DavidWolfe.comIf your feet tend to smell like stinky cheese, you might be tempted to spray some perfume around them and call it a day.
Bad idea.
The odor is one thing. What causes the odor is something else entirely.
Your feet contain about 250,000 sweat glands that produce as much as one pint of sweat each day… per foot. Bacteria love that. They swarm around your feet, living off that sweat and procreating.
Under normal circumstances, that’s not really a problem. As long as you bathe every day, your feet won’t be all that funky.
That changes if you’ve got a fungal infection – and they’re a lot more common than you might think.
Athlete’s foot is one such infection, and it commonly occurs in people who keep their feet trapped in dark shoes most of the time. So basically, a good chunk of us.
Speaking of shoes, what type you wear also plays a large role in how stinky your feet become.
And coincidentally, many of the shoe types that produce the sweatiest, smelliest feet are the same ones that throw your spine out of alignment and cause lasting damage to your body’s structure.
All this goes to say that if you notice your feet are smelling a little funky, don’t just spray some de-odorizer on them and keep walking. Whether it’s a fungal infection or improper shoes, you’ll want to do something about it.
Luckily for you, we’ve got a few tips.
How To Fix Smelly Feet
1. Change Your Shoes
You need shoes with proper ventilation that will reduce the amount of sweat your feet produce in order to cool down. Leather is a much more breatheable material than the plastic, canvas or foam used in many popular running shoes.
If you must wear running shoes, choose a good pair made of nylon with plenty of perforations.
Stay away from pointy, high-heeled shoes as they can cause an increase of fungus around your toenails. According to WebMD, “injury to the tips of toenails because of tight shoes may be the biggest single factor that leads to recurrence of a fungal nail infection.”
2. Use Alum Powder
Alum powder is a natural antiseptic that prevents the growth of excess bacteria. Sprinkle the powder (found here) on your feet, making sure to get it in between your toes.
This will get rid of the smell but unlike perfume, it will actually target what’s at the root of the smell instead of just covering it up.
3. Black Tea Soak
Black tea contains tannic acid, which the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy reports to be an antibacterial substance.
To make use of that property, steep 2 bags of black (preferably organic, like these) tea in 3 cups of water. Add a bucket of cool water and then soak your feet in the mixture for about 20 minutes. Do this every day for one week and you should notice a significant reduction in foot odor.
4. Vinegar Soak
If you want those foot odor-causing bacteria to really burn and suffer, soak your feet in vinegar to create an acidic environment. It’ll be harmless to your feet but the fungi that wants to call it home will curse your name as they die.
Mix half a cup of vinegar with 8 cups of hot water. Let it cool until its comfortable and then soak your feet in the mixture for about 15 minutes.
Then, rinse your feet. If you’d like to get rid of the vinegar smell, just wash your feet with some natural soap.
5. Lavender Oil
Lavender is another natural antibacterial that will kick those smelly foot bacteria to the curb. It also smells divine, making it the perfect remedy for smelly feet.
All you’ve gotta do is take a few drops of lavender essential oil (found here), mix it with a base oil like olive oil and massage your feet with it. Cover your feet with socks and let the oil sit overnight for best results.
Have you got any tips for combating smelly feet? Share your methods with us in the comments!
If that last point about lavender oil interested you, check out this video from David’s Facebook page for information about a cool new way to enjoy essential oil!
https://www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe/videos/10153651335476512/
Sources:
Top 10 Home Remedies
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
EverydayRoots.com
NHS.uk
WebMD
OneMedical.com