What is Smell?  -  also called Olfaction, the detection and identification of airborne chemicals by our sensory organs -  the nose and the tongue. The concept of smell, as it applies to humans, becomes less distinct when invertebrates and lower vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians are considered because many lower animals detect chemicals in the environment by means of receptors in various locations on the body. No invertebrate possesses a chemo receptive structure resembling the vertebrate's nasal cavity.

Nose - The organ of smell, which is also an entrance to the air passages. It leads to the nasal cavity, which is lined by mucous membrane, extends back to the pharynx and windpipe, and is connected to the air sinuses of the skull. Hairs in the nostrils filter particles from inhaled air, which is further cleaned, warmed, and moistened in the nasal cavity. The membrane at the top of the nasal cavity contains olfactory cells, which are sensitive to different smells and are connected to the brain via the olfactory nerve.

For this reason, many authorities prefer to regard smell as distance chemoreception, and taste as contact chemoreception.

Olfaction by air-breathing vertebrates, that's us, depend primarily on chemically sensitive nerve endings in the lining, or epithelium, of the nasal cavity. 

Mammals such as carnivores, which rely heavily on the sense of smell for locating food, or for being warned against predators, have intricately curled turbine-like bones. These support the nasal epithelium and help funnel the smell, providing a greater surface area, thus increasing olfactory sensitivity.

In addition to the nasal epithelium, Jacobson's organ, located in the roof of the mouth, also serves for chemoreception in some animals.

Smell also help us taste, eating something whilst holding your nose will make it very difficult to determine what you are eating. Taste is a sensation caused in the mouth by contact with a soluble substance. It gives us the facility of perceiving the five taste groups, by using our taste bud; cells, tiny, holes or nerve-endings on the surface of the tongue, by which things are tasted.

The taste bud is a small sense organ in most vertebrates, specialized for the detection of taste. In terrestrial animals taste buds are concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue. They are sensitive to FIVE types of taste: sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami. The taste bud transmits information about a particular type of taste to the brain via nerve fibers. The five types of taste bud show distinct distribution patterns on the surface of the human tongue. In fishes, taste buds are distributed over the entire surface of the body and provide information about the surrounding water.

SMELLY FEET - Scientists have discovered that, smelly feet can make your breath smell. They took some garlic paste and rub their feet with it. This made their breath smell of the garlic; try it. So if your feet smell like crap, most probably this is being transferred to your breath.

    Smelly Feet    

Most of the body sweats to keep us cool, and help remove some waste products from the body. Every square cm of the sole of the foot, and the palms of your hands have over 500 sweat pores, totaling 250,000 little holes, that is more than other part of the body, even more than under the arm-pits.

Conditions like this are caught quite innocently, the problem is that if they are allowed to take hold, it makes any cure much harder.     Do not neglect your feet. 

 The foot of an average male can exude half a pint of sweat a day. This either evaporates if it can, or is absorbed by socks or the wearer's footwear. Controlling the biological fall-out can be a problem, and each person has a different way of reacting. Some of us no matter what we do will not smell to bad, but then there are others, where no matter what they do, they are in constant battle trying not to stink, especially from the feet.

A big problem, as you have probably found, we get used to smells. After we have been smelling an aroma for a while, the nose desensitizes itself to this smell. Like our bedrooms, first thing, or when in the toilet, we never smell ourselves quite so much as others, outside. A big problem is that your feet could stink and you do not know.

As we, more often than not, wear some kind of footwear, the smell is initially contained, along with the sweat from the foot which cannot evaporate normally, as it has evolved to do; we did not always wear footwear.

Sweat is mainly water, but it also contains trace amounts of other chemicals like body oils, ammonia, different salts, urea and some sugars.

The water will evaporate off as pure H2O, and leave behind the residue, this is fine, as it is just a natural event, leaving us with our own individual scent. But it is an organic substance and will eventually decay and waste away, it is this that makes the smell.  

Sweat rapidly becomes smelly, because of bacteria working on it, they produce isovaleric acid, which is what causes the odor. These bacteria use warm damp places to live and thrive. Inside your shoe is an ideal breeding ground, as it is the darkest and warmest and most moist area on the body.

Bacteria is in the air, can be caught from contact from others by sharing a gym area, or even footwear. The smell is actually a  gas caused by the bacteria breaking down the various residues like dead skin, as it feeds and breeds. 

Perhaps 50,000 years ago, or even just last century, it might have been all right to whiff just a little, perhaps because we all did, and got used to bad smells. But Victorian ladies in England, started to realize that they did not have to put up with this body odor, and started to mask it with essential oils, like lavender. They could only mask it as the potential for body odor is always there.

Bacteria can do this type of Damage.

There are several types of smell that come from the feet, based on what species of bacteria is acting. The main and usual microbe that grow on the feet,  actually produces gas similar to those released by bacteria that breaks down cheese, hence the similar smell and name 'cheesy feet'. The bacteria are only there to break down dead or unwanted material.

Also, there is the 'Trainer Smell', this is caused by feet sweating profusely, and the cloth of the trainer becoming very wet and warm. Bacteria will eventually break this down casing a much more obnoxious pong, as it tries to eat the sports-shoe. Leather shoes are much more resistant to this and also reduce the amount of sweat produced.

Warm moisture also enhances the growth of the fungi that causes ‘athletes foot’, and this can add a distinct edge to the cheesy smell, as well as being unpleasant in itself. 

Feet sweat not only to cool naked feet, but out of all the parts of the body we use the foot is used the most. The sweat carries essential bodily oil that lubricate the skin and make it flexible. People who have that do not sweat on their feet so much will also have dry hard skin. The person who lives on a part of the planet where footwear is not essential, may never have problematic smelly feet, in fact their feet may be quite healthy. 

Bacteria  - Microscopic single-celled organisms found wherever life is possible. Generally 0.0001–0.005 mm long, they may be spherical (coccus), rodlike (bacillus), or spiral-shaped (spirillum) and often occur in chains or clusters of cells. True bacteria have a rigid cell wall, which may be surrounded by a slimy capsule, and they often have long whip-like flagella for locomotion and short hair-like pili used in a form of sexual reproduction. A few bacteria can use simple chemical substances, including carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to manufacture their own nutrients, but most require a source of carbon derived from living organisms (i.e. organic carbon) plus other nutrients for growth. Some bacteria can reproduce every 15 minutes, leading to rapid population growth.

The most important role of bacteria is in decomposing dead plant and animal tissues and releasing their constituents to the soil (see carbon cycle). Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil or sea convert atmospheric nitrogen gas to nitrites and nitrates, which can then be used by plants (see nitrogen cycle). Cheese making and fermentation reactions depend on bacteria. Bacteria also play an important part in animal digestion, especially in ruminants. However, certain (pathogenic) species may cause disease while others, such as Salmonella, can cause food poisoning.

Your feet are the body part the furthest away from you and sometimes get the least attention and grooming. This foot has been neglected and a myriad of fungal and bacterial disorders are flourishing unchecked. The nails shape has been caused due to the confinement in a shoe.

So we, and that is mainly men, can practice regimes that reduce the fall-out of feet bacteria. One of the main triggers of sweaty, smelly feet is wearing the wrong socks or footwear. Synthetic socks do not allow the sweat to evaporate and do not absorb it either, so the leaking foot stays damp. Shoes with plastic or other synthetic fabric linings, do not absorb these bodily fluids, but they make the foot sweat much more, and allow feet-microbes to build up.

What you can do to reduce the problem.

Firstly, recognize that cheap plastic socks do not help, so throw out all your nylon socks. Replace them with socks that are more than around 75% cotton or wool, combined with not much more than 30% man-made fiber. Socks that are pure cotton are not quite as good because they do not hold as much moisture without becoming sodden, and all wool socks can become clammy. 

Also make sure your socks are not too tight, manufactures have realized this and some very large socks, larger than your foot size, are on on the market. Some sports socks have ventilation panels and are designed to transport moisture away from the foot, but they will also be made of a good material and inside a very good quality trainer, which helps. Try to wear clean socks everyday, as this does not allow the microbes or fungus take hold. Once you have a foot problem it is very hard to get rid of. Wash your socks on a hot wash, rinse very well, and dry naturally.

Then deal with your footwear.  Good quality leather shoes give the least problems with smell and infections. Check the linings of your shoes, though, as some leather shoes often have a plastic lining, and this will act like a water-tight bucket. All leather footwear breathes much better. 

For trainers, or sportswear, which will smell the worst, try to have as many pairs as possible, old trainers will hum quite loudly after a while. Young men will wear the same trainer 24/7/52, and wonder why girls avoid them. They will buy a new pair and then discard the old pair and wear the new ones to death. Rotate them.

Put your trainer to your nose and whiff, still with us?

If you have several pairs you can rest them, giving them a chance to dry out. Blast them with a foot-spray and foot powder, then leave for a few days. Vacuum them out before wearing them, this will help remove debris that the microbes eat.

Lastly,  consider your feet themselves. Good feet maintenance will reduce smells, infections, fungus attack and other complaints. Wash you feet every day, and make sure you dry them really well. Always use an expensive soap with pure natural  ingredients.  Afterwards, soak them in warm water with a few drops of tea-tree oil added. Tea-tree oil has antibacterial and healing properties. Keep you toenails well clipped and cut a straight line across the top, and gently file down the edges, and corners.

How Does Your Body Fight Infection?

Immunity   -  The resistance of the body to infection, especially resistance due to antibodies. Babies have passive immunity from antibodies transferred from the mother’s blood through the placenta. Active immunity involves the formation of antibodies after exposure to an antigen - bacteria that invade the body during an infection are antigens. The two different kinds of immune response produced by antibodies involve: white blood cells called T-lymphocytes - produced by the thymus, which produce cells with antibody properties bound to their surface and are responsible for such reactions as graft rejection; B-lymphocytes, which produce cells that release free antibody into the blood.

Leucocyte - lymphocytes - or white blood cell. A colorless cell found in large numbers in the blood. There are several kinds, all involved in the body’s defense mechanisms. Granulocytes and monocytes destroy and feed on bacteria and other microorganisms that cause infection -  see also phagocyte. The lymphocytes are involved with the production of antibodies.

Phagocyte   -  A cell that engulfs and then digests particles from its surroundings: this process is called phagocytosis. In vertebrate animals, phagocytes are a type of white blood cell that protect the body by engulfing bacteria and other foreign particles.

Immunization is the production of immunity by an injection containing antibodies against specific diseases e.g. tetanus and diphtheria, which provides temporary passive immunity, or by vaccination, which produces the longer lasting active immunity.

Antibody   -  A protein produced by certain white blood cells  - lymphocytes that reacts with a particular foreign particle e.g. a bacterium,  that has entered the body. The antibody helps to destroy the foreign particle, known as the antigen. If the same bacteria invade the body in future, many more of the same antibodies are produced, enabling the body to destroy the bacteria very rapidly and so resist infection. This provides the basis of  immunity. Antibodies are also responsible for the rejection of foreign tissue or organ transplants. See also monoclonal antibody.

Monoclonal antibody  -  A type of pure antibody that can be produced artificially in large quantities and used, for example, to distinguish the major blood groups. Mouse lymphocytes producing the required antibody are fused with mouse cancer cells; the resulting hybrid cells multiply rapidly and all produce the same type of antibody as their parent lymphocytes.

Whilst all this bodily protection sounds wonderful, the problem with MRSA, is that there is no defence to it, no answer to its attack.

Check for signs of Athletes Foot, check in between your toes and look for skin loss. Hard skin is dead skin, and can  become waterlogged when damp, providing an ideal environment for bacteria. Remove it with a pumice stone, when your foot is very dry.

Good Luck.

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