Rip off “medical” products

Flipflops are even better plus they have the added advantage of being somewhat more  aesthetically pleasing

I can assure you. No matter what you think. No one wants to see your toes.

Hang on, if you have an alkaline solution (bleach)  and you add an acid to it, don’t you just end up with a weaker acid or a weaker bleach and perhaps some fizziness?

not quite as simple as that – but if you get it wrong “some fizziness” is actually going to be chlorine gas – uses in WWI as a chemical weapon, and the result of many a swimming pool evacuation over the years when someone, with some training and test kits at their disposal, gets it wrong…

Barefoot in this house it would be frostbite I need treatment for.

If you’re considering going barefoot, bear in mind that athlete’s foot is contagious.

Why not use tea tree oil?

Tea tree essential oil is very effective but it can cause a burning sensation on the skin… So use with caution..it should be diluted a bit if using it topically…. With a hemp oil or almond oil etc.

It occurs to me that stuff we buy is available because in many cases it works well, or at least better than the stuff we as individuals are capable of making. Because it works well people continue to buy it and develop a trust in it due to it being ‘good’.
Obviously there are many examples of exceptions to this such as products of ‘unknown to us’ efficacy we are persuaded to buy because of advertising, recommendation and other similar pressures and also of products we purchase because of convenience- e.g. bread and Brussel sprouts and so on; yes, we could produce our own and some people do but most of the UK population don’t I’d wager, because they weigh it all up and choose to use their time/ space/ money on something else such as a proprietary product. Thankfully the days of Snake Oil ‘patent’ medicines are long gone.
When it comes to saving a couple of quid on some home-brewed concoction where you have taken the recipe from the original purveyor and adapted with ill advised and potentially dangerous consequences; so be it. But is it really worth it? Perhaps you can find a homeopathic remedy for your feet.

Blimey I’m sounding harsh here.

Nizoral shampoo is good for all sorts of minor skin conditions, dunno how good it is for athlete’s foot though

If you’re in Wales, go talk to your local community pharmacist. We can sort this sort of thing for free.

If not, Lamisil Once. It’s not cheap, but it’s very effective and guess how many times you need to apply it…

and guess how many times you need to apply it…

Every time it comes back?

The equivalent to a match stick head of potassium pomanganate in a bowl of warm water, every other night.

Slightly purple feet but obliterates tinia pedis.

So it’s basically a weak bleach solution with rust remover thrown in, in a bottle that has some nice bullshit graphics on it.

You’re gonna love the homeopathic remedies.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, fungal toe nails are even worse, twenty odd quid on topical lotions which just don’t work or a course of tablets that gave me the liver of George Best after the Cheltenham festival

There was some ridiculous agreement about the about the labelling of medicine that said water could be described as aqua

You could argue just about any big brand painkillers & such like, when generic or own brand versions cost pennies.

True, but a particular, well advertised hay fever tablet is taking the piss selling a packet for £6.99, when the exact same active ingredient in tablet form, in smaller and less whizzy packaging can be had for 60p, and work just as well. I can buy around three months supply, 3×30 tablet packs for less than half the price.

Cough syrup. It might work when you first swallow a spoonful, but you’re not going to stop swallowing any time soon. Thus eroding any “coating” . Suck a boiled sweet instead.

It’s ingredients are water, sodium hypochlorite and phosphoric acid.

So it’s basically a weak bleach solution with rust remover thrown in, in a bottle that has some nice bullshit graphics on it.

Although the branded stuff does have “Advanced hypochlorous technology”.

Ok, so that would be a dangerous misunderstanding of the chemistry but you’ve somehow fallen onto the safe (but not very effective) side of the Dunning Kruger trap.

A VERY VERY DILUTE SOLUTION OF THOSE INGREDIENTS Sodium Hypochlorite plus phosphoric acid will give you sodium phosphate and Hypochlorous Acid.

Any more concentrated and you get excess chlorine that cannot dissolve into the water, which forms chlorine gas, which reacts with any moisture like your eyeballs and your lungs to really f*** you up. That would be the nasty side of the Dunning Kruger trap.

Why is “Advanced hypochlorous technology” necessary? Because it’s about 100x more effective as a biocide / fungicide than sodium hypochlorite so works at low concentrations.  The aim is to kill the fungus, not bleach your feet.

Why isn’t all bleach just swapped for “Advanced hypochlorous technology” then? Because it’s very difficult to make a shelf stable solution that doesn’t just evaporate to chlorine gas. So you can only get it already diluted and no one’s going to buy 10l of mostly water every time they mop the floor when they can get the same result with a cap full of bleach (which also contains a lot of surfactants to do the actual cleaning but as well).

If we’re on Athlete’s Foot treatment, nothing was better than the old Scholl and Mycil powders, but they disappeared cos (a pharmacist told me) the world ran out of the active ingredient.. probably Brexit involved somewhere though…

Anyway, prevention is better than cure – just get some of that generic anti-fungal powder Amazon sell and use it every time you put your socks on (cotton socks, you do wear socks of course?)

On the theme of the thread (and similarly infection related), I got that “jock itch” once a few years back. Bought some herbal remedy oil stuff from Amazon and my word it was horrible – and useless. Like pouring olive oil over your crotch and expecting it to stay on the infected part, but running over your arse crack and down your legs. Wouldn’t have minded the discomfort if it had worked, but nah, was completely useless. Did smell quite nice though.

How about Saline spray for blocked noses – I just spent £7 on a bottle of slightly salty water. I assume it doesn’t even need to be medically-tested as it doesn’t contain any active ingredients. I should have just got a plant mister filled with salty water and rammed it up my nostrils.

How about Saline spray for blocked noses

A friend of mine recommended this sinus rinse. I was sceptical but bought one in the end to shut her up. It’s fantastic.

Hopi Indian Ear Candles.

No.

They are not melting the earwax.

They are not drawing it out through the middle of the magic candle.

They do not have tangible benefits.

They do not help asthma, headaches or hay fever.

You just have a lit candle in your ear and you look like a ****.

Gotta wonder about the thought process of someone who lights a candle and then wonders “wow, where did all that wax come from?!”

To paraphrase Dara O’Brian talking about herbal remedies, “… then we tested them all, the ones which worked we called ‘medicine’ and the rest is a nice bowl of soup and some pot pourri.”

A friend of mine recommended this sinus rinse. I was sceptical but bought one in the end to shut her up. It’s fantastic

if anyone does use one be sure to clean thoroughly after each use. Fil was told by GP in the States to use one to shift an infection but made it worse by continually shooting germs back up as he never cleaned it… :vomit: emoji

What? You don’t suck saline back out!

Quick google came up with this.

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/athletes-foot-bleach-treatment-is-controversial/

So has been around since the great war

 fungal toe nails are even worse,

I have found that this stuff https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09WW3WSQD/ref=sns_myd_detail_page actually works, but it does take a very long time, applying it every day for months.