Dr. Oz and Smelly Feet

I’m sitting here writing an article and just happen to have the Dr. Oz Show on. Not something I watch normally and I don’t really remember how my TV ended up on that channel. Oh well, any way, someone I know…and absolutely NO ONE in my family… has REALLY smelly feet, so when Dr. Oz said something about how to stop smelly feet…my ears honed right in and picked up on it!

First Dr. Oz explained why people get smelly feet.
More information is available at the Dr. Oz Show.

He said it’s the 3 S‘s.

Sweat

Socks

Shoes

The spiral looking sweat glands (Dr. Oz referred to them as coiled circular glands…and btw, these are 4 feet long!) under the dermis pushes sweat up and out of a pore. The sweat is clean and scent free when it comes out. It’s when the sweat mixes with bacteria located in the sock and shoe that it becomes stinky.

Tea Bag It!

One thing Dr. Oz said to treat a set of stinky feet is to soak it in tea for 30 minutes. Yep, tea. Tea has this thing in it called tannic acid that breaks down and kills the bacteria. After about 1 week of soaking your feet daily, the stink will be all gone and then you can just use this as a prevention and on an as needed basis.

Antiperspirant? Seriously?

The second thing Dr. Oz said was to use an antiperspirant on your feet! But not just any applicator will do, it needs to be the roll-on kind. While demonstrating on an audience member’s foot he said deodorant will NOT work and it MUST be antiperspirant. If you’re not sure on the difference, deodorant masks a smell and antiperspirant prevents the sweat that can cause that odor!

Another thing Dr. Oz brought out to help stinky feet, was medicated antiperspirant pads to rub onto the areas that perspire too.

Some of the things that can cause stinky feet to be stinkier…black beans, garlic, and asparagus (those of us who eat asparagus would probably say, “duh”. Oh, and beer…my deepest sympathies to the beer lovers out there.

I have no first hand knowledge if these work, but really wish I had known about them a long time ago. I plan to pass this info along and make the recipients of this very valuable advice report back to me on the success or lack there of. I’ll keep you posted.

If anyone knows if this works, let me know.

Now, go grab a beer and get to brewing that tea!

~~~

Photo Credits:
nayrb7 (Flickr)
moposshow (images/stinky_feet.jpg)
HautFingerspitze (Wikimedia Commons)