fredag 19 augusti 2011

Just dropping by: Scholl fungal nail treatment

One poster commented on my last post and said he/she would now try a treatment sold by Scholl (www.scholl.com). I don't have too much to say about it but here is just my immediate view of it:

Firstly, the big flashy ad that claims the product will kill 99,9 % of all nail fungus is of course suspicious and in all probability a piece of sensationalist advertising exaggerating or manufacturing completely the abilities of the product.

A complete list of ingredients cannot be found which is also a warning sign. They say the product will work by lowering the PH of the nail and make it inhospitable to fungus, sounds fair enough. The exact same thing happens when you soak your toes in household vinegar and it is a fact that fungus does not thrive in too acid environments. How effective this treatment is for actually lowering the PH far enough to kill fungus is unknown. They claim it to be scientifically verified but do not link to any studies or trials.

What the PH-adjusting agent is they do not tell on the website. The permeation-enhancing "formula" is said to be urea, panthenol and glycerin. Sounds OK, anecdotal evidence from the web point to urea being useful for dissolving the nail structure, glycerine is sometimes used in ointments and similar products and panthenol is seemingly good for penetration of the skin according to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12113650 .


All in all it seems like a decent product, it can probably do some good for some people. However, by the look of it it does not seem to bring anything new really, just another mix of substances that have been on the agenda before (sans the PH-lowering main substance that is not named. If I may take a wild guess it is probably vinegar as usual).

On the flip side the formulation is a bit more interesting than for example the huge internet scam that is zetaclear which is pretty much only vinegar and water at a hefty price, and other products. Urea is interesting and panthenol is probably not bad. I will stick with complete debridement of the nail and application of conventional prescription substance (lamisil once) but if you want to give this a go you are probably not without hope. Be sure to update others with the result either here or on other websites.