If you’re fact-checking the passage you provided, the “nana’s trick” is not well supported as a treatment for thick toenails.
The ingredients listed—warm water, white vinegar, and baking soda—may make a nail feel cleaner or temporarily softer, but there isn’t good clinical evidence that soaking thick toenails in this mixture will gradually thin the nail or cure the underlying cause.
What thick toenails can actually mean
Thickening can result from fungal infection, repeated trauma or pressure from footwear, aging, psoriasis, and other nail disorders. Fungal nails commonly become thick, discolored, brittle or crumbly and may develop buildup underneath.
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American Academy of Dermatology
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That’s important because treating the appearance without identifying the cause can delay effective treatment. A nail that looks fungal can actually be psoriasis or another condition, and dermatologists may examine or test a nail sample to confirm the diagnosis.
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American Academy of Dermatology
What actually helps a thick fungal nail
For confirmed nail fungus, evidence-based treatment can include prescription antifungal medication applied to the nail or taken orally. Dermatologists may also thin or debride a thick nail to make treatment work better.
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American Academy of Dermatology
A 40% urea cream/ointment can also be prescribed to soften a very thick nail. That’s quite different from vinegar and baking soda.
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American Academy of Dermatology
What about vinegar?
Vinegar is sometimes promoted as a home antifungal treatment, but the evidence for home remedies is limited. Even for other popular remedies such as tea tree oil, the American Academy of Dermatology notes that existing studies are small and insufficient to establish effectiveness and safety.
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American Academy of Dermatology
Also, don’t aggressively file, scrape, or cut away a thickened nail yourself. If the nail is painful, very thick, detached, or difficult to trim, professional nail reduction may be safer.
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American Academy of Dermatology
Bottom line: The warm-water/vinegar/baking-soda soak may be a harmless cosmetic routine for some people, but calling it a “surprisingly simple and effective” treatment for thick toenails is not supported by good medical evidence. If the nail is persistently thick, yellow/brown, crumbly, lifting, or painful, getting the cause diagnosed is the better first step.
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American Academy of Dermatology
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