This all pretty much started off as heat rash.

I worked as a cook for a long time. I was trained as a chef. I worked in hot steamy kitchens. Started having problems then.

Even after I got sick and had to quit working as a cook, the problem did not go away.

Was getting little blood blister like things. Painful. They would pop from rubbing and then there would be a weeping sore. Problems kept getting worse and worse no matter what I did to try and clear it up.

Doctor explained it to me this way. Pants, in particular, denim or other tightly woven fabrics, when you sweat, will actually hold in more heat and moisture. Causing more sweat. Sweat soaks into the fabric, clogging it with more moisture and oils and such, making it hold in even more hot humid air. In a desperate attempt to cool off, your body opens all it's pores full tilt to try and cool off, which it can't do. All your dirt, grime, bacteria, filth, all that stuff that comes from being hot and sweaty and such, actually gets into the pores and clogs them up, causing severe irritation, infections, inflamation, etc. You basically create natures perfect germ kitchen in your pants. All that sweat and oil lines the inner parts of your pants, holding everything in. Humidity and heat levels rise considerably, creating a perfect breeding ground for all sorts of nasty things. All that filth and scum can actually get under the first layer of skin. So even a hot shower is not as effective as one might hope for getting clean. Nothing short of a complete and total soak with an antibacterial disinfectant will actually get you clean. You need something that soaks in deep. Regular soap leaves behind a residue on your skin that actually makes this problem worse. Almost all the things that you would normally think would help you actually contribute to the problem. So this stuff lives under your skin, down inside where it is safe. And when you put on your pants and get hot and sweaty, you make it fire up and reproduce in mass. It's a viscious cycle that has no end unless you break the chain somehow. The easiest way to break the cycle is to destroy the breeding environment. Keep your dangly bits dry and cool and away from moist humid air. In simple, no pants. No shorts. Nothing that is clingy, hangs close to the skin, can trap moisture, and can create pockets of intense moist heat that allows the problem to continue. Allow pores to function naturally with out hampering them. That means no powders, using the right kind of soaps, and not letting your dangly bits sit in a bunched up bit of scummy fabric stewing in a bacterial swamp.

You have hundreds of thousands of bacteria on your skin at any time. Most of them are dormant. Most of them never both you. Some of them are even beneficial. On occasion, you create just the right environment. Just the right amount of heat, moisture, etc, and you create a perfect place for a family of bacteria to settle down and raise billions of offspring. And they wake up, and go at it with abandon. Wearing pants and having hot humid swampy pockets of air increases your chances of waking something up. And when you do get something that decides to make your nether regions home, and you get infections, and more heat, and more sweat, you wake up other stuff. Start adding in blood, sweat, and other bodily fluids, and you create a germ kitchen. Once you get the process started, it's very difficult to put an end to.