Sweaty Feet
If your feet have a tendency to perspire a great deal, there are a number of things that you can do at home to help manage the situation and there are a number of things that a medical foot specialist, such as a foot doctor, can help you with.
One of the first things that you need to consider is getting a sock that offers moisture management. The sock absorbs foot perspiration and the material from the sock moves the perspiration around so that it can evaporate out of the sock by offering hydrophilic panels and hydrophobic panels within their sock.
The products that offer this type of moisture control have the hydrophilic material on the instep area of the foot (which is the top of the foot) and around the front of the leg area. This hydrophilic material will try to absorb any foot perspiration or moisture like a sponge. It likes to fill with water.
The goal of this hydrophilic panel is to get the moisture out away from the sides of the foot, the bottom of the foot, and bring it to the top of the foot, where it has a much better chance to evaporate.
The opposite of that type of material would be a hydrophobic material that does not like moisture and tries to resist the moisture. The hydrophobic material is generally designed into the bottom of the sock. Therefore, as the foot perspires and the moisture wants to try to accumulate in the bottom of the shoe (because we have a great deal of help from gravity), the material will try to repel the moisture so that the moisture can travel up and become evaporated out of the top of the shoe.
There are more pores on the foot than anywhere else on the body. This is one of the reasons that we see more perspiration in the area of the foot.
A foot can perspire up to 50 milliliters of moisture in a 12-hour period of light walking and sitting. This would be the equivalent to approximately half of an ounce of water. Imagine how much perspiration can occur on the feet under heavy or extraneous activities.
It is important to look for shoes that have good breathing capabilities designed into them. A lot of the athletic shoes may have a synthetic or nylon mesh designed into the shoe so that the shoe has greater breathing capabilities around the foot, allowing air to get into the shoe and help to evaporate some of the perspiration that is taking place.
A very good recommendation for problems with foot perspiration is to let the shoes dry out completely about every three days. In this drying process it is very important that you undo the laces, open the tongue of the shoe up as much as possible, and remove any footbed within the shoe so that the shoe can dry out completely. This will also help to kill any bacteria that exist in the shoe.
There are a number of medications that you can use to help cut down the perspiration in the feet. You would need to consult a medical specialist or your foot doctor in regards to what medication would be best for your situation.
Another process that can be quite helpful for heavy foot perspiration is to soak your feet in Epsom salts prior to going out on a long hike or doing a strenuous activity. The Epsom salts will help to pull some of the moisture out of the foot so that there is less perspiration occurring.
It is recommended that you consult your doctor on how often they recommend that you use the Epsom salts in regards to perspiration management.
It may also be beneficial to place a little baby powder or talcum powder inside the shoe to help absorb some of the foot perspiration.
Superfeet footbeds offer a product called ETC. This is the top-cover of the footbed and it is a woven fabric. This woven fabric will help to pull the moisture out away from the bottom of the foot so that it can evaporate more quickly.
The fabric that is used on top of the Superfeet Synergizer Trim-to-Fit line also helps to reduce friction, which in turn reduces heat.
Back to Search Results