hi I'm dr. David Hill and today we're
going to be talking about how to kill
ringworm first we should probably cover
what is ringworm good news it's not a
worm bad news it's a fungus that doesn't
really sound that much better than a
worm does it but it does have a real
impact on what it takes to killing the
fungi that cause ringworm and why do I
use the plural well there's a whole
class of different fungi that live on
our skin and can cause these infections
so different ringworm may be caused by
different members of this class the
fungi that live on our skin are often
they're doing us no harm but sometimes
they grow out of control and cause
peeling itching or even little bumps of
the skin how you treat it depends on
where it is when ringworm forms between
the toes or in the groin in areas that
are moist and humid one of the things
you want to do is try and dry those
areas out as well as you can you can
also use an antifungal cream and all the
great antifungal creams are now
over-the-counter so there's not much
point going to a doctor and asking for
an antifungal cream just about all of
them you can buy without a prescription
those include among others terbinafine
my Kaunas ol clotrimazole tone aft 8
there's a handful of them and they're
usually in the athlete's foot section of
your local pharmacy or even the grocery
store you want to apply whatever you're
going to put on it for at least twice a
day at least two or three weeks fungi
grow kind of slowly and it takes a long
time to kill them now what if you see
the classic ringworm sort of a circular
lesion that may start as one little
pimple or bump and then spread outward
and clear in the middle well you want to
put the cream on but you want to go
around that lesion by a good inch or so
because the fungi are actually growing
out there beyond where the bumps are the
hard thing is to assuming the cream is
working you need to keep using it for at
least another week after you don't see
the rash anymore that's really tough
because the rash is kind of reminding
you that you needed to treat the rash
however it's really important to kill
those last lingering fungi even though
you don't see the bodies for
to them anymore now if you've been using
an antifungal cream over the course of a
week and that ring is still there well
there are other things that cause rings
on the skin that are not ringworm
there's a condition called granuloma
annual alright that looks a lot like
ringworm but only responds to steroids
steroids on ringworm not so good at
let's the fungus grow wild you can get
psoriasis eczema so don't necessarily
assume that every circle on the skin is
a ringworm lesion if you've treated it
for a week or so and you're not seeing
any improvement you probably need to
have a doctor get a look at that
now last note ringworm in the scalp may
cause hair loss may cause little dots
where the hairs break off that does not
respond to a topical medicine when
ringworm gets down in the hair shaft the
only way to kill it is by giving an oral
medicine almost always that medication
is griseofulvin and you have to give it
for a long time usually about six weeks
rarely when griseofulvin doesn't work
there are a couple of backup medicines
we can use as well such as it rakamma so
talking about how to kill ringworm I'm
dr. David Hill