My Story:

Three years ago, I noticed my left middle fingernail began turning white instead of its normal healthy pink. I did not know what was going on, but after a few weeks, the entire nail became white and flaky. At first I did not think much of it, but then I started getting regular questions along the lines of “what the heck is wrong with your nail, you freak?” Subsequently, I decided to go to the doctor.

After a short appointment, the doctor told me I had “onychomycosis,” which means nail fungus in regular-person language. He said that I needed to take a medication called Lamisil for two months. That sounded easy enough. But there was a catch: I needed to get a blood test to make sure that my liver could handle the medication.

At that point, since I like my liver, I asked the doctor if I had any other options. I told him I understood the medication was probably more convenient than the other options, but that I would much rather see if I could try a solution that didn’t involve damaging my liver. He told me this was my only option, and that if I did not take the Lamisil, my nail would grow thick and I would get frequent fingernail infections and live with constant fingernail pain. He then wrote me a prescription for Lamisil, using a pen with the Lamisil logo, and I walked out of his office dreading what might happen to my finger if I did not take the drug.

After I picked up the medication, I drove home and googled Lamisil. According to Lamisil’s own website, the pill has a number of side effects. Besides the fact that the drug is tough on your liver, the side effects of Lamisil include:

Headache, which occurred in 12.9% of patients, gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea (5.6%), upset stomach (4.3%), taste disturbances (2.8%), nausea (2.6%), abdominal pain (2.4%), flatulence (2.2%), rash (5.6%), itching (2.8%), hives (1.1%), and abnormalities in laboratory tests of liver enzymes (3.3%).

People who have taken Lamisil have reported a number of other side effects as well. Personally, my life was pretty hellish during my two months on Lamisil. Why? Because I didn’t sleep hardly at all during those two months. The entire time I was on Lamisil my heart was racing. When I tried to lay down in bed I could feel the bed shake because my heart was beating so hard. But nevertheless, I finished my two month medication, in hopes that my fingernail would look better. Alas, even six months after finishing the medication, it looked like this:

My fingernail six months after Lamisil and before vinegar treatment

The medication did me no good. When I finished taking it, I noticed a tiny sliver of pink, healthy nail growing in to my fingernail. However, within a year my entire nail was white again. Thus, I decided to seek out alternatives to Lamisil. It turns out, the doctor who prescribed the medication to me was not entirely honest. There are alternatives to Lamisil, and I found out that at least one of them works extremely well, as long as you’re willing to commit to doing it every day until the fungus is gone.

What This Article is About:

I am writing this article because there is very little information on the internet about how to cure fingernail fungus without resorting to Lamisil. After lots of research, and personal experience, I discovered one solution and have found some other solutions that look promising.

Solution #1: Vinegar. Put vinegar (or Nonyx Gel) on the base of your infected nail (where the nail begins) in the morning, after you shower, and at night until the entire nail is pink and healthy.

I am convinced that I cured my fingernail fungus with this remedy. This remedy consists of applying vinegar or Nonyx gel to the base of your infected nail in the morning, after you shower, and at night, every day until your nail is completely clear. The rationale behind this remedy is that fungus cells can’t stand acidic environments, and vinegar is acidic, so it can stop the fungus from spreading on your nail. Technically, you’re not killing the fungus, you’re just preventing it from growing, and as the nail grows out, the fungus gets clipped off. Here is how my nail looks right now:

My fingernail, almost completely healed after vinegar treatment

I discovered this remedy via a website called Ask Dr Stoll. Basically, Dr. Stoll recommends that people buy distilled white vinegar and use an eye dropper to drop two drops on the base of the nail (where the nail begins), every morning and night. I recommend putting vinegar on your nail every morning, after you shower or get the nail wet in any way, and at night.

The only problem with using simple vinegar is that it easily rolls off your nail and does not soak in very well. Thus, I bought this stuff at the pharmacy called Nonyx. It is essentially vinegar and xanthan gum. I like it because it makes the vinegar into a paste, so you can apply it to your nail, and as long as you don’t rub your nail against stuff, it will dry and the vinegar will have more time to soak in to the nail. After using Nonyx for several months, my nail is almost entirely clear and pink. Instead of dropping vinegar on my finger, I just squeeze out a bit of the Nonyx gel, rub it onto the nail using the tip of the bottle, and go on my way. The only downside of the Nonyx is the bottle is $20, which is a lot for vinegar paste.

Nonyx – It’s Great Stuff

If you have toenail fungus (I have that, too), you can put Nonyx on even if you are going to wear socks. After you put the Nonyx on your nails, roll your socks before you put them on so your toes don’t touch any part of the sock except for the part they will touch while you are wearing the sock, then unroll the sock up your foot so the vinegar doesn’t rub against the rest of the sock.

Some people say you need to use an emery board every night to file down your nails and a hair dryer to dry them off to discourage fungal growth. I never did this, although I am sure it helps speed up the process.

Until you have cured the fungus, do your best to keep the nail dry as much as possible. It’s a pain sometimes, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. The fungus likes moisture, so the less moisture you give it, the better. I get it wet in the shower, but try to keep it dry elsewhere.

The one problem with this remedy is that it takes quite a long time to completely cure the fungus. I have spent about five months applying Nonyx to my nail every single day. Based on what I have read online, you need to do this until the nail is completely healed, and you need to do it every day. But if you’re willing to stick to the plan, the results are fantastic.

Solution #2: Soaking in Vinegar/Hydrogen Peroxide, Followed by Soaking in Bleach, Followed by Using a Topical Antifungal Creme, Followed by Filing with an Emery Board.

I discovered this remedy via the Earth Clinic website. Basically, every night, you soak your nails for 20 min in a 50/50 vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide solution, then afterward, soak your nail for a minute in a 3/2 bleach and water solution. After that, you apply a topical antifungal creme, and every once in a while, use an emery board to file down the nail. I tried this remedy, and I was having some success, but it was extremely time consuming and uncomfortable. Plus, I was starting to get bleach burns on my finger from the bleach. If you do this, make sure you do a couple of things. First, don’t soak your finger in bleach for too long – it can really burn. Secondly, always soak in vinegar first… if you soak in bleach first the vinegar burns a lot. Finally, make sure you have a paper towel nearby, because you don’t want to spill vinegar or bleach on the carpet or wipe it on your clothes.

Failed Attempts:

The following are things I tried to do that yielded no results or I gave up on, but might be worth a shot:

• Tea Tree Oil
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Vick’s Vapor Rub
• And check out some of the other Earth Clinic remedies.

If you have personally had any success with fingernail or toenail fungus remedies, please share in the comments.

Disclaimer:

Please try these remedies at your own risk. I believe that using vinegar to get rid of fungus is safer than using Lamisil, but I am not a doctor. I am only a moderately proficient googler who cares about his liver.

Also, some people tell me there are different kinds of nail fungus, and apparently vinegar might not work on all types of fungus. Therefore, I cannot guarantee any one of these solutions will work.

fingernail, fungus, healthy, lamisil, medicine, nail, nonyx, onychomycosis, toenail, vinegar

I have never had my own personal hard drive fail.  However, this past year both my roommate and girlfriend had hard drive failures.  In fact, my girlfriend’s hard drive has failed twice in the past year.  In both scenarios, every file was lost.  Pictures, school documents, and more were gone forever.  And because hard drives are not indestructible, this failure could happen to you.  Because of this everyone should prepare for this potential incident with three simple steps.

1. Back up your files regularly

If there are files that you just can’t live without, you should make sure they are backed up.  There are a couple of ways to do this.  You could buy an external hard drive and schedule daily/weekly backups.  You could also burn your files to CDs (or rewriteable CDs). 

My favorite solution, however, is online backups.  Using a program called Mozy (only available for windows currently), my computer backs up my files whenever I am idle.  It’s a free or pay service, depending on how many gigs of files you want backed up.  All you have to do is configure it once, and it becomes automated thereafter.

2. Monitor the status of your hard drive

One of the most common causes of hard drive failure is overheating.  Because of this, you should monitor the temperature of your hard drive at all times.  To do so, I recommend Notebook Hardware Control, a free download.  It sits in your system tray and displays the temperature of your hard drive and/or CPU.  It can also give you warnings when these temperatures get too high, along with many other features (including hard drive S.M.A.R.T. status).

3. Keep your computer cool and relaxed

This is mainly an issue for laptop users.  Laptops, unlike desktops, have tons of heat-producing parts crammed into a very small space.  When the laptop is working very hard, this can cause serious heat problems.  There are a few solutions to this problem.

1. Don’t overwork your laptop.  If you’re video editing, playing music, scanning your hard drive, and downloading files at once, and you notice your laptop temperature is skyrocketing, try closing a few programs to give it a break.
2. Create a breeze in your room.  Running a fan will dramatically reduce the temperature of the laptop by moving the hot air around.  If you can buy a small fan and point it at the laptop, you’ll cool it dramatically.  I keep a small fan near my laptop and turn it on whenever the temperature gets high.
3. You can also buy a notebook fan pad.  These pads hook up to a USB port of a notebook and just run fans underneath the notebook.  More expensive than option #2, but slightly more elegant.
4. Prop your laptop up on four CDs to promote more airflow underneath.
5. Use a compressed air can to spray dust out from your laptop’s insides.  [dust = heat buildup]

4. Have a recovery plan ready in case your hard drive fails

You should burn a copy of Linux to a live-CD or a USB flash drive that you can boot to if your hard drive fails and you can’t start up your computer.  I suggest Ubuntu or Puppy Linux.

This is important for two reasons.  It enables you to use your computer if it won’t start up, and it gives you a chance to access your hard drive and save important files that you might not have had the chance to back up.

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A new wiki entitled Wikicars has launched. It’s basically a gigantic user-editable encyclopedia focused on cars that you can view for free. It follows along the lines of Wikipedia, but it’s car-centric. Although Wikicars is fairly new, and lots of information still needs to be added, Wikicars definitely looks like it has some promise. Right now it appears it will include information on buying, selling, maintenance, and more.

The reason this is so great is because it can be edited by anyone. As we have seen with the success of Wikipedia, with a few exceptions, this means information is quickly and often accurately assembled. Of course, Wikicars shouldn’t be the only place you do car-related research, but it’s a great place to start.

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Changing your own oil is a great way to save money and get a feel for how your car works. I had no idea how to do it until a few months ago when my girlfriend taught me. Stop laughing.

Anywho, the annoying thing about changing the oil is that you have to get under the car. Putting a jack under the car or driving it up onto a ramp is annoying, and taking the plug out of the oil pan almost always yields oil on your arm.

Fortunately, you can buy the Topside Oil Changer for $45 from Amazon. It isn’t really worth it if you have a jack or ramps for your car already, but if you are just thinking about starting to change your own oil and don’t have supplies yet, this is a great way to start.

via kk.org

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I just finished listening to the Warren Buffet interviews I posted the other day.  I’ve always heard good things about Warren, about how he’s a really nice guy and all, but after watching the interviews he really struck me as a genuine, cool guy.  Oh, and I guess it’s really awesome that he’s giving billions to charity.  He also gave some pretty useful tips for
investing in the second interview, including a test he uses to determine whether an investment is worthy of his money.

Buffet learned how to invest money from a man named Ben Graham.  Ben Graham practiced what is called “value investing.”  The idea of value investing is to invest in a company when you think that company is undervalued, and wait for the stock market to correct the mispricing.  For instance, if you look at a company’s earnings, debt, growth rate, potential future growth rates, etcetera and determine that it is worth $15 billion when the stock price only implies it is worth $10 billion, then you would purchase the stock.  Buffet says he learned a few key principles from Mr. Graham:

• First, learn what a business is worth.  Don’t waste your time with stock charts and volume and all of that junk.  Just focus on finding out the intrinsic value of a business.
• Next, know that the stock market is there to instruct you, not serve you.  You should take advantage of stock prices when they are out of line with reality.
• Finally, always have a margin of safety.  Even though you might have picked a stock which is undervalued at the time, bad news can emerge before the price has adjusted and the stock might have a new intrinsic value.  So don’t pour all of your net worth into a stock just because it’s undervalued at the time.

This differs from a more risky approach (in my opinion) called “growth investing,” where you simply try to pick a company that is going to be the next big thing with no regard for its intrinsic value.  I feel it is a much safer bet to value invest than growth invest, since growth investing is often no more profitable than betting on horses, although it sure is a lot of fun.

Buffet also has a test that he uses before he puts any of his money into a particular investment.  The test is as follows:

1. The business must be a business he understands.  Buffet does not own many technology companies partially because he doesn’t understand the business very well.
2. The business must have an enduring competitive advantage.  This means investing in a company that sells a product in an over saturated market of substitutes is a big no-no in this regard, unless that company can sell at a very low price.  Investing in a company that is selling a product that is wildly popular and has a brand new patent, however, is a much better idea.
3. The business must have good management.  Buffet says that the business must have a management that he trusts.  This is especially important today with so much corruption going on at the corporate level.
4. The business must be selling at a reasonably attractive price.  Buffet states that this is the least important of the four points in his test, but still a very important point to make.  A company selling at well more than its intrinsic value on the stock market, no matter how great the company, is still a poor investment unless you know for sure it will grow at a lightning fast rate.

These are very useful investing tips that I think every investor should keep in mind if he/she decides to pick stocks.  However, I still recommend, especially for those inexperienced with investing, simply keeping money in a S&P 500 index fund with a low expense ratio and holding on to it for a very long time period.  Over the long term, the only two people I can think of who have beaten the S&P 500 are Peter Lynch (Magellan Fund) and Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway)… so if I were you, I’d take the steady, approximately 10-11% return of the S&P 500 over time.

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