover, its presence is a constant threat, including your family and the persons which you come in contact with because it is characterized by a high contagiousness level. Also, an untreated onicomicose can negatively influence the quality of life, regarding those persisting symptoms like feeling pains when walking or when simply touching the nail, not to mention the unaesthetic aspect of the affected nail.

Where can you get it from?

First of all, everybody should know that during summer, cases with nail fungus are very frequent. It seems that public environments where humidity is high are the places where these infections can be caught from. This means that a great care should be given to public swimming pools, locker rooms or even gyms.

We all love a sauna session after a hard work out routine at the gym, but did you know that those wooden grills can be the perfect environment for those fungus to develop? Therefore, be wise and properly disinfect your skin after this. Also, one can get a fungus nail infection only by simply touching the infected objects, such as slippers, scissors, socks or towels.

What to be aware of?

Anytime we deal with a nail fungus, we should totally be aware of how can we cure it. We should never let it work too much on our nails or skin because, on a long term, the effects can be really severe. Complications which can arise from not treating it in time can negatively influence our lives, not to mention the social aspect of it. Would you like to socialize with an individual having such a health issue? Well I guess not, so why put others face up with your nail fungus? Treat it as soon as it is possible and your body will definitely thank you, if it actually could.

Another aspect worth to be mentioned is the series of aspects which highly influence the development of this types of fungus. This means that we should avoid constant traumas of nails, and by this one should understand that cutting excessively the nails is not always a good thing to do.

Also, get rid of those synthetic shoes material, like fake leather or other materials which are not good at all for all you exposed people at such infections. Too tight shoes can also encourage fungus development and so this is something to be really aware of. Another thing to be beard in mind is giving up doing too frequent and to exaggerated manicures and pedicures because all the utensils used at the saloon can very well get you with a onicomicose.

All in all, you should not get too alarmed with this. This means you should not deprive yourself from a swim in a public swimming pool or a sauna session because these are really good stuff for your body and you deserve them. The idea is to be fully aware of the fact that you might get such nail fungus and therefore, act accordingly.