Tag: foot pain

Splits in the skin round the heel may be both unpleasant and painful. This issue is because of the thick or dry skin, on and around the periphery of the heels. The skin on the feet is commonly more dry and dehydrated compared to the skin in other places on the rest of the body probably since there are no oil glands in the thicker epidermis on the bottom of the foot. For this reason, your skin around the heels could lose suppleness and elasticity as a result of that lack of moisture. Because of the loads of being on the feet, that dried-out skin may start to split and it can lead to unattractive, painful cracked heels that can sometimes bleed. There are many things which increase the chance for the cracked heels such as higher pressure, increased weight, poor fitting shoes (especially footwear which are open up at the back), inherited genes, unhygienic problems and inadequate footcare, and nutritional deficiencies.

To prevent cracked heels, always try to use properly fitted enclosed shoes which allow your feet to breathe and avoid footwear which are open at the back. It is important to keep well hydrated by consuming a minimum of two litres of water each day because that can help. Exfoliate your skin on a regular basis and moisturise daily with a good ointment. When it is more severe, this probably should be done twice a day to begin with. There are many suggestions that omega 3 and zinc nutritional supplements can help you (however they do need to be used with the other treatments and not in isolation). It would also help to avoid excessive exposure of the foot to water or moist conditions. It is necessary that you wash your feet with tepid to warm water as opposed to hot water. If these kinds of methods do not help, then see a skilled podiatrist. They will get rid of the thicker hard skin and give further advice on the way to self manage.

The cracked skin that you may get around the edges the heels may be a painful condition if it is allowed to develop. This condition happens when the skin around the backs of the heel is dryer and thicker than it should normally be. As the callus builds up to make that dry thicker skin, it just splits since it is not very supple or flexible. The crack that happens in the thicker skin, then tries to split or rip the good skin below it. In the worst cases, this becomes painful, could bleed and become an for an infection, so does need to be taken seriously. The explanation for these cracked heels is not completely clear. Some individuals simply tend to have a dryer skin and some people, because of the way which they walk tend to build up the callus around the periphery of the heel. Being overweight can be another risk factor for cracked heels. Shoes that are open at the back are also believed to play a role in this disorder.

The ideal way to take care of the cracked heels is to get an experienced podiatrist to remove the thicker hard skin and then use an emollient to soften the remaining skin. You could try and get rid of that skin yourself with something such as a pumice stone or file, but that is a lot of work and needs to be done a lot. The emollient lotion used after this needs to be applied on a regular basis to keep the skin well hydrated and supple. There is a lot of opinion of what's the ideal lotion or emollient to use is and the best answer is the one which matches your skin. Some trial and error may be needed to get the best one. For cracked heels most podiatrists would advocate starting with a urea based ointment.