How do people in cultures that remove shoes avoid athlete’s foot?
June 19, 2023 5:02 AM Subscribe
A lot of cultures require shoes to be removed when entering a home, and some provide shared guest slippers. How is athlete’s foot not rampant if everyone is sharing shoes and walking around barefoot?
What can you do if you enter someone’s home and their feet or another guest’s look sketchy and you don’t want to walk around barefoot in the same space? Do you just make an excuse and leave, or is it talked about more openly in these cultures?
A lot of people bring their own socks or even their own slippers.
posted by TwoStride at 5:15 AM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 5:15 AM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think that athletes foot is less common in cultures where shoe removal is common because people's feet spend less time inside moist, unsanitary shoes.
posted by Summers at 5:23 AM on June 19, 2023 [87 favorites]
posted by Summers at 5:23 AM on June 19, 2023 [87 favorites]
Datapoint of 1, but I come from such a culture, and I have honestly never had, or never known anyone to have athlete's foot. I've never even heard it flagged as a concern.
Because we have a hot climate, we usually don't wear closed shoes, it's usually sandals, even for formal occasions. That might have something to do with it.
posted by unicorn chaser at 5:31 AM on June 19, 2023 [12 favorites]
Because we have a hot climate, we usually don't wear closed shoes, it's usually sandals, even for formal occasions. That might have something to do with it.
posted by unicorn chaser at 5:31 AM on June 19, 2023 [12 favorites]
Yes I think you have a basic misunderstanding about the conditions under which human skin fungal infections flourish.
They need damp conditions to transmit and damp conditions to infect.
(https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/disease/athletes_foot.html)
You basically can't get fungal infection on your feet by walking on someone's dry floor barefoot. In theory you could get it by putting your bare feet into damp slippers that hat recently been used by an infected person, but recall that slipper sharing in homes is usually done by a small group of friends and family, not the general public.
I think that hypothetical is just much less common than the normal transmission (and namesake), which is itself the kind of odd cultural tradition of walking around barefoot on slimy floors shared by hundreds of strangers each day.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:45 AM on June 19, 2023 [23 favorites]
They need damp conditions to transmit and damp conditions to infect.
(https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/disease/athletes_foot.html)
You basically can't get fungal infection on your feet by walking on someone's dry floor barefoot. In theory you could get it by putting your bare feet into damp slippers that hat recently been used by an infected person, but recall that slipper sharing in homes is usually done by a small group of friends and family, not the general public.
I think that hypothetical is just much less common than the normal transmission (and namesake), which is itself the kind of odd cultural tradition of walking around barefoot on slimy floors shared by hundreds of strangers each day.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:45 AM on June 19, 2023 [23 favorites]
The dermatophyte fungi that cause tinea pedis just don't survive well in dry conditions.
I've gone barefoot for as much of my adult life as I could, which turns out to have been almost all of it except at work. Since retiring I'm barefoot 99+% of the time, both indoors and out.
As a kid I suffered horribly from cracked, red, weeping, itchy toes at home and at school; the only way to keep that anywhere near under control was by rotating an assortment of topical antifungals. But every school holidays, the itch would clear up completely after a week spent barefoot at the beach. Figuring that out is quite a large part of why I prefer being barefoot as strongly as I do.
My current anti-tinea protocol consists entirely of exfoliating my feet using a dishwashing brush with plant-based bristles every time I shower, and going barefoot everywhere. This works. My feet just don't itch now, not ever.
The other two members of my household are both regularly shod by preference, and both suffer the occasional bout of tinea after visiting our local public swimming pool or showering at the gym. I do all my own swimming in the river, but even so I'm still exposed to their spores from the floor of our own shower. Since I got my brush, though, they just don't take.
posted by flabdablet at 6:21 AM on June 19, 2023 [7 favorites]
I've gone barefoot for as much of my adult life as I could, which turns out to have been almost all of it except at work. Since retiring I'm barefoot 99+% of the time, both indoors and out.
As a kid I suffered horribly from cracked, red, weeping, itchy toes at home and at school; the only way to keep that anywhere near under control was by rotating an assortment of topical antifungals. But every school holidays, the itch would clear up completely after a week spent barefoot at the beach. Figuring that out is quite a large part of why I prefer being barefoot as strongly as I do.
My current anti-tinea protocol consists entirely of exfoliating my feet using a dishwashing brush with plant-based bristles every time I shower, and going barefoot everywhere. This works. My feet just don't itch now, not ever.
The other two members of my household are both regularly shod by preference, and both suffer the occasional bout of tinea after visiting our local public swimming pool or showering at the gym. I do all my own swimming in the river, but even so I'm still exposed to their spores from the floor of our own shower. Since I got my brush, though, they just don't take.
posted by flabdablet at 6:21 AM on June 19, 2023 [7 favorites]
I agree with branca; I can't believe it's something that's easily acquired. I played sports in school, and I was in the locker room barefoot for gym class as well. I showered barefoot in college (two years in dorms, one year in a fraternity house). I've played adult sports and gone to gyms where I've been barefoot in locker rooms. All of this is to say that I've spent a lot of time barefoot in places where athlete's foot is supposed to be rampant, and I've never once encountered it. Either the problem isn't as widespread as advertisers would have you believe, or I've been improbably lucky.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:43 AM on June 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 6:43 AM on June 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
I live in the UK, where people who have nice carpets will sometimes ask guests to take their shoes off in the house.
I have never seen that interpreted as going barefoot! We wear socks and we don't take off the socks.
posted by quacks like a duck at 7:29 AM on June 19, 2023 [22 favorites]
I have never seen that interpreted as going barefoot! We wear socks and we don't take off the socks.
posted by quacks like a duck at 7:29 AM on June 19, 2023 [22 favorites]
It's more or less the norm in Canada to remove your shoes when you go in someone's home and we also generally wear socks - both in our shoes and indoors. It would actually be kind of strange to go barefoot in someone's house, except maybe in the summer, though often the portion of the year where it's warm enough to wear sandals or go barefoot here is (sadly) quite short.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:35 AM on June 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by urbanlenny at 7:35 AM on June 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
We wear socks and we don't take off the socks.
Exactly that! You take off your shoes, and leave your socks on. If you're going to someone's house, you wear socks. If you're going to a restaurant (one where you take off your shoes), you wear socks.
posted by Umami Dearest at 7:35 AM on June 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
Exactly that! You take off your shoes, and leave your socks on. If you're going to someone's house, you wear socks. If you're going to a restaurant (one where you take off your shoes), you wear socks.
posted by Umami Dearest at 7:35 AM on June 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
In China, where this is a practice, every home has slippers for residents and guests to wear in the house.
posted by bearette at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2023
posted by bearette at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2023
My son caught athletes foot from someone’s house for a few weeks and their bathroom cabinet was full of treatment and so that’s just what I think. But it was in a damp country with not great hygiene practices… whereas in Germany where we normally live you have to take your sandals off in the sauna etc. but everything is SO clean and dried regularly. The athletes foot has never really gone away, it comes back every summer when the feet get hot and sweaty and my younger son eventually got it and my husband on his hands… but I haven’t so much apart from a suspected case (long ago) I tend to think everyone has this fungus on them and if you eat a lot of sugar and have a poor balance of bacteria to fight it then you will catch it if it gets on you or it will grow and be a problem if the conditions are right.
posted by catspajammies at 9:00 AM on June 19, 2023
posted by catspajammies at 9:00 AM on June 19, 2023
Yeah, athlete's foot doesn't really work that way. The one time I got athlete's foot, decades ago, I got it by using the same shower as someone who was infected every day for weeks. It didn't spread to other people in my household, possibly because we all started wearing flip-flops when showering. Because, as other people noted, that's where the pathogen is going to survive and make the jump to a new host.
Wearing waterproof sandals or flip-flops is definitely something people do when they're using a shared wet facility, like a gym locker room, a beach or pool changing room or shower, a dorm bathroom, or a sauna, because these places do present a risk of athlete's foot--they're consistently damp/humid and have dozens or hundreds of people passing through within a short period of time. (These places also tend to be fairly liberal when throwing around chlorine or other biocidal agents.) Your house just isn't like this. Not that many people are carrying athlete's foot at any given time, and even if someone at your dinner party is, they're unlikely to use your shower (unless your dinner parties are a lot more exciting than mine are). Even if a visitor is infected, if they're just walking around in house in socks, it's unlikely that transmission will occur.
posted by pullayup at 9:17 AM on June 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
Wearing waterproof sandals or flip-flops is definitely something people do when they're using a shared wet facility, like a gym locker room, a beach or pool changing room or shower, a dorm bathroom, or a sauna, because these places do present a risk of athlete's foot--they're consistently damp/humid and have dozens or hundreds of people passing through within a short period of time. (These places also tend to be fairly liberal when throwing around chlorine or other biocidal agents.) Your house just isn't like this. Not that many people are carrying athlete's foot at any given time, and even if someone at your dinner party is, they're unlikely to use your shower (unless your dinner parties are a lot more exciting than mine are). Even if a visitor is infected, if they're just walking around in house in socks, it's unlikely that transmission will occur.
posted by pullayup at 9:17 AM on June 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
Yeah, it's not as common as culturally represented, and the thing with fungus is that it goes systemic and one person will get it seemingly "over and over again" - going through can after can/tube after tube trying to treat their feet when they need oral treatment. And they should get that treatment - it can spread to your organs as well as other areas of the skin.
But most of us are pretty immune to passing exposure, in fact I think plantar's warts are more contagious than foot fungus, but both prefer a damp environment and especially in the case of foot fungus I believe it wants damaged skin - cracked, or blisters or abrasions - which is probably how it originally got characterized as "athlete's", showing up in shared showers on hard-used feet.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:22 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
But most of us are pretty immune to passing exposure, in fact I think plantar's warts are more contagious than foot fungus, but both prefer a damp environment and especially in the case of foot fungus I believe it wants damaged skin - cracked, or blisters or abrasions - which is probably how it originally got characterized as "athlete's", showing up in shared showers on hard-used feet.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:22 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think the other piece is that if someone does have it, they’ll probably wear socks by default - I wore socks this weekend just because I needed a pedicure, never mind something communicable.
Being Canadian the idea of having the outside dirt trod all over the house is more squicky than the possibility of athlete’s foot. I’ve never had it - my husband did once but all we really did was he wore socks more and cleaned out the tub thoroughly.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:33 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Being Canadian the idea of having the outside dirt trod all over the house is more squicky than the possibility of athlete’s foot. I’ve never had it - my husband did once but all we really did was he wore socks more and cleaned out the tub thoroughly.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:33 AM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
The only time I got athlete's foot was when I had to live in a house with other people and we couldn't take shoes off, because the floors were so gross, even slippers would get too grody. In all shoes-off households, my feet were fine.
posted by yueliang at 12:00 PM on June 19, 2023
posted by yueliang at 12:00 PM on June 19, 2023
If your floors are clean and dry (and keeping outdoor shoes off them helps them stay this way), it's not really an issue.
posted by Kurichina at 12:14 PM on June 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Kurichina at 12:14 PM on June 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
when they need oral treatment
To continue my anecdote, this is exactly what I did to resolve my athlete's foot--if I recall correcly, I got a prescription for fluconazole. All in all it was cleared up within a week or two and as far as I know I didn't pass it on.
posted by pullayup at 2:38 PM on June 19, 2023
To continue my anecdote, this is exactly what I did to resolve my athlete's foot--if I recall correcly, I got a prescription for fluconazole. All in all it was cleared up within a week or two and as far as I know I didn't pass it on.
posted by pullayup at 2:38 PM on June 19, 2023
I grew up and live in Austria. The polite thing is to take off your shoes. As someone mentions above it is considered very gross to wear street shoes indoors. People keep slippers for guests ready, and some people bring their own slippers. And it is considered equally gross to not wear socks and use the guest slippers without socks or even worse to walk around barefoot when visiting someone's home. Of course in ones own home one does as one likes, i am mostly barefoot in my home.
Exceptions are made for people not mobile enough to change shoes easily, but they will apologise and explain why and wipe their soles.
In summer i tend to go sockless in sandals, but bring a pair of socks with me when i visit someone and wear their slippers.
Athlete's foot is not a general issue of concern here, but street dirt is (especially in urban areas where dog poop and urine are rampant) and in the country side mud and gravel.
We walk a lot more here so shoe soles get more dirty i suppose? Also the weather is quite often wet , especially between October and April. All urban streets and most rural roads have sidewalks which are also made safe for walking in icy and snowy conditions by sprinkling salt and gravel, and together with the snow slush shoes and soles are dirty and wet.
posted by 15L06 at 3:46 PM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Exceptions are made for people not mobile enough to change shoes easily, but they will apologise and explain why and wipe their soles.
In summer i tend to go sockless in sandals, but bring a pair of socks with me when i visit someone and wear their slippers.
Athlete's foot is not a general issue of concern here, but street dirt is (especially in urban areas where dog poop and urine are rampant) and in the country side mud and gravel.
We walk a lot more here so shoe soles get more dirty i suppose? Also the weather is quite often wet , especially between October and April. All urban streets and most rural roads have sidewalks which are also made safe for walking in icy and snowy conditions by sprinkling salt and gravel, and together with the snow slush shoes and soles are dirty and wet.
posted by 15L06 at 3:46 PM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Agree with the rest of the Canadians here. My first thought when pondering this question was “people are in other people’s homes barefoot?”. I never ever wear shoes inside someones house, but have socks on 99.9% of the time. Even if barefoot outside or in sandals I’ve been known to have a spare pair of socks in my bag for this exact scenario. But I might be the outlier there.
posted by cgg at 4:21 PM on June 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by cgg at 4:21 PM on June 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
Even if barefoot outside or in sandals I’ve been known to have a spare pair of socks in my bag for this exact scenario. But I might be the outlier there.
It's funny - I was just thinking about this and I realized I have "family and friends I'll kick my sandals off with" and "most people other than those few, where I'll use the socks I have in my purse." But I also think a lot of socializing in the summer is outdoors.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:31 PM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's funny - I was just thinking about this and I realized I have "family and friends I'll kick my sandals off with" and "most people other than those few, where I'll use the socks I have in my purse." But I also think a lot of socializing in the summer is outdoors.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:31 PM on June 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
My family (like most Indians) are usually barefoot inside the house. In hot countries sandals are worn, not boots or shoes, so there is less opportunity for moisture to get trapped. You wash and dry your feet before coming inside or as soon as you come in.
When visiting other people's homes, we follow whatever their customs/requests regarding footwear are. Living in Europe customs dictate we wear socks or slippers rather than going barefoot.
posted by wandering zinnia at 9:12 AM on June 20, 2023
When visiting other people's homes, we follow whatever their customs/requests regarding footwear are. Living in Europe customs dictate we wear socks or slippers rather than going barefoot.
posted by wandering zinnia at 9:12 AM on June 20, 2023
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posted by branca at 5:09 AM on June 19, 2023 [21 favorites]