Nail Fungus (onychomycosis) Nail fungus or onychomycosis is an infection of the nails occurring both on the hands and feet but certainly more often on the feet due to the environment that feet find themselves in. Nail fungus generally thrive in dark, moist environments, so when you consider wearing shoes and socks all day along with perspiration that occurs, it ends up being a perfect growth media for toe nail fungus. To get rid of fungus toe actually is a very difficult task. You see, the fungi grows underneath the nail making the fungul infection difficult to treat. As the fungul infection grows, it forces the nail up off the nail bed and the nail becomes thick, crumbly and discolored ranging in color from yellow to brown. It is not uncommon however for fungus infected nails to then spread to the remaining healthy nails on the foot. It is also not uncommon for nails to fall off and unfortunately, in most cases grow back the same way if not properly treated. Treatment of nail fungi can be difficult because of the fact that fungus thrives in "dark moist environments". Eliminating those factors can go a long way to reducing recurrence. There are both oral and topical medication treatments. The gold standard for treating onychomycosis in an otherwise healthy individual is the oral therapy. The most widely prescribed medication today is Lamisil tablets (Novartis), although there are certainly other oral antifungals that can be used. The newer generation of oral antifungals is very safe medications if properly used. Your doctor may prescribe one or two blood tests during the course of therapy to make sure there are no adverse effects. The topical nail fungus treatments are more effective and they have less or no side effects than oral anti fungi medications. Most topical anti-fungus medications are not effective as they are unable to penetrate deep into the skin or the nail bed.