Mine do. It’s horrible. I get these cracks, which then lead to large strips of skin peeling off, often exposing layers of skin that were never meant to see the light of day. Ouch. I’ve tried everything-- Kerasal, moisturizers, prescription foot creams with salicyclic acid in them, and nothing prevents it from happening every year. I can preemptively peel them with a razor, but inevitably I cut myself at least once. Also, the skin that comes off looks like scraps of leather. It’s gross and fascinating the way all strange bodily phenomena are.
Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do? I’m pretty sure I don’t have some foot disease; my dermatologist has seen the whole deal and at this point, he’s thrown up his hands in defeat (pun intended ).
It’s definitely not athelet’s foot nor any kind of infection, fungal or otherwise. I’ve had it thoroughly checked out by a GP and a dermatologist. It only happens in the summer. It’s a mystery.
I used to develop big cracks in my heals. Big painful cracks, often bloody. It happens in the summer when I’d go barefoot or in sandals a lot. My wag is that it has something to do with feet drying out - if I wore socks and shoes, the cracks got better. But who the heck wants to wear socks & shoes in the summer?!?
My solution? I moved from dry-as-a-bone Colorado to nice-and-humid Michigan. No more heel cracks!
You might try a callus shaver. I think they’re available from most drug stores. Basically you’d need to soak your feet, then you can use the shaver to get rid of the dead skin. If you’re uncomfortable trying that I’d suggest getting a pedicure. I try to go as often as I can afford and my feet (which used to be quite as you described) are much, much better.
I have the same…though I don’t think dryness has anything to do with it. I live in DC, wear shoes/socks and we have like 80% humidity from May to September
I was told it is a fungal…My MD prescribed me some footlotion with a salic or acid in it. Can’t think of the name right now. As you can guess I haven’t used it ina while even though my feet are still in a bad state - it burns though that stuff
Now that I think of it, my thumbs also crack and peel. Just the thumbs, and the heels of my feet. I tried the salicyclic acid and it did not help. I have a callus shaver but I find razors to be more effective.
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