What to do about callouses on the feet?

[Query]

I’ve recetntly noticed callouses bordering on being corns on the bottom/outsides of the big and little toes and on the heels. On both feet.

Not only is my skin harder and thicker those places, but the skin adjacent to it is colored a bit reddish, possibly inflamed.

To find causes, I’m reading The Source Of All True Knowledge, Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callous

Both the toes and the heels are consistent with high pressure points from tight shoeware. The toes cuz my boots are too small there, if I don’t repunch the boots often enough. The heels cuz guys shouldn’t wear high heeled boots, like figure skates, and because the skating style I’ve been taught involves a lot of pushing through the heel.

Plus it is impossible to always equalize pressure in toes and heels, because skating includes rocking forwards and back.

They are also consistent with exposure to toxins. I’ve been skating a lot without socks, and shoe leather is tanned (filled with poisons to slow decomposition by killing all microscopic and macroscopic living things). I guess that might be bad.

I only walk barefoot indoors, a little on grass and on a hard driveway, never on rocks or shells, and the sandals I wear the rest of the time are rubber, not leather, so I don’t think that could be the cause.

The obvious answer is to wear socks, to repunch the boot near the toes more often, and to sand down the heel. Do people here agree?

By the way, callouses on feet are not normal, and should be worried about, right?

[sk8lady]

Wear socks and wash them every time you wear them. Pumice your callouses with a pumice stone; if that's not enough, buy a callous shaver and remove the dead skin.
If the inflammation gets any worse, see your doctor to make sure it's not MRSA, a skin infection which was making the rounds of hockey players earlier this year; unclean equipment contributes to this. If it itches could just be athlete's foot!

[Morgail]

I have callouses on my little toes from where I should have gotten my boots punched out. And on the bottoms of my big toes from wearing high heels too often.

Lots of skaters have callouses. They aren't pretty, but if they don't hurt or look inflamed, they aren't usually anything to worry about. You can get the boots punched out to relieve the pressure/friction (which is what causes callouses).

But if yours are bothering you, definitely see a doctor.

[jp1andOnly]

bah, callouses are nothing. Like everyone has posted, use a pumice stone and get yourboots punched. I have callouses everywhere mainly because I walk funny in shoes...like on the outside of my baby toe. Also, make sure you moisturize your feet to keep the skin from drying.

[TiggerTooSkates]

Speaking as an RN, I would advise you to stay far, far away from those callous shavers. They are not a good idea - in fact, they are a great way to get infected cuts on your feet, which nobody wants. No one - unless you're a podiatrist - should use those things. Buy a pumice stone or a foot file, and use that, but don't use one of those shavers.

I had callouses on my feet long before skating (BTW, skating boots don't exactly qualify as high heels and I doubt that your being male :) has anything to do with that; heels force the wearer to walk on the balls of their feet, and I don't know that ice skates do that) - I've had them on the balls of my feet for years, and for some strange reason I have one on top of my third toe on my right foot. I also get them on the side of my big toes - don't know why that is either.

The best advice going here is to see a doctor if they're really bothering you. Callouses themselves shouldn't be inflamed; they're just toughened areas of skin. Also - the skin on the bottom of your feet will naturally toughen if you walk barefoot - regardless of what you're walking on. I never wear shoes in my house (and I never go barefoot outside unless I'm at the beach, and I haven't been there in about two years), which probably explains a lot where my own feet are concerned.

[sk8lady]

Speaking as an RN, I would advise you to stay far, far away from those callous shavers. They are not a good idea - in fact, they are a great way to get infected cuts on your feet, which nobody wants. No one - unless you're a podiatrist - should use those things. Buy a pumice stone or a foot file, and use that, but don't use one of those shavers.



Really??? I have a nucleated callous on the ball of my left foot, just where I spin, and my nurse-practitioner and my podiatrist BOTH used callous shavers on it, so I got one--I only use it if the dead skin builds up to the point where the pumice stone doesn't do much about it (not very often anymore as I keep up with the pumice stone!).

Of course, I also only use it immediately after I shower and then dry it, put cream on it, and keep it off the ground until I put clean socks on...which no guy I know would do! (all hockey players, of course!):D

[Query]

Temporary economics bars my seeing expensive specialists.

I don't play hockey, so I use clean socks when I wear socks. 8-) But maybe not wearing socks inside boots is a lot like wearing unclean socks. So socks it is, and I hope a little boot oil will disinfect the boots, since repeated alcohol application is supposed to be bad for leather. Darn - no socks seemed to help reform the boot to my feet.

I'll skip self treatment by shavers and sanders. If I take a long hot shower, and gently rub the feet, most of the callous comes off. But not sure that is a good idea, if the underlying physical cause remains and callouses are presumably the body's natural reaction to prevent further damage by a source of harm.

MRSA sounds scary. Maggot therapy sounds worse than the disease. Do doctors need to be locked away where they can't hurt people? Perhaps rubbing alcohol couldn't hurt, since Wikipedia also mentions alcohol therapy, and they might not mean internal application of whiskey and rye.

[jp1andOnly]

Query,

Don't make a big deal about them .Wikipedia is not always right. I have never heard of anyone getting sick from them. Many moons ago, people didn't have shoes so they went barefoot and I'm sure callouses were quite the norm. If callouses make you sick, then I should have died long ago. I have callouses on my hands from doing up my skates as well as on my feet :)

Temporary economics bars my seeing expensive specialists.

I don't play hockey, so I use clean socks when I wear socks. 8-) But maybe not wearing socks inside boots is a lot like wearing unclean socks. So socks it is, and I hope a little boot oil will disinfect the boots, since repeated alcohol application is supposed to be bad for leather. Darn - no socks seemed to help reform the boot to my feet.

I'll skip self treatment by shavers and sanders. If I take a long hot shower, and gently rub the feet, most of the callous comes off. But not sure that is a good idea, if the underlying physical cause remains and callouses are presumably the body's natural reaction to prevent further damage by a source of harm.

MRSA sounds scary. Maggot therapy sounds worse than the disease. Do doctors need to be locked away where they can't hurt people? Perhaps rubbing alcohol couldn't hurt, since Wikipedia also mentions alcohol therapy, and they might not mean internal application of whiskey and rye.

[TiggerTooSkates]

Really??? I have a nucleated callous on the ball of my left foot, just where I spin, and my nurse-practitioner and my podiatrist BOTH used callous shavers on it, so I got one--I only use it if the dead skin builds up to the point where the pumice stone doesn't do much about it (not very often anymore as I keep up with the pumice stone!).

Of course, I also only use it immediately after I shower and then dry it, put cream on it, and keep it off the ground until I put clean socks on...which no guy I know would do! (all hockey players, of course!):D

There's a difference in someone using it who's trained to use it. You can get nasty, nasty infections from it. I would say that you seem to know what you're doing - but generally folks shouldn't use them. Sounds as though you keep it - and your feet - very clean before and after; that's what most people don't seem to do (and I don't understand why, because that's just gross!).

[TiggerTooSkates]

Temporary economics bars my seeing expensive specialists.

I don't play hockey, so I use clean socks when I wear socks. 8-) But maybe not wearing socks inside boots is a lot like wearing unclean socks. So socks it is, and I hope a little boot oil will disinfect the boots, since repeated alcohol application is supposed to be bad for leather. Darn - no socks seemed to help reform the boot to my feet.

I'll skip self treatment by shavers and sanders. If I take a long hot shower, and gently rub the feet, most of the callous comes off. But not sure that is a good idea, if the underlying physical cause remains and callouses are presumably the body's natural reaction to prevent further damage by a source of harm.

MRSA sounds scary. Maggot therapy sounds worse than the disease. Do doctors need to be locked away where they can't hurt people? Perhaps rubbing alcohol couldn't hurt, since Wikipedia also mentions alcohol therapy, and they might not mean internal application of whiskey and rye.

Using a pumice stone is not bad. All you're doing is removing dead skin.

Maggot therapy is actually a GOOD thing for massive infections like MRSA - all the maggots eat is the dead skin. It actually stops the infection from spreading in many cases, and has been highly successful. People used maggots long before we had antibiotics; all it represents is a "back to basics" for medicine, so to speak! But you're not going to get MRSA from a simple callous; just keep your feet and equipment clean (and you're not sharing stuff, which is another way that nasty stuff spreads. And as a final word on icky infections, NEVER walk around a locker room without something - like flip-flops or Crocs - on your feet, and NEVER use the showers barefoot. ICK.)

I wouldn't put rubbing alcohol on callouses. Since alcohol is drying, all it's going to do is cause the skin to dry out further. Put lotion on your feet - I mean really slather it on - and then put clean socks on. The socks will trap the moisture and allow your feet to absorb the lotion. Sleep with the socks on; I guarantee your feet will be softer in the morning. (You can also use olive oil - yes, good old olive oil like you have in your kitchen! - and put it on your feet with the socks on. Works the same way.)