What’s really going on with nail fungus? Step inside a mycology lab to see fungi up close and hear an expert explain testing, treatment resistance, and how to prepare for reliable results. This science tour is more fascinating than you might expect! #Health #Science #Fungi
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0:00 - Touring the Fungal Laboratory
2:07 - Fungal Biology and Microscopy
3:55 - Antifungal Resistance and Misuse
4:45 - Fungal Infection Risk Factors
7:06 - Cultured Fungi and Their Species
9:05 - Fungal Spread and Candida Overgrowth
10:56 - Preparing for Reliable Nail Tests
12:59 - Closing Thoughts on Science and Care
Subscribe for more expert conversations!
Let us know in the comments what you liked most about the video.
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@alenalavrenteva
0:00 - Touring the Fungal Laboratory
2:07 - Fungal Biology and Microscopy
3:55 - Antifungal Resistance and Misuse
4:45 - Fungal Infection Risk Factors
7:06 - Cultured Fungi and Their Species
9:05 - Fungal Spread and Candida Overgrowth
10:56 - Preparing for Reliable Nail Tests
12:59 - Closing Thoughts on Science and Care
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00nail fungus today i want to dive as deeply as possible into this problem and go directly to
00:06the place where these fungi can be found to the laboratory svetlana anatolyvna is a person who
00:14knows absolutely everything about fungi she commands them she commands them
00:22fungi microscopic fungi usually they don't cause diseases in everyone nevertheless there are still
00:28specific pathogens that cause diseases in everyone yes and such pathogens are already found in our
00:33excellent let's go let's take a look here the actual work with the fungi is already underway
00:40in this case for example you can see our autoclave room the autoclave room that is after work it is
00:47necessary to disinfect and destroy the fungi and of course in this case we already have the dishes
00:54prepared to carry out autoclaving for sterilizing the material and only after that in this case
01:01this infection is already taking place so here in this huge how to clave you put these dishes petri
01:08dishes right after you use them and also any other instruments you work with absolutely everything
01:13you have that everything here must be autoclaved after all the procedures let's move on here on the
01:20nutrient media and then later the lab and what does culture the samples here in this case there is a
01:26substrate that the fungi absorb perfectly and that's why they in short feel good well yes here is the
01:34incubation room for specifically for the incubation of mycelium microscopic fungi and in general in
01:43laboratories that are not equipped as well let's put it that way as ours there are incubators that is
01:49there are the small ones how interesting that's an interesting name well fungi are grown here that's
01:55why it smells like this yes as we can see the neurospora has already grown now it needs to be
02:00removed
02:00and it actually smells like pear cider
02:05let's go fungi are microscopic first of all you need to remember that they are eukaryotes why is this so
02:12important because the cells of our own microorganisms are also made up of eukaryotic cells all the
02:18um metabolisms yes the processes that occur the metabolism both in fungi and in human cells are
02:26almost identical and when we talk about the need to carry out um therapy directly against fungi of course
02:32we should talk about specific antimicotic medications because it is a specific antimicotic medications that
02:38will affect only the fungus yes and not human cells microscopic if for example i go to any laboratory let's
02:45say private one and say that i need to get a test this test of my nail will it definitely
02:51be sent here
02:52for you to examine or do they somehow do it themselves there one of the methods is microscopy
02:58of the sample and microscopy of the sample meaning the first stage of this method for identifying fungi
03:04can be done even in clinics if they have a trained specialist that is specialists competent in the field of
03:12mycology that is they will examine the sample under a microscope yes under a microscope it is cultured no
03:19nothing additional here in this case it's exactly exactly this one is healthy yes it's healthy see
03:25this kind of tiled keratinized epithelium that's healthy here already in the keratinized in this epithelium
03:33you can already see this tiled epithelium you can see the fungal hyphae and we have microscopy with
03:40fluorescent dyes it's very effective so you can immediately see and right away the mycelium
03:47there it is standing out clearly you don't see any epithelial cells you don't see anything but then you
03:53can clearly see the mycelium then please tell me how does it happen that microscopic fungi become resistant
04:00to treatment with these anti-mycotic drugs well you know first of all fungi have a very wide range of
04:07pathogenic factors and adaptive properties that is if you expose them to too little antifungal
04:14medication instead of following the treatment instructions then the fungi get used to being
04:19exposed to these aggressive substances so we ourselves are creating this evolution of course can you imagine
04:25what a nightmare that is so a person without knowing it starts taking in small doses the wrong type of
04:32anti-mycotic or antibiotic yes and fungi slowly adapt the life cycle and metabolism to get around it
04:45in theory well thanks to genetics you could say that i might inherit a tendency to to develop fungal
04:53infections on my nails a fungus alone won't cause an infection in a person our body is designed to
05:01eliminate that is to remove fungi that is foreign bodies so why does such a disease occur first of all
05:10when we talk about impaired blood supply in the vessels the vessels don't work well the blood doesn't
05:16reach it circulate but there's not enough oxygen there's not enough there aren't enough nutrients
05:21either accordingly we can already talk about heredity because if you are predisposed especially to some
05:27vascular diseases or to some other things well in short not in the literal sense but in this indirect way
05:33it will be connected to heredity connected yeah of course let's say i have problems well i don't know
05:38with yes yes veins varicose veins i have swelling varicose veins on this genetic level yes all of us
05:45so you are in the risk group yes nutrients supply to the limbs and at some point if i end
05:50up not
05:50exactly where i should be and my immune defenses there are a bit weakened or in general then basically
05:55i'll be the proud owner exactly and your client
06:01uh we have something like that for example a risk group by gender like gender gender it's actually
06:07considered that i would say probably not discrimination again if we dig deeper dig into the
06:14pathogenesis and the lifestyle of men what will we do right away we'll find that we spend a lot
06:22of time on their feet and that we don't take off their shoes i mean once we put them on
06:28they just go
06:29they put on socks yes well socks socks are actually a whole other topic here you know because today
06:36we still have an industry that produces these socks and it's quite interesting too socks are very often
06:42made with nylon and what is nylon fret that creates ideal conditions for fungus to thrive just imagine
06:49once again the image of a man long walks shoes and nylon socks right honestly you know to be fair
06:56if we're going to defend men then women too we've moved away from they'll just stronger you up i mean
07:01some rinse it out and others will die they have a different technology let's move on to microscopy
07:06you told me on the phone that you grew something yes of course i prepared some samples to show you
07:11specifically what types of fungi are found today and are isolated in onychomycosis of the feet and
07:18hands i'll even open the dish a little for you so you can take a look and for us we'll
07:23open it and
07:24listen i apologize but this orange one is actually quite beautiful yes i'll talk about it now these are
07:29psychophyton fungi right these are the dermatophytes that cause diseases in humans affecting the nails
07:35of the hands and feet ah i see and so when yes he's shedding primary pathogens it causes diseases both
07:45in immunocompromised people yes when we talk about some problems with local or general immunity and also
07:52in immunocompetent people meaning all healthy individuals so it's quite a pathogenic species dangerous
07:59dangerous dangerous yes so when you come into contact with a sick animal a sick person with
08:05shoes with clothing contaminated with this type of fungus for example in a bathhouse it's very easy to
08:11catch it there even in a bathhouse at high temperatures yeah so it's that is that resilient
08:16after all you're in the bathhouse not well um not 100 degrees of course that's why and for them in
08:21order
08:22two they're worth they're fine pink rodotorula a yeast fungus very beautiful right very beautiful
08:28that's exactly my kind yes rodotorula what's interesting is that the fungus it's natural
08:34it's very common in in nature meaning it doesn't affect macro organisms but today it is also readily
08:41isolated from the human body and the amazing fact is that it loves just like all candida sugar and
08:49chocolate but the most dangerous thing and what we should pay attention to now is that the range of
08:54species is expanding just look here how many dishes there are yes and they're all different
09:00they're different species right so all of these were isolated from human nail samples
09:05tell me if it's confirmed that we have a fungal infection in our nails does that mean that this
09:12infection might also be somewhere else in the body does this fungus spread or is it just on our nails
09:17and that's it if we're talking about dermatophytes trichophytons which affect the nail plate then it's
09:23localized only in the nails but it can spread to the skin if left untreated yes that's all if for
09:30example yeast fungi mix with trichophytons then of course we can talk about the systemic mycosis such as
09:38candidiasis because the yeast fungus candida lives in everyone's intestines
09:49in cases of bacterial and viral infections doctors sometimes prescribe anti-mycotic antifungal
09:55agents for prevention why because we all have them yes fungi of the candida genus the intestines they
10:02live there on the mucous membrane and as soon as you start taking antibiotics or antiviral drugs
10:08in large amounts your protective microflora decreases accordingly yes in the intestines
10:13candida starts multiplying more and more its colonies increase these colony forming units and simply
10:22put candida starts to penetrate other parts of the body but this means taking antibiotics on your
10:27own just in case simply because you have a cold is strictly absolutely that means the person has no idea
10:33what they're doing at that moment he might actually be ruining his whole body because because yes because
10:40we know very little they might also get the dosage roll and also they might even encourage fungal
10:45overgrowth about microorganisms or they're about their you know symbiotic relationships because it's very
10:51important to understand that how should you get tested and prepare your nails so that an infection if
11:00present shows up reliably well if we're talking about nail plates there are of course huge difficulties
11:06here first of all the nails shouldn't have been treated with or coated in anything no here is the
11:14treatment with antiseptics we very often apply iodine ourselves some kind of formalin furacillin
11:22they use all sorts of things from alcohol i've seen it i've already seen everything because
11:28i've encountered so many things they even use honey sometimes very often for example we say you can
11:34bring a biological sample let's say sterile jars in a container that's one thing within what time
11:41they bring how much time is needed for example if the sample was collected at the podiatrist's office
11:46it's better if it's done the same day that's the ideal situation meaning you collect the sample
11:50that's what we do we immediately send it with a courier yes the patient your lab technician brings the
11:56biological sample directly to the laboratory secondly you need to understand that when collecting this
12:01biological material from the nail plate you have to keep in mind that there won't be any live fungi
12:07on the surface or on the edges of the nail accordingly you need to remove as much of the nail
12:14plate as
12:14possible so that we can culture live fungi everything there is dead tell me how much time
12:20there shouldn't be any contact with the nail plate nothing chemical right so no antiseptics at all
12:27no exo derio omega derio none of that no iodine or anything like that so how long should a person
12:34avoid any impact on the nail plate in order to have a chance at accurate reliable test results
12:41again it all depends on how long these antiseptics were used generally we recommend waiting at least two
12:49weeks we're practically asking you well if things go well if the person used systemic antifungals we
12:56say to wait for a month svetlana anatolyevna thank you so much for such detailed answers i think now many
13:03people will better understand who fungi really are and what needs to be done about them and of course i
13:09really hope for our continued cooperation and friendship because we really really need people
13:14like you pathology is great to know but to back it up with the knowledge of a real scientific researcher
13:20someone who teaches these doctors so that they can treat us later i think that's simply priceless
13:28well i believe that today we have witnessed a truly historic moment
13:31finally the beauty industry has come together with science and now we are going to have serious conversations