This smell is suffocating, how to have a pair of feet that are not embarrassing?

There is such an "indescribable" smell: some people think it smells like rotten eggs, while others say it smells like stinky tofu with vinegar. (I don't mean to belittle stinky tofu)

You may have smelled it in a crowded elevator, on a subway during rush hour, or on someone's shoes at home... That's right! This embarrassing and suffocating smell is - foot odor!

Speaking of smelly feet, a colleague in the company said that he was often "immersed in smelly feet" at home: the shoes worn by his husband felt fermented...the smell was so strong that it was enough to make his mouth split.

Picture丨TuChong Creative

Some men who are complained about having smelly feet feel very aggrieved, and even think that women are more likely to have smelly feet than men, and even smellier!

Shocked, who is more likely to have smelly feet? How does foot odor occur? How to relieve it? Are those "folk remedies" circulating on the Internet useful? Let's clarify it all at once!

Why do some people's feet have an inexplicable odor, and some are particularly smelly?

In fact, the main conditions for foot odor are:

Our feet have more than 250,000 sweat glands and are prone to sweating.

The accumulated sweat secreted by these sweat glands every day can basically fill a 240ml disposable cup, but the sweat secreted by the human body itself is not smelly.

Sweat can be divided into two types: one is exocrine sweat, which is secreted to lower body temperature and is produced in all parts of the body and has no odor.

The other is apocrine sweat, which is a special secretion that is mainly produced in the armpits, palms, soles of the feet and groin.

It has no odor but contains 0.8% fat and protein, which can serve as food for microorganisms.

The main microorganisms that cause foot odor are Brevibacterium, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Propionibacterium. Among them, Bacillus subtilis can cause strong foot odor.

Originally, these bacteria are normal microorganisms existing on the human body surface.

However, our sweat can provide nutrients and a humid environment for these fungi. In addition, in the enclosed space of shoes and socks, the fungi will multiply rapidly.

In this way, the fungi will break down the fat and protein in the sweat and metabolize smelly substances, such as low-level fatty acids, carboxylic acids, amines, acetaldehyde, etc. that emit odor, thereby causing foot odor.

After the interviews, we found that most of the people who complained about smelly feet were men, but some people also fought back, saying that women are more prone to smelly feet?

In fact, in terms of causes, it has little to do with gender, but has a lot to do with individual lifestyle and habits.

For example, exercise leads to increased sweating, and if you don’t change your shoes and socks frequently or don’t clean them thoroughly, foot odor will result.

Also, some people may like to wear non-breathable socks such as silk stockings, which make sweat less easily absorbed, and this can easily cause foot odor.

After all, foot odor is caused by a combination of factors, and when it comes to foot odor, it does not discriminate between genders.

Foot odor has a cousin called athlete's foot. The difference is just one word, but the difference is actually huge.

Foot odor is mostly caused by excessive sweating in the feet, which produces odor under the action of microorganisms. In addition to the odor, there may also be embarrassment of not knowing what to do!

Athlete's foot is also called tinea pedis in medicine. It is a superficial fungal disease and a disease with a high coverage rate. About 20% of people worldwide suffer from this disease.

First of all, let me make it clear that people with athlete's foot do not necessarily have smelly feet.

However, patients with athlete's foot will have symptoms such as erythema, erosion, scales, and blisters on their feet. Keratinization and cracking will occur as the disease progresses, while simple foot odor will not have these symptoms.

By the way, athlete's foot is not only very easy to recur, but can also be transmitted through contact, so everyone must avoid wearing shoes and socks together. (Remember?)

I believe that friends who have smelly feet (or are trapped in the atmosphere of smelly feet) have also searched for some "folk remedies", but they still need to find out whether they are effective and what the principles are.

We asked many colleagues in the company, and the most common "home remedy" for treating foot odor was soaking feet in white vinegar.

It is true that acids have antibacterial effects when they reach a certain concentration, but the acid concentration in the edible vinegar we use daily is very low, generally around 2%-7%, which is far from enough to be able to disinfect.

Occasionally we see people using alcohol to sterilize in movies, but it is not recommended if conditions permit.

Although alcohol is often called a good sterilizer, it should be used in moderation. The commonly used sterilization concentration of alcohol is 70%-80%. In other words, you can basically give up the method of soaking your feet in alcohol to remove foot odor.

Some of the “unwilling to give up” stinky kids struggled to ask questions, what about using high-concentration alcohol?

You should know that high-concentration alcohol is very irritating. Although it can kill bacteria, it will make your feet extremely uncomfortable. If you happen to have wounds or ulcers on your feet, it will feel...

Some people also want to use perfume to cover up the smell of feet, which will only produce a more strange mixture of smells. So, let go of our feet, although it stinks, but it needs to be treated correctly.

If you want to treat foot odor scientifically, you still have to use the right medicine to improve the three aspects of antibacterial, anti-sweat and breathability.

The first step to prevent and treat foot odor is to wash your feet carefully! (Yes, you heard it right)

Many people don't pay much attention to foot cleaning when taking a bath, and just rinse their feet with water.

At this time, there is still a lot of sweat, secretions and microorganisms on your feet, which breed in the old cuticles and nail dirt, and bacteria and fungi still grow wildly.

The correct way to wash your feet is to scrub your feet 360 degrees without any dead corners, and trim your nails regularly to clean the dirt between your nails.

Then soak your feet in warm water to soften the cuticle, and then use towels, brushes, soap and other tools to exfoliate.

The next step is to make your feet sweat-proof, breathable, and keep your feet dry. The choice of socks and shoes is very important.

Socks can help absorb sweat from our feet to a certain extent, but choosing the wrong material and structure can easily lead to bad odor.

It is recommended to choose wool materials that are highly absorbent and breathable. You can also buy five-finger socks to use physical blocking methods to increase the contact area between socks and toes and reduce sweat accumulation.

Looking at the picture above, you may feel uncomfortable with your left toe.

We have also considered this issue, but our colleagues who bravely tried them said: It’s a bit uncomfortable to get used to them at first, but after wearing them for a long time, they feel almost the same as ordinary socks.

There is one thing that may seem insignificant but is very important: change your socks frequently, wash, disinfect and dry them every day.

When buying shoes, it is recommended to match them with your own size and foot shape. If the size is not suitable, it will cause local wear and tear on the feet and cause some foot diseases and discomfort.

In terms of style, you can choose breathable designs, such as mesh sneakers. A pair of shoes should be replaced with other shoes after wearing them for 2-3 days.

If conditions permit, try to reduce the time your feet are kept in shoes and socks to destroy the growth environment of microorganisms.

In theory, those who want to get rid of odor and stop sweating instantly can use foot antiperspirant cream and antiperspirant powder. However, due to the frequent movement and high friction of the feet, the actual effect remains to be seen, so choose with caution.

If your feet sweat too much, you should consider going to a regular hospital for a check-up and getting the right treatment.

Well, the above steps to prevent and treat foot odor may seem simple, but they must be put into practice to be effective. Instead of blindly trying those "folk remedies", it is better to grasp the internal source, wash your feet well, and wear the right socks and shoes!

Finally, I wish everyone has a pair of “non-embarrassing” feet!

Editor | Xiaoshu

Design | Damao

References

[1] Hong Fan. Clinical analysis of pathogens in 377 cases of superficial fungal infection[D]. Nanchang University, 2021.

DOI:10.27232/d.cnki.gnchu.2021.001090

[2] Ning Yawei, Hou Linlin, Yu Tongyue, Han Panpan, Fu Yunan, Li Mingrui, Wang Zhixin, Jia Yingmin. Detection and identification of phenyllactic acid in Chinese vinegar and its combined antibacterial effect with acetic acid[J]. Food Science, 2021, 42(12): 233-241.

Source: Dad Review