3% Hydrogen Peroxide Foot Bath vs Athlete’s Foot: Which one is the winner?

I keep seeing videos and articles popping up in my feed talking about how great hydrogen peroxide is for foot care and I was wondering if this is true.

Some people are claiming that hydrogen peroxide can even help you get rid of Athlete’s foot fungus.

I have this problem as well! I’ve had Athlete’s foot for a few years now mostly because I wear safety work boots for my day job and they get sweaty and wet and that’s what fungus and bacterias love most.

One of the problems with content you see online nowadays is that you don’t know what to believe anymore.

So I went ahead and decided to try the hydrogen peroxide foot bath myself and bring the results to you in this blog post.

Here’s what you need for a hydrogen peroxide foot soak

• A big bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3% – 10Vol)
• A clean tub to soak your feet
• A towel

Why 3% (10Vol) hydrogen peroxide?

As you’ll start looking into hydrogen peroxide foot baths you will also see that there are many different hydrogen peroxide solutions available on the market.

The problem is that most people don’t specify on their websites or YouTube videos what percentage, and what concentration of hydrogen peroxide they’re using to soak their feet into.

So for safety reasons, I’ll start with the lowest concentration available on the market which is 3% (10vol), and see how that goes.

How to use hydrogen peroxide as a foot bath?

I simply place my both feet into the clean tub and start pouring the hydrogen peroxide solution until it covers my toes.

I do not mix it with water, I pour it on my feet straight from the bottle.

Then I just relax and wait for the bubbles to come up. After 10 minutes I just take a towel and dry my feet.

That’s all there is to it.

It might sting a bit if you have open wounds as I did. One of the signatures of the Athlete’s foot fungus is that the skin starts to split in between the tows and that’s quite uncomfortable.

When I used the hydrogen peroxide solution it was quite unpleasant because of this little split between my toes.

But if you have no wounds you shouldn’t feel anything when the hydrogen peroxide is working on your feet.

How long should you keep your feet in the hydrogen peroxide?

First time I did the hydrogen peroxide foot soak I stayed there for about 30 minutes since I didn’t know much about it.

From the videos I watched, the hydrogen peroxide solution has to make a lot of bubbles when it gets in contact with the skin.

I did see some bubbles in the first 5-7 minutes of soaking my feet in the hydrogen peroxide but nothing after that so I guess that when it stops making bubbles it means the effect is gone.

Here’s how much time I kept my feet soaked in the hydrogen peroxide solution.

Day	Soak time
Day one (first time ever)	30 minutes
Day two	15 minutes
Day three	10 minutes
Day four	10 minutes

After a few days of paying attention to what was going on to my feet as I was pouring the H2O2 solution, I realized there was no point in keeping my feet soaked for longer than 10 minutes.

That’s because the H2O2 solution acts fast and its effect goes away quite fast as well.

Some people were saying to reuse the H2O2 solution a few times but I don’t think it has any effect the next day. Plus it’s quite dirty with all the dead skin pieces that came off the previous day.

Did it work?

Unfortunately, using a 3% (10vol) hydrogen peroxide solution for a foot soak to get rid of my Athlete’s foot fungus did not work for me.

And this goes along with what one of the podiatrists I collaborate with told me, which is:

What did it do then?

Well, one thing I’ve realized after a week of soaking my feet in 3% H2O2 is that I have less dead skin on my feet overall which looks much better when I wear flip flops for example.

And the biggest surprise to me was that my feet stopped stinking!

For the previous months before doing this hydrogen peroxide foot bath treatment, my feet were stinking so badly I could not take my work boots off without taking a shower straight away.

Watch it on YouTube if you prefer

Conclusion: foot bath with 3% H2O2 to cure Athlete’s foot

So if you’re looking for a solution to your Athlete’s foot problem soaking your feet in 3% hydrogen peroxide won’t help get rid of the fungus.

I will try the 6% (20Vol) hydrogen peroxide solution next time and see if that works for Athlete’s foot. I’ll update this article and leave you a link here when it’s ready so keep an eye on this post and the YouTube channel.

In the meantime, if you have stinky feet, soak your feet in 3% (10Vol) hydrogen peroxide for 5-7 days and that should solve the problem.

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First Update

Quick update: I just finished testing the 6% hydrogen peroxide as well and you can read the difference between 3% and 6% hydrogen peroxide for Athlete’s foot here.

Latest Update

In the meantime, I’ve managed to get rid of the Athlete’s foot fungus.

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