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Extremities › Feet › Corns and Calluses

Symptoms and Causes

Pressure and rubbing causes calluses on the bottoms and sides of the feet. They can also form on the hands, and even on the elbows and knees.

Corns form between toes and remain soft from foot perspiration. They occur from the rubbing of adjacent digit bones.

Corns are more painful than calluses.

Treatments

• Wear proper shoes! Never wear tight-fitting footwear!

• Do not use "corn plasters." These contain acids intended to eat away at the corns. But they also eat into nearby normal flesh.

• Do not cut corns and calluses! This only makes the situation worse. This especially applies to diabetics. As soon as a corn develops, apply oil to soften it.

• Soak your feet in very diluted chamomile tea. It will both soothe and soften the hard skin. (The stain the tea makes on the feet will come off easily with soap and water.) Or just soak the feet in comfortably hot water for several minutes. Then apply a hand cream which contains 20% urea. This will help dissolve the hard skin. Do this daily.

• Another formula is to soak the area in a mixture of oil of wintergreen, witch hazel, and black walnut tincture, daily. Use a pumice stone and emery board to trim down the corn or callus.

• Yet another formula is to crush 5-6 aspirin tablets and mix into a paste, by adding a half teaspoon each of water and lemon juice. Apply this to the hard-skin areas. Put the foot in a plastic bag, wrap a warm towel around it, and sit for 10 minutes. Then unwrap the foot and scrub the area with a pumice stone. The dead, hardened flesh should come loose and flake off.

• Put a few drops of citric acid on the area. The next morning, use an emery board or a pumice stone and rub off the dead skin.

• A variant method is to soak a piece of cotton in fresh lemon juice or pineapple. Bandage the cotton over the area. It will dissolve it. But you must be persistent.

• Any sweet oil rubbed on the area several times a day, plus the use of the emery board or pumice stone, will skim off the dead flesh.

• Try putting some lamb's wool between the toes, to separate them (after buying larger shoes).

• You can purchase Stella's Stretch All (or another leather-stretching solution) from a shoe store. Apply it to the shoes and then walk in them while wet. Repeat this frequently, and the leather shoe will widen out.

• Women should never wear high-heel shoes. They ruin the feet, damage the spine, and throw the pelvic organs out of place.

• Women should not wear pumps; these are shoes which cause the foot to slide forward, jamming everything into the front. Instead, wear an oxford-style shoe, with laces. This properly cradles the foot.

• Always buy shoes which breathe; leather is the best.

• An undersized shoe will damage the toes and cause corns, etc. An oversized shoe will produce friction and break the skin. But, of the two, oversized shoes are the less harmful.

• Some calluses are useful, never painful, and should not be disturbed.

This page was last modified on 8 December 2010, at 17:31.

URL: http://naturalencyclopedia.com/Corns_and_Calluses

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