Cracked Heels Anyone?

[tara]

But dry skin and cracking soles and fingers seems seasonal. Something about our seasonal rhythms.

For me it's clearly seasonal. I run around in bare feet or open footwear a lot more in summer, and soak my feet in the salty sea. Pretty sure that dries them out faster.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I have them all the time, still.

 

[heartnhands]

I have them all the time, still.

Some people never calous no matter how much work or barefeetings. Others continue to callous long after heavy work has stopped. Listening to some of RP ideas brings to mind the cleansing of seratonin production in the gut along with finding ways for calcium, Vitamin A, and topical coconut oil and or ,"Feetastic", along with consistent filing. Cutting calous is known to increase the calous. Keeping coconut oil on can only help until other stuff kicks in.

 

[RePeatRePeat]

What has made the biggest change for the better regarding my dry, cracked heels and calloused big toes? Tyromax!

Within a week of starting Tyromax, I noticed the skin peeling easily off my heels and big toes when toweling off after a shower. I am not doing anything special to help them along, but they are just naturally softening. It's impressive!

This never happened when I was on Westhroid Pure for years. Just since replacing that with Tyromax!

 

[mt_dreams]

along with regulating salt, I'm pretty sure potassium regulates skin hydration. The only time my soles get to the point of potentially cracking is when I haven't eat enough potassium for a couple of days. Once I up my potassium intake, the possibility of cracking goes away.

 

[Dayman]

Have you made sure it isn't athletes foot?
I was looking at severe pictures of athletes foot and it looks just like cracked feet.

 

[ecstatichamster]

What has made the biggest change for the better regarding my dry, cracked heels and calloused big toes? Tyromax!

Within a week of starting Tyromax, I noticed the skin peeling easily off my heels and big toes when toweling off after a shower. I am not doing anything special to help them along, but they are just naturally softening. It's impressive!

This never happened when I was on Westhroid Pure for years. Just since replacing that with Tyromax!

I'm thinking its hypo symptoms but just now don't want to start thyroid again.

 

[Philomath]

works great. Just use common sense and a light touch!

 

[whodathunkit]

@ecstatichamster: I experienced a startling and very much needed improvement in the integrity of the skin on the soles of my feet when I was using potato starch and the a strain of bacteria called clostridium butyricum. Apparently, if you're not making enough of the short chain fatty acid butyrate in your large intestine, this will affect the intergrity of your skin. C.butyricum is a big producer of butyrate. I also used a wide range of probiotics and especially ones that complemented c.butryricum like b.infantis.

All my skin improved, but it was the skin on my feet that was the most remarkable. I used to have terrible heels that would crack open painfully. If they weren't cracking they were peeling. They were so rough and hard that I'd scratch myself sometimes.

After using potato starch and the probiotics for a short while my cracked, peely heels disappeared and have stayed gone. Sight unseen. I wasn't expecting that. It's been a couple years and the effect is still holding. I no longer have to do 10 minutes of maintenance on them per day to keep them looking good enough to wear sandals or just to keep them from snagging on my clothes. I still use a sandpaper paddle on them a few times per week for general maintenance or when I want the dirt out of the creases because I'm going out (I go barefoot a lot), but I only use the paddle now for a couple of minutes as opposed to 10 minutes at a time, and I don't have to do it daily like I used to. The woman who does my pedicures once a month can't believe the difference in amount of thick dead skin she used to get off my feet compared to now. She doesn't even need to use the metal file on my heels any more. Just a much softer abrasive brick only, and only for a short time. My last pedicure there was no "foot jam" on the towel, whereas there used to be disgusting icky gray gobs of it.

C.butyricum is pretty powerful and can come with some uncomfy side effects (gas, bloating, also mood sides in some people), but I never had any problem with it and it turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself. I only take it very sporadically these days because there's no need to go overboard with it, but I still dose myself every once in a while. I also keep it on hand cuz it works very well to correct diarrhea when my dogs eat some unknown nasty. It's actually been used recently as a corrective for diarrhea from c.difficile in humans. I always use it in conjunction with other probiotics, even for my dogs. They get the same stuff I take.

IMO and IME butyrate is a key (*a* key, not *the* key) to skin integrity and skin health, and butyrate is mostly cranked out by bacteria in the intestines. Also IME it's impossible to get enough butyrate from eating grassfed butter or cream. If some of us are deficient in the butyrate producing populations of bacteria, that may be when we develop problems like this. Potato starch and c.butyricum restored the health of my feet to a degree I didn't think was possible in middle age.

Others have noticed the same effect just from improving the balance of gut flora in the intestine by doing interventions like potato hacks.

For whatever that's worth. These kinds of problems often don't have just one cause, but IMO a deficiency of butyrate is worth considering. It can be fairly easy to correct, and good starches or probiotics may be a less dicey alternative than thyroid for some.

 

[Brother John]

I'm thinking its hypo symptoms but just now don't want to start thyroid again.

E Hamster: Over the years my feet have cracked really bad but I know something that has always worked for me. I have no explanation for it though. I put cucumber juice directly on the feet, in my socks or any way I can. And eat a cucumber a day and it clears up. Sounds crazy but it has worked multiple times for me...
Brother John

 

[Kray]

E Hamster: Over the years my feet have cracked really bad but I know something that has always worked for me. I have no explanation for it though. I put cucumber juice directly on the feet, in my socks or any way I can. And eat a cucumber a day and it clears up. Sounds crazy but it has worked multiple times for me...
Brother John

You could try MSM topically, and there are several brands that sell it. I have a gel form that gets good reviews, and people say it really helps their calluses, dry skin, cracked heels & elbows, etc. Pretty inexpensive, maybe worth a try?

 

[ecstatichamster]

wow, cucumber juice...LOL.

I have some MSM too. I suppose I have to try a gel though as you say.

They are both worth a try.

 

[ecstatichamster]

@ecstatichamster: I experienced a startling and very much needed improvement in the integrity of the skin on the soles of my feet when I was using potato starch and the a strain of bacteria called clostridium butyricum. Apparently, if you're not making enough of the short chain fatty acid butyrate in your large intestine, this will affect the intergrity of your skin. C.butyricum is a big producer of butyrate. I also used a wide range of probiotics and especially ones that complemented c.butryricum like b.infantis.

All my skin improved, but it was the skin on my feet that was the most remarkable. I used to have terrible heels that would crack open painfully. If they weren't cracking they were peeling. They were so rough and hard that I'd scratch myself sometimes.

After using potato starch and the probiotics for a short while my cracked, peely heels disappeared and have stayed gone. Sight unseen. I wasn't expecting that. It's been a couple years and the effect is still holding. I no longer have to do 10 minutes of maintenance on them per day to keep them looking good enough to wear sandals or just to keep them from snagging on my clothes. I still use a sandpaper paddle on them a few times per week for general maintenance or when I want the dirt out of the creases because I'm going out (I go barefoot a lot), but I only use the paddle now for a couple of minutes as opposed to 10 minutes at a time, and I don't have to do it daily like I used to. The woman who does my pedicures once a month can't believe the difference in amount of thick dead skin she used to get off my feet compared to now. She doesn't even need to use the metal file on my heels any more. Just a much softer abrasive brick only, and only for a short time. My last pedicure there was no "foot jam" on the towel, whereas there used to be disgusting icky gray gobs of it.

C.butyricum is pretty powerful and can come with some uncomfy side effects (gas, bloating, also mood sides in some people), but I never had any problem with it and it turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself. I only take it very sporadically these days because there's no need to go overboard with it, but I still dose myself every once in a while. I also keep it on hand cuz it works very well to correct diarrhea when my dogs eat some unknown nasty. It's actually been used recently as a corrective for diarrhea from c.difficile in humans. I always use it in conjunction with other probiotics, even for my dogs. They get the same stuff I take.

IMO and IME butyrate is a key (*a* key, not *the* key) to skin integrity and skin health, and butyrate is mostly cranked out by bacteria in the intestines. Also IME it's impossible to get enough butyrate from eating grassfed butter or cream. If some of us are deficient in the butyrate producing populations of bacteria, that may be when we develop problems like this. Potato starch and c.butyricum restored the health of my feet to a degree I didn't think was possible in middle age.

Others have noticed the same effect just from improving the balance of gut flora in the intestine by doing interventions like potato hacks.

For whatever that's worth. These kinds of problems often don't have just one cause, but IMO a deficiency of butyrate is worth considering. It can be fairly easy to correct, and good starches or probiotics may be a less dicey alternative than thyroid for some.

This is interesting. I actually recovered briefly from cracked heels when I went on some probiotics. But the effect didn't last very long. But I have witnessed dramatic improvement if only temporay with a change in the biome. I'm kind of hesitant though to go with resistant starch...

Here is a pic of my foot. It doesn't hurt now but it looks pretty bad:

 

[Kray]

This is interesting. I actually recovered briefly from cracked heels when I went on some probiotics. But the effect didn't last very long. But I have witnessed dramatic improvement if only temporay with a change in the biome. I'm kind of hesitant though to go with resistant starch...

Here is a pic of my foot. It doesn't hurt now but it looks pretty bad:

Whoa, that is some serious callus! Glad it doesn't hurt though. Possibly if you had some MSM powder you could dissolve it and add it to some lotion, but the gel would be so easy. You might even check out some of the reviews from various sites that sell a gel product, just to see if you'd be on the right track for your situation. Is it also possible that soaking in epsom salts could soften and heal the skin? Good way to get your Mg too! Keep us posted!

 

[ecstatichamster]

Whoa, that is some serious callus! Glad it doesn't hurt though. Possibly if you had some MSM powder you could dissolve it and add it to some lotion, but the gel would be so easy. You might even check out some of the reviews from various sites that sell a gel product, just to see if you'd be on the right track for your situation. Is it also possible that soaking in epsom salts could soften and heal the skin? Good way to get your Mg too! Keep us posted!

epsom salts didn't work, but maybe I didn't do it long enough/frequently enough

 

[Kray]

epsom salts didn't work, but maybe I didn't do it long enough/frequently enough

Yes, try the gel if you're up to the investment, but check out reviews first :)

 

[whodathunkit]

This is interesting. I actually recovered briefly from cracked heels when I went on some probiotics. But the effect didn't last very long. But I have witnessed dramatic improvement if only temporay with a change in the biome. I'm kind of hesitant though to go with resistant starch...

Here is a pic of my foot. It doesn't hurt now but it looks pretty bad:

Ooooh, Hamster, that looks pretty brutal. Mine weren't quite that bad but pretty similar. My feet would have been where yours are if fate hadn't intervened. I know what that's like. I'm so sorry!

This is kind of gross but one thing I couldn't stop myself from doing was trying to peel the hardened skin off. <sing-songy voice> Serotoniiiiiiiiiiin brain!! </sing-song>

So I would wind up peeling back the hard skin lifting up from the calluses into the "quick" of the new skin underneath...yow. Another level of pain aside from the cracks.

Anyway, you probably know this but in case you don't...resistant starch is called resistant cuz it passes through the small intestine undigested and makes it into the large where the beneficial gut bugs can munch it. My understanding is that the main complaint about starch is that it can get digested in the small intestine that's supposed to be releatively sterile and cause unfavorable growth in there. But resistant doesn't do that...passes right through. I found Bob's Red Mill raw potato starch to be very helpful.

But I've heard of other people who ate only cooked and cooled potatoes to get their RS. Something about the amylose or whatever after it's been cooked then cooled makes it resistant to digestion, too. I actually experienced more benefit from getting my RS this way, and plan some "potato hacks" again for the near future. But I was also using potato starch at the same time as I was eating potatoes, as insurance.

Boiled and cooled potatoes are surprisingly tasty, especially when you eat them by themselves as a meal with no other food.

Do what you're comfy with, of course, but my personal M.O. has always been to go with what works for me and not worry about how things are "supposed" to go. If you've got a messed up gut biome something like resistant starch and some good probiotics might be a big help to you, whereas someone without a messed up biome probably wouldn't benefit or it would even cause them problems.

Plus, these are interventions...not necessarily something you have to do every day or every week for the rest of your life. My last dose was weeks or maybe even a couple months ago. I don't count anymore, although I'm getting ready for another prophylactic dose. Point being, once you fix your biome, if you continue to live a healthy lifestyle, it won't need much maintenance after the initial intervention.

Having experienced this problem myself and performed 10+ mins of foot maintenance (scrubbing, soaking, moisturizing, etc.) per day on myself for some years, I can tell you that having this problem corrected at the metabolic root is much more convenient than apply external bandaid measures. Washing with a washcloth and a minute or so on each sole with a sandpaper paddle is all I need to make my feet smooth, pink, and pretty now. I don't use any moisturizer on my feet any more, thank heavens...I can't tell you how many pairs of shoes I ruined from having lotion on my feet all the time.

I dunno if fiddling with your biome will fix you, but from what you've said it sounds like it might be worth a shot. YMMV.

Good luck! Let us know how it works out. :)

 

[ecstatichamster]

My feet have been sore for months. So I began red light therapy. And it has cleared up my cracked heels and soles. 80% better.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Just following up...YEARS of cracked heels and cracked soles is gone completely thanks to the red light.

 

[Blossom]

Congrats @ecstatichamster.