What Causes Cracked Heels

Cracked heels, commonly referred to as heel fissures are one of the most common foot disorders affecting us and is also one of the most commonly ignored condition. How often do we stop to think how our poor feet handles the wear and tear of daily life. All the running around, standing for long hours, followed by lack of feet care conduces to formation of fissures on the feet. Cracked heels are often dismissed casually as they are not deleterious, however, they can conduce to a perpetually painful problem. Though it doesn't cause any harm, it looks ugly and often poses as a cosmetic problem.

What Causes Cracked Dry Heels?

Dry skin around the rim of the heels lead to abnormal thickening and fissuring of the skin. Inactive sweat glands also cause the heels to dry up and crack. Standing for extended hours tend to damage the sweat glands and dry the heels. Prolonged standing leads to application of constant pressure on the heels, thereby resulting in development of cracks. Moreover, obese people have a lot of extra weight on the legs and feet. This extra weight also conduces to the damage of sweat glands.

Some disorders and diseases inflicting the body such as hypothyroidism, diabetes, psoriasis, athlete's foot, eczema or atopic dermatitis, juvenile plantar dermatosis, heel spurs, etc. can also result in drying of the heel skin. Improperly aligned metatarsal bones is another factor that causes cracked heels. People on antihistamines and diuretics are also seen to be affected by dry heels. The aging process also results in gradual damage of sweat glands occurring in the feet. Deficiency of essential vitamins and minerals in the body results in inadequate provision of nutrients to the skin, which is why drying and scaling of skin is seen.

Of all these factors conducing to cracked heels, diabetes and obesity are the major causative factors. Uncontrolled levels of sugar in the body of diabetic people result in damage of nerves present in the feet. This damage results in dry skin, which further leads to cracked heels. Moreover, diabetic people are more vulnerable to sustain cracked heel infections. Obese people on the other hand, have a lot of body weight being concentrated on the two heel pads. As the weight and pressure increases, the heel pads are pressed outwards and end up expanding laterally. The dry skin in the feet is unable to withstand the pressure and ends up getting ruptured.

Besides these, environmental or surrounding factors like exposure to extremely cold outdoor temperatures or excessively dry indoor heat can also cause the heel to crack. Constantly wearing open-back sandals (mostly women) for daily wear can cause cracked heels. Moreover, improper self care and hygiene maintenance, that is not washing the legs after reaching home from a dusty trip around the city, etc., are also some of its causes.

Symptoms

Heel fissures are initially very small, however, constant negligence causes them to deepen and widen. Depending on one's skin type, the color of dry skin varies from yellow to dark brown. Red, flaky, itchy patches on the skin are also seen. Peeling and cracking of the heel skin speeds up. The outer edge of the heel becomes hard and as the fissures deepen they begin to bleed and become painful. The cracked heel pain intensifies with walking, running and other physical activities. If the cracks are not treated, cracked heel infection caused by bacteria and viruses can occur.

Home Remedies

The market is flooded with all kinds of treatments for dry cracked heels. Various exfoliance and moisturizers are available in supermarkets and drug stores, which have been manufactured to treat dry, cracked and fissured heels. Several ayurvedic products are also available to heal cracked feet. One can either try these products or look for natural measures to treat the aching foot. For softening cracked heels one can try out some simple cracked heels remedies that are effective and natural, so safe! Soaking one's cracked feet in lemon juice for 10 minutes, once every week will help in healing the cracked feet. If the cracks are not too deep, one can use pumice stone bars to scrub off the dead, thick and dry skin cells. Application of ripe banana pulp on the cracked portion of the heel for 10 minutes helps clearing the cracks.

While treating cracked feet, one needs to be patient. Never let impatience overrule! Some people succumb to impatience and end up chipping their cracks with scissors, blades and other objects. However, this practice is completely wrong.