lördag 30 november 2013

Formula 3 antifungal by TetraCorp

Another product that I find a little interesting is called "Formula 3" and is manufactured by TetraCorp. Their product can be seen at their website http://thetetracorp.com/products/formula3-antifungal/ .

I have read a couple of posititve reviews online as you will always find no matter what product you research but the mixture itself seems interesting when you look closer at it. It contains tolftanate which is a completely legit antifungal, in trials it has been shown to be effective when compared to other antifungals, see http://www.ijdvl.com/article.asp?issn=0378-6323;year=1990;volume=56;issue=2;spage=130;epage=131;aulast=Rajendran .

It seems to be slightly less effective than azoles (itraconazole, clotrimazole) which in turn have been shown to be less effective than terbinafine, still the top dog when it comes to efficently treating fungal skin and nail infections. But apparently they have managed to make tolftanate oil-soluble and dissolve it in jojoba oil which should logically make for a better drug transfer, always the issue when it comes to nail fungus. I like to think that this should be able to peneterate a clean, thinly filed down nail and get to work.


A problem (for me) is that this is only sold in physician's offices and the website tells you to consult your doctor. I have found a couple of places on amazon and ebay that sell the stuff second-hand but they will not ship outside the US....


Either way, that might also be worth a try for those of us who have tried and failed with a lot of treatment methods. If anybody living in the US would like to help me get hold of a bottle of this stuff I would be grateful of course, I can compensate you for your efforts and expenses if you will have it sent to me.

Same goes of course for luliconazole, sold as lulifin in India and Lulicon/Rurikon in Japan, I am extra interested in that stuff.

12 kommentarer:

  1. Den här kommentaren har tagits bort av bloggadministratören.

    SvaraRadera
  2. Thank you very much for your blog. It has been very useful. I came a cross a product with the active ingredient Bifonazole. Have you tried it? There is a presentation that comes with urea to soften the nails. Any thoughts?

    SvaraRadera
  3. I'm so sorry I haven't replied sooner, my email notifies me of replies to the blog but 90 % of it is spambots that market some quack website so sometimes I don't bother checking it out.

    Anonymous, thank you for the kind words, I appreciate your feedback. I "try to help" in the way that I want to keep what I post very honest and matter-of-factly and not get too carried away with the promise of great results with various treatments. Everything I post is what seems to me to be useful information and when something is for example novel and untested but seems promising I make sure to emphasize that. I have never personally tried a product with bifonazole, it is however one of the older substances used for treatment of onychomycosis, an azole along with for example fluconazole. It may or may not work for you, it is a legitimate antifungal. The situation is still that in clinical trials terbinafine proves to be the big dog, consistently beating older products such as griseofulvin and fluconazole when it comes to percentage of patients cured. I tried topical and oral terbinafine and none of it was able to improve my toenails though it seemed to me the best bet, that does not mean another older substance won't work. It very well may work since there are countless nail fungus sufferers who have successfully treated their nails and it is obvious what works for one may not work for the other and vice versa. Whatever you do, go through your entire treatment and be consistent.

    Spencer, I will address lasers further in an upcoming post, I may have the opportunity to try it myself.

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Thanks very much for your thoughtful and candid reply, as usual. The product's name is Unesia. It has good but few reviews in Amazon. Who knows, it might work for you. The novelty here is that it has urea so it supposedly softens the nail to allow the active ingredient to do its work.

      Radera
  4. Anonymous, it may be a potent product so if you have done your research, give it a shot. I personally think urea is interesting as a component in topical treatments since the problem always remain the nail itself and the barrier it is, preventing stuff from getting through. So far no product has been able to dive effortlessly through the nail (obviously, since that product would be a multi-million dollar product very quickly) but debridement of the nail has proven to be helpful and softening the nail will thin it regardless of if you try to file away at it or not. Anyone who has tried a good vinegar soak knows that the surface can almost be rubbed off afterwards. It seems urea is very good at softening up the keratin in the nail so it seems to me it would be a useful ingredient in pretty much any topical medication as long as it does not interfere with the actions of the actual antifungal that needs to be there no matter what.

    I will myself have a long vinegar soak tonight and then go on the lamisil yet again. My nails have gotten quite bad now and it is now obvious to me that the topical lamisil will not cure my toenail fungus but as soon as I stop doing it it will get worse... So for now I am stuck in the trenches with this.

    I am going travelling soon and hope to be able to book a laser treatment along the way. Why not give it a shot?

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Just an update on my battle with toenail fungus (I am "anonymous" that tried the Unesia product).

      I was very hesitant to try the Lamisil pills because of fear of liver damage. I applied Lamisil One --daily-- to my toe after debridement. After realizing that would not be enough, I did some bloodwork in preparation to take Lamisil pills. My surprise was that the Lamisil One was (apparently) already causing damage to my liver! I stopped with the Lamisil One and started taking the Lamisil tablets. Two weeks later, bloodwork shows no liver stress (normal SGOT and SGPT). The tablets did NO damage while the topical Lamisil One did. I guess that is why it is called Lamisil ONE and the instructions say to apply only once (I was applying it daily).

      The Unesia had similar results to the Lamisil One. It SEEMS to control the infection a little but not enough to cure it.

      I also had a culture done on nail clippings to determine fungus before starting on the pills. I wanted to be sure that I would not be risking my liver in vain. My nail fungus is Trichophyton rubrum. I researched and Lamisil pills does kill that one. (It is more effective on this one than Candida species).

      You might also want to consider taking Lamisil pills "pulsing" the dosage. It seems to work just as well. (http://archderm.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=480624)

      I am only two weeks into the pills. I will take two weeks daily and then one week per month. I have just finished the first two weeks and can barely see a sliver of a toenail starting to grow.

      We'll see...

      Radera
  5. Anonymous, that is interesting, thanks for sharing your experience. I must admit I am surprised to hear that so much terbinafine was absorbed into your body that it actually had more of an effect than the lamisil pills, I did not think that was possible. From now on I will not describe the regimen I used succesfully without pointing out that it is just as likely, or more likely to affect the liver than the lamisil pills.

    Liver damage is a rare side effect of terbinafine usage but it is a serious side effect so it must be taken into consideration. When I used pills I tested my liver during the treatment and it was normal, when I have continously used the gel on my nails I have not been tested but I always felt good, my body responds to excercise and I have not had any symptoms of low liver numbers such as fatigue, dark urine, itching skin, yellow eyes, pain in the right side of the body (come to think of it, a friend got yellow eyes after he partied for one month non-stop....... it got better). But people are different and you never know how you will react to a particular substance.

    I have tried to get back on the pills for another try but the doctors won't let me try another time because it is normal for them not to prescribe it more than once because of the potential side effects. I will have to go another route.

    I also got a culture done and I also have the Rubrum, the standard fungus. Anyway, you are welcome with updates on your progress, good luck and be consistent!

    SvaraRadera
  6. Sorry for using the "anonymous" option but I've got too many logins to keep track of already.. ;)

    Found your blog while I was doing searches for products that are not normally sold here in the USA. Thanks for your perserverence and information, you've probably been doing this far longer than you ever expected. :)

    Anyway - just wanted to let you know that Jublia/Efinaconazole was just approved by the FDA earlier this month. I suppose that means it will be an expensive prescription-only option initially, but all options are good to have..

    http://www.epgonline.org/news/2014/jun/fda-approves-jublia-foronychomycosis-valeant.cfm

    http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm?fuseaction=Search.Set_Current_Drug&ApplNo=203567&DrugName=JUBLIA&ActiveIngred=EFINACONAZOLE&SponsorApplicant=DOW%20PHARM&ProductMktStatus=1&goto=Search.DrugDetails

    I got some of that Scholl product from Ireland via Amazon (not sold here), for some reason I thought it was Amorolfine and was really surprised there are no ingredients listed in the packaging or circular at all, but I will try it for a while anyway. One thing about me - I have no qualms about going right to the nail bed if the infection is bad enough on that nail - some people seem to be afraid to do that, which seems pointless to me if the problem is severe.

    I am also looking at some other sources of Amorolfine, as it is also not approved here in the USA so far.

    Thanks for your efforts here since 2009.

    PhilK (USA)

    SvaraRadera
  7. PhilK, thank you for posting useful information with a sprinkle of praise on top. =) I hope you find what works for you, we are many who are still looking around.

    SvaraRadera
  8. I've had some issues with fungus and infections, especially in high school while playing football. Have a fungus on your toe nail is no fun at all! There was some good information in here that I will apply to my life as I continue to play sports, though not at the level that I did in high school. http://www.oregonfootclinic.com/library/1821/FungalNails.html

    SvaraRadera
  9. My husband has had nail fungus for about a month now. We have tried quite a few home remedies to get rid of it. None have worked so far, I think he just needs to get it looked at. http://www.footfirstpodiatrycl.com/services.html

    SvaraRadera
  10. Recently, I've noticed that there's a greater number of products for nail fungus. One of my friends is a soccer player, and he was telling that he's tried several products to cure his nail fungus. He mentioned that they were all very effective, but that he was looking for the one product that would offer a more permanent solution. Besides the products that are suggested in this article, is there one in particular that could be the most effective?
    http://www.oregonfootclinic.com/library/1821/FungalNails.html

    SvaraRadera