The Ringworm FAQ

Every time Oprah's guest Mehmet Oz comes on her show to talk about parasites, the blogosphere is full of questions about parasites. The answers to frequently asked questions about ringworm are selected from my four books on natural health, with a special emphasis on natural remedies for healing ringworm.

Q. Can adults get heat rash?
A. Yes. Typically what's called heat rash is really ringworm.

Q. What are ringworms?
A. Actually, ringworms aren't worms. Ringworm (known in the medical literature as tinea captis) is a fungal infection of the skin, related to athlete's foot, that causes a characteristic round rash. It usually starts as a pimple and grows outward. It can make the skin scaly and the hair brittle, brittle enough to break off leaving a temporary bald spot. There are many strains of ringworm, and the species causing infectons in the United States (T. tonsurans) is the most likely to leave a bald spot.

The ringworm fungus gets it start on dead skin. Simply exfoliating with a gentle cleanser and warm water every day cuts down on ringworm infection.

Q. What are the chief symptoms?

A. Chief symptoms: persistent skin rash and flaky skin, but spreading out in a circular pattern.

Q. Are there vitamins that can cause ringworm? Are there vitamins that cause skin rash?

A. One, but it's really rare. If you got a massive overdose of vitamin D, about 30,000 IU and up, you would become extremely sensitive to sun and burn very easily. When this has happened is with hamburger. Hamburger makers add vitamin D to meat to keep it rosy red. If they add too much, and this is really unusual, it's possible to get the skin reaction if you eat it. It's very unpleasant but it does go away.

Q. What about raw vinegar for ringworm?
A. The thing about raw vinegar for ringworm is, it goes on you, not in you. Dilute a quarter-cup (60 ml) of vinegar in three-quarters cup (180 ml) of warm water and dab on the affected area three times a day. If you don't want to smell like pickles, be sure to rinse the vinegar off your skin after it's been allowed to set for about 5 minutes. Improvement should be visible in 2-3 days.

Q. What can you tell me about ringworm medication? Diabetes is my main health problem.
A. When it comes to ringworm medication, diabetes is a concern primarily because it is associated with dry skin. But you'd need moisturizers no matter what. In diabetic children, the natural remedies for healing ringworm are the same as for non-diabetic children.

About medications, the thing about prescription medication is that it's for use in you, not on you, the opposite of natural remedies of healing ringworm. If you have chronic hair loss, a medication your physician prescribes, like griseofulvin, will hold the fungus at bay inside the hair shaft long enough for new keratin to grow around the hair follicle.

If you don't have hair loss yet, herbal remedies may actually be more effective. Tea tree oil, in an 8-20% cream, rubbed on the skin three times a day may stop the progression of ringworm into the hair follicle. It's the best of the herbal remedies for neck rashes.

What you need to know about tea tree oil is, it does more to improve symptoms than to kill ringworm at the source--but if the fungus is just munching away on dead skin that's flaking off, you don't care. Clinical trials have shown that tea tree oil is superior to at least one medication (tolnaftate) in controlling itching, inflammation, scaling, and redness, while the prescription Rx is better at killing the fungus. It is possible to use both.

Q. How do you treat ringworm on children?
A. Natural remedies for healing ringworm are the same for children and adults, except you do want to be very sure not use pure tea tree oil with children. (Creams are always preferable.) Additionally, it's a good idea to make sure children don't share combs or bed linens, and that you wash you hands every time you help your child wash or groom.

Q. How often do people get ringworm? How many people have ringworm?
A. Less than 1% of the population in developed countries has ringworm at any given time, although some areas of Southeast Asia have local infection rates of up to 14%. In North America, ringworm outbreaks mostly occur among children aged 6 to 10 and is passed around at school. The strains of ringworm that occur in the Middle East are passed between family members of all ages.

Q. What's the difference between ringworm and impetigo?
A. Ringworm itches, impetigo hurts. Hair falls out in ringworm, hair stays put in impetigo.

Q. How long can ringworm live on the furniture, on doorknobs, etc.?
A. Ringworm can survive as a spore indefinitely, but you are more likely to get it from people who have the infection without symptoms or pets who have the infection without symptoms. Dusting and cleaning will take care of household surfaces, but you need to make sure no people and no pets have infections for your whole household to stay infection-free.