You love running like me, but you keep getting black toenails while you're running and trying to figure out what's going on. Well, I'm Jesse Funk and on today's episode a Runner's High, I'm going to share with you a couple things that may be going on, and how to get rid of those black toenails.
If you've not spent any time with me here on the channel, hit subscribe, stay with me, as I teach you all the ins and outs of how to be a better runner. If you have been spending time with me on the channel, then what you may have seen is my video on how to choose a running shoe. Even though I have a long history and running, I have experience in fitting shoes as well, which you may not know if you haven't seen that video.
I’ve spent three years working full time as somebody who fits shoes for runners and people with medical conditions. And the absolutely most common situation that happened with running specifically is that black toenail, and it has to do with a repeated trauma to that toe when you're running.
Once you get into a properly fitting shoe, that's probably going to cure the black toenail situation for 90% of people. And what happens is that most often, it's going to be too small of a shoe and your toes’ repeatedly hitting the end of the shoe when you're running. Also, when you're running, your feet expand. So, if you're already wearing to smallest shoe, that impact becomes greater because your feet swell. And that's why you need a shoe that has a little bit of room at the end.
So, if you go see somebody at your local running store, and they help you get into the right shoe, the right size shoe is going to feel too big. That's what happens with a ton of people that switch to the correct size. They say “Oh, it's too big.” But trust me when I say that is going to be the solution or the alleviating of your problems with that black toenail 90% of the time.
The other possibility, though not nearly as common as that blunt force trauma to that toe is going to be that a fungus has gotten under your nail. Fungus on your feet is a really common issue with runners. And if it gets into the toenail, often it presents as yellow or white. But if there's debris or anything that gets into the nail, it can turn black and it can be a sign of fungus under the nail.
At Solpri, we deal with people that have fungus on the feet all the time, especially runners with athlete's foot. So, we're really familiar with a problem. We actually make a national antifungal bar soap and cream as well that help deal with that before it comes an issue.
So, if you're dealing with that on your foot, go check that out, Solpri.com/shop, we’ll probably be able to help you there. But if you've gotten to the point where it's under the nail, then in maybe point where you need to do a Medicaid solution.
Although I'm working on trying to find something that's safe, effective and natural, once it's under the nail, it becomes much, much more difficult to try and resolve because the issue is you have to get under the nail, the fungal infection is under a skin under the nail and in the nail itself, which is a whole other ball of wax besides skins and skin still living in the nail is actually a growth that isn't living anymore.
So, if wrong shoe size is not your problem and you think fungus is-- again, there's a couple things you can do. You can check out that bar soap, do we make that kind of preventive measure to deal with that if you've got athlete's foot, then that's something you can add into your routine. But you can also use something else that's just as useful, and that is using some kind of moisture wicking sock.
There are synthetic options you can use. Sometimes I find that makes foot odor worse. I personally prefer the made out of merino wool, because it's a natural product, it's renewable, which is great. And then it also does is the moisture wicking effect. Basically, you're trying to get moisture away from your foot to not have this really great environment for fungus and bacteria to grow in your feet that cause that issue of athlete's foot and then consequently the nail.
There are a couple other things that could be the problem with a black nail. So, if it's not the shoe and you don't think it's fungus and it sounded probably go, you know see your primary care doctor. They'll be able to take a look and have a better idea about what's going on. So, I'll see you next time on the next episode of Runner's High.