How To Reduce Foot Odor

Tips to Reduce Foot Odor *

So, since foot odor is caused by bacteria digesting sweat, there are two main ways to reduce the stink. You can:

• decrease the amount of bacteria on your feet


• decrease the amount of sweat that collects on your feet and in your shoes

Reducing the level of bacteria is really a matter of cleanliness. To control the bacteria population on you feet, you should:

• wash your feet with strong anti-bacterial soap


• wear clean socks


• don't wear the same shoes everyday - give a pair of shoes 24 hours or more to air out before wearing them again

To reduce the amount of sweat that collects in your shoes, you should:

• wear well-ventilated shoes instead of very constrictive shoes, such as boots


• always wear socks, preferably made of cotton or other absorbent materials that absorb a lot of the sweat so the bacteria can't feed on it


• change your socks a few times a day


• buy some absorbent Odor-Eater type shoe inserts


• apply an antiperspirant to your feet

­If your foot odor is really bad and these solutions don't help much, then you should see a doctor. There are a number of prescription drugs that can treat serious foot odor, some by killing bacteria and some by reducing foot sweat.

* from How Stuff Works