Before anything, I will just state right here, right now, I have zero training in the medical field, and I am just posting this as a personal experience.
I will try to keep this short:
About a year and a half ago, I had a strange circular rash appear on my skin, around my rib cage, towards the back- roughly in the area of my liver. I asked others what it might be, and being a bit of a hypochondriac (I always feel the symptoms of any medical problem I read about, lol), I began fearing all kinds of issues. After talking with some of the awesome medical types here at SS, I eventually listened to their advice and went to see a doc. I was given anti-fungal cream by my doctor, and after about 6 - 7 weeks, the infection cleared up and my skin was completely clear again. At the time, I had no idea where I got the fungal infection, or how it got into my mid-section. After a lifetime of being an athlete, a wrestler in school, and in the combat arms field, I have no history of such things, except for the most minor 2 to 3 days of a foot fungus many years ago which I promptly treated and cleared up. This fungus on my skin was a strange fluke, in my opinion.
Now, fast forward to about 2 months ago. I get a rash around the rib cage again, except this time I know what it is, and it quickly dawns on me that I must have gotten it from a weight belt at the gym which was hanging on the wall. It also dawns on me just how dumb I've been for using a communal leather weight belt at the gym. I deduced this as the source based on the fact this is the only possible point of contamination, and this time the location of the rash on my body is more pronounced. In other words, it was obvious this had to be the source. So I run out and get anti-fungal cream and start to massively slather it on all over. I applied the fungal cream for about 7 weeks, and despite an initial lessening in the size of the infection area, the infection made a sort of resurgence, and then wasn't getting any better. About the 7th week of treating this, my hypochondriac ass was surfing the net looking for anti-fungul treatments, and then wondering if maybe in diagnosing myself I was making a mistake. I was convinced this stuff on my skin was resistant to cheap pharmacy lotions and creams. In my search on the topic, I came across an article about Tea Tree Oil.
To sum up the results, I bought several bottles of the stuff, and after 3 applications (one time per day every other day), my skin cleared up. That's less than a week. This is compared to fighting a losing battle with a half dozen little tubes of $12 Lotrimin and other worthless crap.
This Tea Tree Oil is the most powerful stuff I have ever seen, and I now have about 12 little bottles sitting under the sink - probably a lifetime supply since I plan to never use a communal weight belt again. I will point out that Tea Tree Oil is toxic under certain circumstances, so I am not giving out advice of any kind, just wanted to point out to anyone who ever dealt with this fungus as a result of wrestling mats, training gear, flak jackets, etc., it might be worth doing research on this oil, and getting professional advice on this. It really worked for me exceedingly well, and wanted to pass it on.
I will try to keep this short:
About a year and a half ago, I had a strange circular rash appear on my skin, around my rib cage, towards the back- roughly in the area of my liver. I asked others what it might be, and being a bit of a hypochondriac (I always feel the symptoms of any medical problem I read about, lol), I began fearing all kinds of issues. After talking with some of the awesome medical types here at SS, I eventually listened to their advice and went to see a doc. I was given anti-fungal cream by my doctor, and after about 6 - 7 weeks, the infection cleared up and my skin was completely clear again. At the time, I had no idea where I got the fungal infection, or how it got into my mid-section. After a lifetime of being an athlete, a wrestler in school, and in the combat arms field, I have no history of such things, except for the most minor 2 to 3 days of a foot fungus many years ago which I promptly treated and cleared up. This fungus on my skin was a strange fluke, in my opinion.
Now, fast forward to about 2 months ago. I get a rash around the rib cage again, except this time I know what it is, and it quickly dawns on me that I must have gotten it from a weight belt at the gym which was hanging on the wall. It also dawns on me just how dumb I've been for using a communal leather weight belt at the gym. I deduced this as the source based on the fact this is the only possible point of contamination, and this time the location of the rash on my body is more pronounced. In other words, it was obvious this had to be the source. So I run out and get anti-fungal cream and start to massively slather it on all over. I applied the fungal cream for about 7 weeks, and despite an initial lessening in the size of the infection area, the infection made a sort of resurgence, and then wasn't getting any better. About the 7th week of treating this, my hypochondriac ass was surfing the net looking for anti-fungul treatments, and then wondering if maybe in diagnosing myself I was making a mistake. I was convinced this stuff on my skin was resistant to cheap pharmacy lotions and creams. In my search on the topic, I came across an article about Tea Tree Oil.
To sum up the results, I bought several bottles of the stuff, and after 3 applications (one time per day every other day), my skin cleared up. That's less than a week. This is compared to fighting a losing battle with a half dozen little tubes of $12 Lotrimin and other worthless crap.
This Tea Tree Oil is the most powerful stuff I have ever seen, and I now have about 12 little bottles sitting under the sink - probably a lifetime supply since I plan to never use a communal weight belt again. I will point out that Tea Tree Oil is toxic under certain circumstances, so I am not giving out advice of any kind, just wanted to point out to anyone who ever dealt with this fungus as a result of wrestling mats, training gear, flak jackets, etc., it might be worth doing research on this oil, and getting professional advice on this. It really worked for me exceedingly well, and wanted to pass it on.
To tell the truth I didn't put it (the source) together the first time around; the infection was high and to the right, as opposed to a clear band along the (weight) belt line (like it was moreso the 2nd time).
