Some foot care and health information

Here is information about foot care. To see a list of all skincare articles, please go here. To see a list of general health information, please go here.


About calluses on the feet and other places.

Callus is thickened and hard skin. All the leyers of the skin are thickened, but the horny leyer at the outer lining of the skin, epidermis, is most prominently engroossed. Sometimes the Sometimes the callus develop in such a fashion that it resamble a grain or little oblong stone. Such calluses that are most frequent on the finger tips are called corns.

Calluses develop becaused of repeated and prolonged physical impact on a body part over long time, like friction, pressure and also exagerated sun exopsure.  These impacts stimulate the cells of all the layers to divide and get more and stimulate to increased production of fibres that are deposited in the room between the cells.

Some conditions can make calls develop on skin areas without any unnormal physical impact. Such conditions are: Arsenic poisoning, syphilis. There is a benign condition called keratosis palmaris, which produces corns in the creases of the finger and a condition called  keratosis planteris where the corns are seen in the creases of the toes.

The cells in the outermost leyer of the skin, the epidermis, will divide the most. As these cells divide, old cells are deposited outwards. These old cells die, get dried and forms a layer made of horn stuff, keratin, that covers and protects the skin.  The increased proliferation of cells in the epidermis makes this horny layer extra thick, and this thick layer of horn stuff is the most prominent feature of the calluses.

Calluses develop particularly often on the feet, especially at the heal, the toes and toeballs. Often the reason is unfitting shoes and shoes with hard material.

Calluses are not dangerous in themselves, and may even be useful for the protection of certain areas of the skin if they are not too thick and hard. Calluses can however break apart and make chronic ulcers and they can be ugly. The thick horn layer will impair the blood circulation and make the tissue under the callus weaker so that ulcers can develop. People with diabetes often have an impaired blood circulation beforehand, and the effect from the callus can then easily cause disintergration of the underlaying tissue, bleedings and ulcers. Ulcers under and near the calluses can also easily be infected.

The best way of preventing calluses to develop, is to wear some protective and impact absorbing sheet between the skin and hard objects that often are in contact with the skin. Things that can be used for such protection are gloves, soles, socks and the like. It is also important to use shoes that fit well to the shape of the feet.

The horny layers of the calluses can be etched away with products containing suited acids, like lactic acid and salicylic acid. The horny layer can also be honed down mecanically with pimpstone or metallic rasps made for that purpose, either in dry condition or after being wetted. If one thereafter allways protects the skin for new repeated hard impacts, the thickness of the differnt skin layers will also gradually decrease.

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About athlete's foot or infection in the foot skin by fungi

Athlete's foot or Tinea pedis is an infection in the skin of the feet by a fungus, most often of the genus Trichophyton. The infection is usually confined to the outer area of the skin and the nails and attacks usually only the feet, but the same kind of infection can also spread to other body areas, for example the groin. Athlete's feet gives graish-white layers or flakes on the skin and the affected areas will be itching.

The skin can peel or the flakes can scale off and thereby also cause cracks or sores. The skin can also get inflamed and swollen and sometimes there are blisters. There can be an allergic reaction towards the fungus and this reaction can affect other areas of the skin than the site of the infection and cause blisters also there, for example in the hands.

The infection usually begin between the outermost toes, the fourth and fith ones, and spread to areas between the other toes, to the rerst of the toes, to the heels and other areas at the foot and sometimes further to the nails. Affected nails will get thicker, miscolored and brittle.

Athlete's foot can be mistaken for other types of infection in the foot skin, for example foot ringworm caused by other types of parasitic fungi. Ringworm causes thick circular or ring-shaped lessions.

The primary cause of athletes foot is transmission of the fungus from infected individuals to new hosts. Such transmission most often ocuur in moist areas where people walk barefoot, like locker rooms and showers. The fungus most easily grow and infect the foot if the feet are not cleaned well eached day, if the feet are kept moist. sweat and warm and if you use tight footwear that hold moisture inside.

The physician can usually diagnose the infection only by looking at the feet of the patient. When i doubt specimens from the skin can be examined more specifically.

By the KOH-test a little material from the affected areas is scraped off, then appied onto a glass plate. then treated by the a solution of the eching basic substance KOH. The skin cells in the specimen will then dissolve, but not the fungus. Then the treated specimen is examined in the microscope where the structures belonging to the fungus can be seen.

You can prevent this this type of skin infection at the feet by several simple measures.

- Wash your feet well every day.
- Have some footwear on when you are together with other people in locker rooms and dousces.
- Dry your feet well when they have been wet.
- Use footwear that allow exchange of air between your feet and the outside.
- The footwear shoull keep your feet plesantly warm, but not so warm that you are sweating.
- Using talcum powder or another moisture absorbing powder on the feet after wash can further help to keep the skin dry and prevent the infection.

The measures to prevent athlete's feet will also be a part of the treatment for the infection and often these measures are enough to get the infection go away.

To be sure that you get rid of the infectionr, you can use over the counter medications with anti-fugal ingredients like miconazole, clotrimazole, or tolnaftate. These take the form of gels, salves, sprays or powders.

Natural remedies containing tea oil or the compound Ajoen extracted from garlic are used as natural remedies for athlete's foot.

To be sure the infection is fought down, you must often use the drug in a period of 45 days or more. The iching will typically cease quickly, but that does not mean that the infection is completely gone.


These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This information is nutritional in nature and should not be construed as medical advice. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.