How often do you need to change your socks? The answer is not obvious

How often do you change your socks? The answer seems obvious. Once a day. However, there are times when we should do it more often. What is the risk of wearing the same pair of socks for too long? We explain.

1. The longer we wear socks, the more we foster an environment that is favorable for the growth of bacteria, especially in the case of foot infections
2. Therefore, we should change them at least once a day, not only for health reasons, but also … for social reasons
3. Są też sytuacje, gdy powinniśmy robić to nawet dwa razy dziennie. Nigdy – rzadziej
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

How often do you change your socks?

Socks and how often you change them is quite a common topic for simple jokes or internet memes. Confessions like “I change how they start to stink”, “only when I do the laundry” or “wait for them to crumble by themselves” are omitted for obvious reasons. You can really find such honest confessions on the web.

The answer to the question of how often to change your socks seems obvious, but only superficially. Quite a lot of people, especially men, declare that they do it every two or three days. However, with socks it is like with underwear. For hygienic reasons, we should wear fresh steam every day.

So you have to change your socks every day, but there are times when you should do it more often.

There are about 250 thousand in feet. sweat glands, which can secrete up to several hundred ml of sweat a day. Along with this moisture, the feet shed dead skin cells, and all this accumulates in the socks. This creates an ideal environment for the growth of fungi and bacteria, including harmful staphylococci. Bacteria also have a negative effect on the body’s ability to regenerate and repair the skin on the feet.

Bakterie mogą wpływać nie tylko na nieprzyjemny zapach (zmieniają pot w kwas masłowy), ale też na degenerację skóry i większą podatność na infekcję.

More than once a day

Fungal infections of the feet or their excessive sweating should lead to changing socks more often than is not necessarily obvious “once a day”. This will prevent bacteria from multiplying and also relieve you of the embarrassment of unpleasant odors.

We should also change socks after each above-standard physical activity, which results in sweaty feet. This applies to both training and sports effort, as well as that resulting from intense work.

Zmianie skarpetek w ciągu dnia towarzyszyć też – gdy mamy taką możliwość – powinno dokładne umycie stopy oraz wyczyszczenie i osuszenie miejsc między palcami. Gdy zmagamy się z infekcją stóp, warto użyć wtedy także odpowiednich specyfików.

Size is also important

Many people suffer from a condition called hallux. The name haluks comes from the Latin word “toe”. Affliction, also known as hallux valgus is the result of changes in the foot biomechanics. The big toe, under the influence of excessive load, changes position. As a result, it starts to rotate towards the other fingers and often climbs onto them.

Bunions are both a degenerative and civilization disease. – Hallux valgus is the result of changes in the biomechanics of the foot. New research suggests a genetic basis for its formation, but improper footwear also has a large impact on this deformation, said the orthopedist Dr. Mirosław Szarzyński from Medicover.

Not only footwear can be the culprit of bunions. The fault can also lie with the wrong size of the socks. Too tight may not save your feet even with the most comfortable shoes. In addition, too little space in too small or narrow socks can promote the development of mycoses and other skin diseases.

Which material?

As with other items of clothing, dermatologists recommend choosing natural fabrics, even if they may be slightly more expensive. Socks made of natural fibers they let the air throughallow the feet to breathe. Thanks to this, even if the feet do sweat, excess moisture is absorbed by the material of the socks. In combination with the right footwear – the moisture evaporates quickly. Therefore, our feet are not exposed to long-term exposure to an environment conducive to the development of athlete’s foot.

We should choose socks that contain as many natural fibers as possible. Most often it will be cotton. Its advantages are: lightness, softness, resistance to high temperature and stretching. Cotton fibers are also anti-allergic and perfectly breathable.

In addition to cotton, it is also worth choosing silk, wool, linen, bamboo or hemp socks.

Or maybe without socks?

Rozpoczęło się lato. Na nogach zaczynają dominować klapki czy sandały, do których raczej nie zakładamy skarpetek. A co, gdybyśmy chcieli pójść dalej i chodzić boso? Dermatolodzy nie widzą przeciwwskazań, jeżeli to nie odbywa się w mieście, gdzie dominuje asfalt czy beton. W warunkach naturalnych porzucenie skarpetek wraz z butami może przynieść wiele korzyści.

– Where we can relax, walking barefoot is very beneficial, we can treat ourselves to reflexotherapy in this way. Instead of massaging the feet and pressing on specific points, we massage our feet by walking on grass or sand, and in this way we use the benefits of natural peeling – said dermatologist Dr. Anna Bachleda-Curuś from the SCM estetic clinic in an interview with Medonet.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time, we asked Orina Krajewska what, according to her, a holistic approach to health is. How to combine the three aspects – body, spirit and mind to enjoy balance and good health? You will hear about this and many other aspects of the topic in the latest episode of our podcast.