How To Keep Your Feet From Smelling

Everybody's feet can smell bad from time to time. No one is immune from experiencing a stinky feet. All the average person has to do to get smelly feet is put on a pair of shoes and walk or run for some minutes. The moment your feet begin to sweat then they are going to start producing a strong odor that can range from being mildly unpleasant to extremely unpleasant.

In as much as everyone is capable of having smelly feet, there are some whose conditions can be extremely severe. There are people who can stink up the whole room and making it unhabitable by just doing something as simple as taking off their shoes.

How bad your feet smell will largely depend on a whole lot of factors such as how long they have been in the shoes or sandals, how thoroughly you wash them, how often you change your socks, how often you wear shoes, how sweaty your feet get, etc.

So what causes the feet to smell bad?

The simple answer to the question above is sweat. Sweat is the major culprit behind stinking feet. Sweat is the reason why your feet smell bad. Sweat is the main entity to be blamed for causing bad smelling feet. If our creator did not make us to sweat on our feet, then we would not suffer from bad smelling feet.

Everybody sweats on their feet, but there are some people who sweat more on their feet than others. This is the reason why some people's feet smell worse than others.

According to scientists, the average person's foot has over 250,000 sweat glands. For this reason, the feet are one of the sweatiest parts of the entire body. Scientists say that on a sunny day, the average person's foot can produce close to a pint of sweat. Can you believe that! This is incredible. Now can you imagine the degree of stench this amount of sweat can produce on the feet?

But wait a minute! Come to think of it, sweat alone should not be able to cause stink since sweat is nothing more than salt and water. How can a mere mixture of salt and water stink? It is impossible. Sweat by itself is not supposed to produce any offensive smell because of the fact that sweat is made up of water and salt. That is indeed true! It is not the sweat per se that causes the feet to stink; what actually causes the feet to stink is the activity of the numerous odor-causing bacteria that thrive on the sweat produced by the sweat glands of the foot. These odor causing bacteria live on the skin of a person and eat the sweat that form on the skin. When they feed on the sweat, the next thing they do is to excrete waste material. It is the waste material from these bacteria that causes that offensive odor that comes from a person's feet. Sweat does a great job in providing a good and habitable environment for bacteria to thrive and create that stinky smell when you take off your socks after a long day's work.

So the perfect recipe for smelly feet is sweat and bacteria. You put these two together and you are going to get very stinky feet. This is the reason why your feet smell very bad when you have been running or walking for several miles in your shoes. The sweat is produced and the odor-causing bacteria feed on the sweat and produce a strong and foul odor.

Therefore if someone were to ask you this question: "What causes bad smelling feet?", your answer should be simply, 'bacteria and sweat'.

But other parts of the body such as the legs and hands also produce almost the same quantity of sweat that our feet produce so why is it that our hands don't stink like the feet do?

The reason the hands do not stink like the feet do even though they also have bacteria and produce a lot of sweat is because of the fact that hands are open and not concealed as compared to our feet which are hidden in sandals, socks and shoes. Because of how the hands are, the sweat produced can easily escape into the air and make it very difficult for odor-causing bacteria to feed on it. But the feet are hidden in socks and shoes therefore making it very difficult for the sweat produced to escape. The sweat thus remains and accumulates on the skin and in the socks or shoes or in whatever you are wearing. Odor-causing bacteria thrive very well in any place that is damp and dark and will therefore have a field's day on the sweat-soaked feet. It is for this same reason that sweat also makes the armpit to smell very bad. The armpit, just like the feet, is also hidden. It is dark and damp, and a perfect environment for odor-causing bacteria to thrive.

Bottom line, the more you sweat and the longer you wear your shoes, the more your feet will stink. This is the reason why your feet will not stink if you wear your shoes for only one or two minutes and instantly remove them.

Why do some people's feet smell worse than others?

The first reason that instantly comes to the mind is because of the fact that people with foul smelling feet tend to sweat more on their feet than others do. For example, if John sweats more on his feet than Jones, his feet have a high likelihood of smelling worse than that of Jones.

According to experts, when your feet produce an enormous amount of sweat, what happens is that they end up providing a good breeding ground for the bacteria known as Micrococcus sedentarius which is known to produce extremely foul odor. That is the reason why people with more sweaty feet tend to have really bad smelling feet than others that do not have very sweaty feet.

Other reasons include the following:

Teenagers tend to suffer more from smelly feet than other groups because of hormonal changes, which make them sweat more.
Pregnant women also have a high tendency of suffering from foot odor than women who are not pregnant. This is because pregnant women also undergo hormonal changes which makes them produce more sweat.
Emotional stress is also known to contribute towards giving someone smelly feet.
The medical condition known as hyperhidrosis is also a very big contributor towards the development of smelly feet in people. What is hyperhidrosis? It is a medical condition that makes a person to produce more sweat than normal. This is the reason why hyperhidrosis sufferers tend to develop bad smelling feet easily.
People who spend a lot of time standing can also develop smelly feet very easily.
A fungal infection can also contribute towards the development of stinky feet. The most common fungal infection that does this is athlete's foot.
Certain types of medications can also play a role in giving a person foul smelling feet.

How to prevent smelly feet

If you have been constantly plagued by smelly feet and don't know what to do to solve the problem then you must carefully read the instructions below because they are going to teach you how to prevent your feet from smelling bad.

According to experts, one of the best ways to prevent foot odor is by maintaining a good personal hygiene and reducing the number of times that you wear a shoe. Wearing a particular shoe on a daily basis is going to contribute massively towards giving you foot odor. You have to change your shoes on a regular basis. So for instance, if you wear a particular shoe to work or school today, the following day you have to change that shoe and wear a different one. You have to allow the shoe to have at least 24 hours of rest in order that it can thoroughly dry and kill all odor causing bacteria within it. Wearing the same pair of shoes for more than two consecutive days in a row will contribute in giving you smelly feet.
Frequently change your socks. If you keep wearing the same pair of socks day in day out without changing them, you are asking for nothing more than foot odor. You are expected to change your socks once or more every day.
Always go in for woolen or cotton socks instead of nylon socks. Nylon socks make you sweat more, and of course that will increase your risks of suffering from stinky feet. And also nylon socks cannot absorb sweat from your feet like cotton socks do.
You can reduce the amount of sweat on your feet by wearing well-ventilated shoes. The more constrictive your shoes are, the more you are going to sweat and the higher your chances are going to be of developing foot odor.
If you sweat on your feet too much, you can stop this by using an antiperspirant on your feet.
Always take time to thoroughly wash your feet. You can use very good anti-bacterial soaps to wash your feet at least twice a day. A very good anti-bacterial soap that is often recommended is hibiscrub. When you use a good anti-bacterial soap like hibiscrub on your feet, you are literally killing the odor causing bacteria that are present on your feet.
After your bath or shower, you should take time to thoroughly dry your feet before wearing any shoe. You should focus a lot on the skin between your toes and make sure that they are thoroughly cleaned and dry.
Always wear a shoe while wearing a pair of socks. When you fail to wear socks with your shoes, there will be nothing to absorb the sweat from your feet, and that will cause your feet to smell very bad. That is what socks are for – they help in absorbing the sweat from our feet.
When at home, there is no need putting on shoes or sandals. You have to let your feet breathe. You can develop the good and healthy habit of going barefoot – especially during the summer time.

The above are the best tips on how to go about preventing a smelly feet. If you try all the tips above and your problem still persists then your best option is to see your doctor because it just might be a sign of a serious medical condition.