Cracked Heels?

Being very much a hermit I generally don’t go out and about much unless I have a reason to, in which case I try to bunch up everything I could possibly need to do in the next while so I can get it all over with in one fell swoop, come home to my never boring home environmnent and stay until the next time I have to go out. The other day was one of those occasions and as usual when I’m out and about I am very aware of my environment. It’s part of my being a survivalist. I pay attention to every single detail around me which is something I now enjoy more than I used to be able to. I see the beautiful souls in the eyes of the dogs who connect with me, appreciate the magnificence of the trees near and far, the flowers in their many colors and shades where some are amazingly fragrant and although I prefer animals over people I’m always intrigued by many of the souls I encounter along the way.

By the time I get home it’s like I’ve been in part of a docu-movie that I can ponder on and like most movies, there’s always one or two things that stick with you for a while and in this case it was a lady in front of me in a grocery store line up. Like me she was still in summer footwear in the last week of our beautiful September here and after noticing her shoes, my eyes zoned in on her poor cracked and shredding heels. I have been there! Mine were absolutely awful at one time too! Oh how I wanted to tap her on the shoulders to start a conversation on it so that maybe, just maybe I could help her prevent more suffering but I wasn’t feeling she’d be receptive. Was I wrong? Should I have butted into her life with my knowledge? I don’t know, but it has niggled my mind ever since so I thought I would spill it all here in the hopes that she or anyone else with cracked heels would like to know why and what they can do about it, hopefully they find this blog and it’s of some use to them.

If you have any medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, existing skin conditions or challenges that create skin challenges, this is the first place I’d look as well as the side effects of any prescriptions you’re on and because this part of this subject alone is all but a book in itself, I’ll leave it with you to investigate that with yourself and your medical team first.

Assuming there’s nothing there in what I’d just said, then quite often this is the result of walking barefoot a lot, standing for long periods of time and/or wearing open-back footwear. I myself wish I had a desk that I could walk and type simutaneously at as I love to move and yes, I love to be barefoot unless I’m cold and like I mentioned before, up until 2009 my heels used to be painfully cracked most of the summer as a result of that. About that time I started learning some of the things I now know through a few really smart women who also knew about cracked heels and they suggested the obvious of using a moisturizer on them which as you probably already guessed, I had tried many different brands and all they did was leave my feet feeling greasy and gross. I’d slather it on and then put thin socks on at night before bed and that did nothing either but I was using those store brand, not this and it worked. Seriously, within a week the problem was resolved. Like Frank’s Hot Sauce, I now put that $&*! on everything oops I mean the rest of my skin. If you really want to pamper yourself you can use the other one that I also love which is actually a shea butter cream, to die for and both work very well. Try this on a regular basis, key words “regular basis” and watch what happens!

Many every day household products like the detergents and soaps we use can slowly strip our skin of it’s natural oils. Do you wash your floors barefoot like I do? Clean your shower while you’re in it? Walk barefoot on concrete? Something you could consider doing is switching to all natural cleaning/home care products. There’s many brands to choose from so be diligent in your search and hey, I’m all for cleaning my shower while I’m in it but not at the risk of it having negative effects on me, so this is what I’ve been using instead.

Another cause of dry cracked heels is dehydration. This can be part of the aging process where we need to pay more attention to proper hydration as quite often we’re not drinking enough water to compensate for things like sweating a lot or perhaps you’re spending most of your time in an air conditioned environment or you live in a dry climate? All of these can make you more prone to experiencing the cracking of heels, sometimes it’s downright crippling!

So far I’ve covered the easier reasons we might experience cracked heels which is from the outside in, now let’s talk about the reasons from the inside out. Our heels are part of our biggest organ, our skin and we’ve covered the what’s, why’s and how’s of helping our heels on the outside but if this a chronic condition that you’ve had enough of and want to reverse it then it’s important to ingest the right supplements and always I recommend beginning with a good quality multi-vitamin. That alone might be all you need but chances are adding food choices that contain things like vitamin C, E and a good Omega 3-6-9 blend can be of help. I myself add coconut oil to my smoothie or my fatbomb coffee and find that’s also quite helpful for many things as well as my skin. I myself need a lot of supplements so if you’re like me where having to open up several bottles throughout the day is annoying you can always go with a portable strip in the name of convenience like this one that I use.

It’s also recommended by many experts to take B-3, some say B-1, others blame it on lack of B-6, even B-12 and yes it could be any one of those or a combo of but if you want one of the B’s to work, just like the A-team you need the rest of the B-team as they are meant to work together, so taking the full B-Complex where you’re keeping your urine a bright orange-yellow color (2 – 10 tablets a day, depending on stress) will not only help with the heels but with other things like improving your energy, your nervous system, diarrhea and reducing your stress, not that we ever have stress right? As part of my regiment B-complex is what I found to be most helpful for my heels and how I confirmed that was by not taking it for a while this summer. They started to crack again! Now? I take my B-complex several times a day again as for me this seemed to end my issue with cracked heels being a problem.

So it comes down to better nutrition both inside and out, eliminating chemical causes and being mindful of including our heels in our skin care regiment and for the guys (and some of us tomboy like ladies too), just like our cars needs good wheel and tire care, we need good foot/heal and good footwear to keep us moving too. I’m hoping something I’ve said here is of use to you, please let me know if you have questions, I’m pretty easy to find and love helping others to feel better too, thanks for taking the time to be here, I really appreciate it.