“When toenail fungus digs in, it physically attacks the nail, and its bad effects can go further than just your toe,” says Dr. Peterson.

When deep toenail fungus takes hold, here’s what happens:

The nail gets thick, breaks easily, looks bad, and might pull away from the skin.

This hurts and makes shoes fit badly.

Foot pain gets worse, maybe making you walk funny or skip activities.

The fungus eats the nail material (keratin), making it crumble and wrecking the nail, maybe forever.

Traditional treatments can’t get through the thick nail or reach the fungus hiding deep down.

You try to file or cut the bad parts away, but the infection underneath just keeps growing.

Crucially, The damaged nail and skin lets fungus or other germs get into your blood.

This could cause body-wide problems that put stress on your organs over time.

Having this fungus all the time can use up your body’s defenses.

This could affect your overall health and how well your organs work, especially if you get sick easily.

But that’s not all.

The fungus itself makes treatment hard.

To make things worse, the fungus knows how to survive.

It digs deep under the nail, getting into the nail bed and the part where the nail grows from (the matrix).

Hiding deep like this protects it from creams you put on top.

This lets it keep doing damage that might not heal and cause bigger risks.

You stay stuck trying things that don’t work while your nail gets worse.