(HealthDayNews) -- Planning a hike? The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine has some advice: Put some antiperspirant on your feet.
Besides improving their smell, the antiperspirant will help keep the tootsies blister free.
The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology cites a study of 667 West Point cadets who went hiking after applying either a 20 percent aluminum chloride solution or a placebo to their feet. Among cadets who used the antiperspirant, 21 percent developed blisters, compared to 48 percent whose feet were unprotected.
The downside: 57 percent of the cadets who used the aluminum chloride complained of skin irritation, which affected only 6 percent of the cadets who didn't apply it.
