Why do our feet Stink?

Have you ever felt your feet stink on a hot summer day or when your feet are enclosed in something snug and fitted? What! Do you say it smells bad now? Then let’s find out why our soles stink.

first of all, let’s study the source of body smells. There are three types of organs which generate body smells. 2 sweat glands, the eccrine and apocrine and the sebaceous glands, which secrete oily matter. Normally, by sweat, we refer to the sweat which the eccrine sweat glands secrete. Eccrine sweat glands are found all over the body and in the soles. Apocrine sweat glands are only found in the armpits around the chest and under the navel. Sebaceous glands secrete oily matters on our skin surface. It causes our heads to smell oily. The oily matters soften the skin and give impermeability. The head has more sebaceous glands than any other body part.

The soles have many eccrine sweat glands and secrete more than a glass of sweat in a day. Apocrine sweat glands become active in adolescence. The sweat that apocrine sweat glands secrete has a particular smell. The sweat that eccrine sweat glands secrete stinks. It is what you call the ‘sweat smell’. This smell is the reason why your feet stink, too. But 99% of the sweat secreted by eccrine sweat glands is water and hardly has any smell. If the sweat has a bad smell, the sauna would be a seriously problematic space. So, does sweat have no smell? So, isn’t sweat that causes soles to stink?

The sweat itself doesn’t smell, but if a certain matter is combined with it, it starts to smell. A certain matter is a bacterium. If you leave laundry out on a rainy day, the laundry will stink, right? This is because the damp laundry activates the bacterium. When sweat mixes with skin dirt, bacterium thrives. There are so many bacteria in our soles and they increase by eating dirt. everybody eats and multiplies. The bacteria eat dirt and secrete fatty acids. This fatty acid causes soles to stink. The soles are the best place because they are warm and damp. The protein, keratin of soles is broken down by bacteria and becomes fatty acid. The fatty acid smell spreads with the vaporising sweat. This is because people around you can smell the feet stink so strongly. Though feet stink primarily because the bacteria convert keratin into fatty acid, there are also other reasons.

Our entire body sweats. So, our whole body can stink too. But why do our feet stink the most? First, let’s get to know about the sweat which our body secrets when we feel hot. We sweat all over on a hot summer day or when we practice sports. Next, is the sweat which is a part of the body secretes when we are nervous or scared. The sweat which our body secretes when we are nervous is called ‘mental sweating’. We secrete such sweat on our palms and soles. Usually, our palms are in the fresh air, so any sweat on them dries up almost smell. On the other hand, when we wear shoes, our soles cannot breathe easily, which results in sweat accumulating there. So, bacteria grow here. We are more comfortable in the soles than in the palms. Usually, the human skin is weakly acidic a (condition in which bacteria can’t easily multiply.) the sweat which we secrete is also acidic, so the skin easily maintains keeps its mildly acidic nature. However, mental sweating contains many alkaline components and when we secrete this type of sweat, the skin becomes alkaline (a condition in which bacteria can easily multiply). The soles secrete much mental sweat and this causes bacteria in our feet to stink.

These bacteria have been living in your feet from the very beginning. In the human skin, we have a type of bacteria called external symbiotic bacteria. These bacteria protect us from disease-causing germs from outside.  When the bacteria of the skin become weak, the resistance against disease-causing germs decreases.  In addition, if we lose the external symbiotic bacteria, insects like ticks can invade our bodies. Though the bacteria in the soles cause our feet to stink, they are good for us as they protect the body from disease-causing bacteria. So, the cause of feet stink is sweat and bacteria. Let’s study the difference between two feet and their footwear to know how to prevent feet from stinking.

Let’s wear breathable shoes! – breathable shoes are shoes which fit our feet just right. If the shoes are too big, the internal temperature increases owing to the frictional heat. On the other hand, if the shoes are too tight, the feet become nervous and sweaty.

Let’s put on socks which can absorb sweat well! – if you don’t put on socks because it’s hot, this is not effective as the sweat will stay in the shoes. Putting on antibacterial socks, which control the growth of bacteria is helpful. Moreover, when you take a bath, you can wash your soles with a medicinal soap that has an antibacterial finish.

Let’s see two or three pairs of shoes and change them daily! – the moisture in our shoes doesn’t dry in a day. Before storing them in the shoe box, allow them to dry. In addition, you can put a desiccant (Drying agent) in the shoe box or directly in your shoes to remove humidity effectively.