Feet play an important role in the lives of individuals as they help people to get involved in different activities. Apart from aches and pain, there is one other problem that people can suffer from, which can be a cause for embarrassment in front of others. That problem is of smelly feet.

This is where understanding the reasons behind foot odour can help pinpoint the things that one needs to do for solving this problem.

Reasons

There are various reasons out of which people can have the problem of foot odour. Identifying these reasons can be extremely helpful to find out the right set of solutions. They include:

• Bacteria:

People develop a very nasty kind of foot odour due to the presence of micrococcus sedentarius bacteria in their shoes, especially the sneakers. This bacteria produces organic acids along with sulphur compounds, which give away the smell of rotten eggs.

• Stress:

Stress often means that people’s feet are also getting sweaty. This sweat is generally made up of ingredients, different from the regular heat-induced sweat as it is produced in a different kind of sweat gland. Thus, the smell also tends to be worse than the usual.

• Fungal Infections:

One of the major reasons behind foot odour is fungal growth. Fungi can not only result in foul smell from one’s foot but it can also let the skin on soles to turn scaly. This particular condition is known as athlete’s foot. It gets spread from one person to another in wet conditions like locker rooms, where fungi tend to breed and come in touch with open skin.

Solutions

The problem of foot odour is something that people can easily solve by adopting different modes of treatment and pay attention to maintaining good hygiene.

Let us look at the different ways of getting rid of this problem of foot odour:

• One must always strive to keep their feet neat and clean, through the use of soap and scrubber. It is also important to properly get the feet dried out after washing, otherwise, wetness can easily lead to the growth of bacteria.
• Do not allow the toenails to get lengthened and make sure to clean them regularly.
• Make use of foot file to remove the hard, dead skin from the feet. Hard skin can easily turn soft and soggy when it gets wet.
• It is important to choose socks that can absorb moisture and not keep it on one’s feet. So, ideally one must have soft socks that are thick and made out of natural fibres.
• In warm weather conditions, one can wear sandals that keep the toes open. These would help the feet to remain dry.

So, we have discussed how stress, bacteria and fungal infections result in foot odour and also looked into the way through which people can solve this problem by maintaining proper hygiene, not allowing their toenails to get lengthened, wearing socks that can absorb moisture etc.