If you are looking at a patch of skin that is kind of reddish and has rounded edges but normally is not in that area, YOU MIGHT HAVE RINGWORM! Not a real worm but a skin infection caused by fungus.

Most people don’t get a mirror to look in the mirror to see the area back of their neck. My adult daughter teaches grade school and we were at a basketball game. Her long hair was in a ponytail and draped in front of her. The reddish patch of skin about the size of a golf ball was obviously not there as she grew up so I asked if it itched. “What? What are you talking about?” “No its not ringworm! That’s gross!”

Most people have never heard of a yeast overgrowth in the body, or tinea, or dermatophytes. But they have heard of jock itch, athletes foot and women’s yeast infection. These are all caused by fungus overgrowth. One of these is called ringworm.

When changes occur in the body such as stress, menstrual cycle, hormonal change, or sometimes the taking of antibiotics can cause the ph balance in the body to change so that fungus can grow in abundance. The fungus is present in our body at all times but is not allowed to grow out of control because our immune system will kill off most of the fungus. Fungus spores are present in every area of the globe.

Ringworm may itch, may spread to large areas, may infect pets too, may be eliminated by topical solutions or in extreme cases require antibiotics.

The characteristics of skin infected in circular patterns evokes the name “ring“, the growing of the infection somehow was correlated to “worm“. The center of the ring of skin that is infected may clear up leaving the outer circle to define ringworm. In some cases the infection is so large that no ring is noticeable. The fungus can cause patches of hair to fall out in the scalp, beard or pet. The hair will grow back.

Ringworm is prevalent in children as they spend a lot of time outdoors and in contact with the ground.

Inspect your pets for ringworm fungus infections, as dogs, cats and horses are hosts of ringworm fungus. Prevent any member of the family from using communal hairbrushes and combs.

The ringworm fungus is described as expanding raised rings of pinkish inflamed skin, sometimes scaly on any location on your body, that can be a lesion, blistered or cracked skin.

In most cases ringworm is described as a circular area of discolored skin that itches. Ringworm and all fungus overgrowth have had natural remedies attested to, on the World Wide Web, of tea tree oil, colloidal silver and oregano oil. These natural remedies will not further upset the ph balance of the body and will strengthen the immune support system. Going natural is no longer a Euell Gibbons “thing“; we now know that helping the body heal with natural support leaves fewer side effects and quicker healing time!