Natural Ways to Solve Smelly Feet

Sweat is the main cause of foot odor. It is actually odorless but it is a good environment for bacteria to grow and produce stuffs which makes the feet smell bad. Naturally, the bacteria is already present on the human body as a part of human flora. This means that more odor will be produced if a part of the body is sweating because of some factors. One of the factors is the wearing of socks and shoes with insufficient ventilation of air for many hours. And also, the hair on the feet, especially on the toes, contributes to the intensiveness of the odor because it provides a larger area for the bacteria to thrive and survive.

There are a lot of ways to solve a smelly feet. You can go to a foot specialist or podiatrist to help you create a treatment plan for your current condition but you can also treat it yourself naturally. The most effective herb that treats foot odor is sage. A study shows that a frequent use of sage proved that it is very effective on keeping the feet free from odor. You can use black teas because it has tannin that acts as astringent and it helps in getting rid of the bad odor from your feet. Just make sure that you soak your feet in a warm water with four or more tea bags. Apple cider vinegar mixed with water helps effectively on controlling the bad smell if done on regular basis. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, plain vinegar would do. If you don’t want to use vinegar, you can use alum. Just mix it with water and soak your feet for thirty minutes and do it on regular basis.

The use of baking soda also helps on minimizing the smell because it actually neutralizes the foot odor. To apply baking soda, scatter it on the feet that still don’t have odor, at anytime during the day. Eating yogurt can also be effective in reducing the bad odor in case you don’t know. It has zinc which kills bacteria and makes the skin more resistant to bacteria. Health 911 said that a zinc deficiency has been associated with foot odor problems. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have to eat more yogurt if you have smelly feet problem. This means you just need to make sure that you are getting enough zinc.

A salt called Kosher salt is also effective in minimizing the odor of the feet. Actually it is an edible salt but has a larger grain size than the common table salt or sodium chloride. This salt has a drying effect which helps on minimizing the production of sweat on the feet. To use the salt, dissolve it on the water and soak your feet. Then dry your feet off. Remember not to rinse it because it will remove the salt substance in the feet.

Another remedy for smelly feet is the alum powder. The powder actually controls body odor and can be directly applied on the perspiring areas of the skin. It mixes up with sweat and stops the growth of bacteria that causes the body odor. The alum powder should be applied regularly before going to bed in order to get relief from it.

Clean the feet with hand sanitizer or isoprophyl alcohol twice a day is actually an effective cure and practically cheaper. The effect of this cleaning agents kills germs and prevents further growth of bacteria. If you are going to use hand sanitizer, make sure to use the unscented one.

Since socks is one of the factors that contributes on sweat production, buy socks that are made of cotton or wool because it absorbs sweat. Non-absorbent socks traps moisture around the foot making it more prone to growth of bacteria. Before wearing one, you need to make sure that your feet is already dry. If the feet is still moist, it will contribute on producing bad other and the growth of bacteria will be greater. Change your socks once or twice a day if your feet sweats a lot, if possible. If not, remove your shoes from time to time to ventilate the feet so that it will sweat lesser than with the shoes on. Rotate shoes or use shoes alternately if you have two or more pairs so that the other pairs will have time to dry out.

Use of antiperspirant is also advised because it temporarily blocks the sweat pore which reduces the amount of sweat that the pore secretes.

If you don’t want to try those mentioned above, wash your feet and toes everyday with an antibacterial soap. Make sure to dry your feet first before you put any footwears on.

Learn more about Smelly Feet. Stop by Kath Jenkins’s site where you can find out all about Stinky Feet and what can you do to treat it.