Heal Cracked Heels Naturally: Remedies & Supplements for Skin Health

Cracked heels are hard to beat but recently I broke an oregano capsule and rubbed in on my heels and between my toes before doing my gardening. I didn't think it worked because my feet were quite dry afterwards so I put vaseline on them and went to work well that night they were much smoother. Different than just using vaseline. Also for skin I have had luck with tea tree oil, put it on a facial blemishes as soon as you notice them. One I felt coming up under the skin, I put it on and went to bed it was gone in the morning. If you have red spots on your face or scar tissue I find flax oil is the most antiinflammatory.

For dry cracked heels/feet use vaseline. Soak feet in ACV then remove dead skin, dry then apply vaseline to feet and put on clean pair of socks. Do this daily for smooth as a baby's butt. Do this treatment daily for life & you will have no foot problems.

Thank you so much for this solution to cracked heels. Two nights of vapor rub and socks and my feet are smooth, smooth.

I have had extremeley dry, cracked and caloused feet for years. Sometimes the cracks were so deep I was concerned they would become infected. Somewhere I had heard that mentholated rub applied to them and covered with clean dry socks overnight would help so I tried it. I smeared my feet with a generous amount of rub and put my socks on, by the very first morning the layers of dried skin peeled off. My feet after just 2 treatments are soft and have not looked and felt this good in years! Even the deep crack is almost gone. Thank you Vapo rub.

I wanted to pass on the success I've been having with treating my cracked heels and athlete's foot/toenail fungus. First, for a long time I didn't realize that all three of these were related ailments, especially the cracked heels which I had attributed to aging and dry skin. Now I realize it was symptomatic of a fungal infection.

I recently developed a "rash" on my ankle near my heel. At first I thought it was bug bites. It was a small cluster of red itchy dots. At first I tried ACV and H202 on them, but in a halfhearted way. It didn't really seem to help much. Then I got the idea to use borax, for some reason.

After bathing while my feet were still moist, I took about a teaspoon of borax powder in my hand and rubbed it all over my feet, heels, ankle, between toes, etc. The itching from the rash stopped and my feet felt "good. " I left the powder on my feet (a very thin coat remained) and went to bed. I repeated this for a few nights. The rash has been scabbing over and healing (I still don't know what caused it -- fungus or something else).

But the remarkable thing is the skin on my heels! It is healing, getting softer, younger-looking. My heels had been cracked, dry and ugly for about 5 years! I've been doing this for two weeks now, and the improvement is remarkable.

As well, my toenail fungus and athlete's foot between my toes is going away. I now have "pretty feet" and I am not ashamed to go out wearing my sandals (and no nail polish, either, to hide the ugly nails! They look normal, now).

I have also started applying a homemade ointment to my feet each morning, consisting of coconut oil, aloe, tea tree oil and lavender. This feels soothing and I think it's helping, too, but the borax seems to be the main thing.

I have had a problem with peeling and cracking dryness in my heels since I was a child. A little piece of skin would emerge and I would want to peel it right off. That would usually leave me with pain for weeks. It would also lead to cracking and painful infections over a period of years. I've used creams and ointments and petroleum jelly with some success. I've saturated my socks and ruined a pair of shoes more than once. You know, you just can't work with your feet squishing around in a slimy gel.

That said, I'm sure you can tell it was not easy for me to get any success out of using ointments. I did have some success but I did not get any great success until I tried putting duct tape on my heels. Of all things, duct tape. Crazy, huh?

Who would think that duct tape would keep my skin so moist throughout the day that I think the healing comes from the inside out. It even makes the pain go away within just a few hours. First, I tried doing it with ointments like Neosporin. That didn't work very well because the tape would not stick when my skin was oily, like that.

Then, when I washed my feet thoroughly, soaking them for 10 min. In hot soapy water and then dried them thoroughly, and used some alcohol to remove the last of excess oils, then the duct tape stuck pretty well. I keep the duct tape on for several hours during sleep and even when I'm awake. I can walk around in it and it even feels very good on my feet. Greatest part about it is that it works amazingly fast.

I would normally take a pretty coarse emery board to dry sand my heels just enough to smooth out the rough parts. But that's all it would ever take to get my heels hurting enormously, the next day. However, when I put the duct tape on immediately afterward there is no pain the next day. I can feel it tingling under the tape but no real pain.

When there was pain because I did not use any duct tape the next day I immediately started to use the tape again and within a few hours the pain went away. What could possibly be in the sticky part that kills pain? I don't know. I just know that it works. Maybe it's not the tape, at all. But maybe it is the body's own defenses, able to operate better under moist conditions. Of course I'm guessing, but what else could it be?

My process usually went something like this:

I would usually go about 12 to 24 hours "ON" and 12 to 24 hours "OFF". Repeating it over several days and weeks. Then, I would not need to do it again for several months. But you know, my problem would always come back because I obviously must have some sort of a problem with circulation, or some type of nutrient deficiency, or something I have not yet been able to identify.

I just thought you might like to try this little duct tape on the bottom of the feet system, yourself. It surely works for me.

Taking a kelp supplement helped clear up my cracked heels. I had read that iodine could cure tonail fungus and I figured it might help with my cracked heels too. It did, and quite quickly. While they were healing I used just a regular heel conditioner.

I ran out of Kelp and didn't get any more for over a month. My heels are cracked and bleeding again.

I battled with painful bleeding cracked heels for years, I put this lotion and that lotion with no real improvement. I finally discovered Cracked heel balm at walmart and tried it. It worked great but I could never stop treatment more than a day or two. I do still use it when I get lazy and forget to take care of my feet.

The best thing I ever did for my feet is get a good pair of shoes. I loved being barefoot and when I did wear shoes they were flat and light. When I started wearing a good pair of walking shoes with socks everyday my heels got better. With the added heel cream they were like new. I started using a pumice in the tub for daily care and now I use a little heeltastic before I put on my socks and I hardly ever have trouble, only if I have to go a few days in a dress shoe or a flat tennis shoe. I've recently started using coconut oil and it does a good job too, heeltastic is easier and does a great job. Also I love the ped egg! Not the grater part but the smoother part, feet like a baby!

This may seem like a stretch but it does work.

It takes around two or so months depending on how bad the fungal infection is, if it is in the toe nails that will take two to three months, but it is the only thing that cured my Dad's fungus that he had, been bothered with since his days as a Navy man, back in the mid 1950's.

You take Mentholatum or Vicks Vapor Rub, and rub a thick coat all over your feet at bedtime, and cover your feet with your socks, you must sleep in your socks. In the morning put on a fresh pair of socks, and repeat each night until the fungus, cracks and itchy smelly feet are gone.

It took my Dad two month of this and he had tried all the prescriptions, and OTC remedies and nothing worked until this. I have used it also and it does kill the fungus and dry cracked feet issues.

Nothing on the market today treats moisture loss--only SoleMates nitrile coated socks. Easy to use economical and they really work!

soaking your feet in a diluted solution of Pine-Sol will do the trick for cracked heel fungus... A physician told me this many years ago.... So when one of my children had a foot condition this is what I did and no more problems. Then I use vit. E or a lanolin and I personally use "duct" tape to cover my heels due to the fact I cannot stand my feet covered when I sleep. My condition started after Katrina when we were so involved with the clean up and I have tried everything!!!! Pine-Sol did the trick! YAY!!!

I only get cracked heels when I wear shoes that cave in at the heel area. When I wear shoes where the heel rests on a flat base, the cracked areas go away quickly.

HYDRATION and omega 3 fatty acids and coconut oil. Drink lots of pure water (non-fluoridated, non-chloridated) daily(1/2 your body weight in oz. i.e if you weigh 100 lbs, you'd drink at least 50 oz of water daily) Dry skin, including cracked heals are a sign of low omega 3 fatty acids, dehydration and poor nutrition or poor digestion of nutrient. Take cod liver oil internally. Then also after showering each day massage into your feet organic coconut oil then cover feet with socks. Do this again every night before bed, but slather more on than you would daytime and cover with socks. Clean up your diet....eliminate sugar, flour, soda, and any other junk. Eat lots of raw and lightly steamed vegetables. Drink Komboucha to help replenish your good gut bacteria. Depending on how bad your feet are, each person is different, but you will see changes and eventually your feet will be soft as a babies butt. And you will be healthier. Also it would be helpful to cook more with that coconut oil as well as eat a tablespoon or more each day.

I suffered from cracked heals for over twenty years, I tried everything, that only worked for a while Someone told me about raw shea butter for somthing else. It was working so well that I decided to use it on my feet, and wear a pair of socks to bed, the very next day I began to see the difference in my cracked heels.

I have been using it for a week now and my heels are almost healed.

Rosemarie.

Been browsing some old newsletters of Jonathan Wright's and came across this and started wondering if calloused heels and cracked heels might not have the same basic problem. Some of EC'ers might like to try this & see if it could get rid of them.

Subject: callouses on heels (wonder what this would do with the cracked heels?

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Get rid of calluses for good

Q: I've had very thick heel calluses for most of my adult life. I've tried everything from lotions to scraping to soaking and nothing seems to work. Is there anything that will help?

Dr. Wright: In the 1970s, I read a book about nutrition and general medicine written by a Yale professor. In that book, he observed that heavy heel calluses were a sign of long- term vitamin A deficiency. He recommended vitamin A supplementation for individuals with this problem.

Since that time, I have recommended the same treatment for my patients and have found it quite reliable, although in many cases it takes three to four months to begin to see results, and complete disappearance of the calluses can take eight months or more.

For adults, the dose is 75,000 units of vitamin A per day until the calluses are gone. Then you can decrease your dose to a "maintenance amount" of 15,000 to 25,000 units per day. (If the calluses return, the quantity can be increased once more.) In over 20 years, I've never observed any adverse effects with this treatment.

Two people I know had bad cases of cracked heels. They tried different doctors, creams etc. to no avail. One old school doctor started treating them with vitamin B injections and they were cured in short order.

p.s. Love this site and all the great and helpful people contributing to it. Ted is GREAT!

I do the same only I use the stuff they put on cow udders. It works great!

I am 32 years old and have suffered with dry, cracked heels (sometimes bleeding and extremely painful) for years. BUT NO MORE!!!!

Take it from me, if you want soft feet, here is what you do:

Every Night until there are no more cracks:
1)Take a foot file (looks like fine grit sand paper on a paddle) and rub it over your dry heels in order to sand off all the dead dry skin.

2)Soak your feed in a pan of hot water with about 1/4 peroxide or ACV (whichever you have on hand or whichever you prefer).

3)Once the skin on your feet has softenend up, gently exfoliate your entire foot with some type of foot scrub (sea salt and olive oil, brown sugar, borax... whatever you like).

4)Rinse your feet well and while they are still damp massage your feet with V***'s Vapo-Rub. Wrap your feet in saran-wrap and put on a pair of socks.

I always do this in the evening and go to bed with my feet all wrapped up. I enjoy the warming tingle of the menthol/eucalyptus from the rub as I fall off to sleep. And in the morning I wake up to baby soft feet!!! Once your cracked HEELS are HEALED, lol... you will need to continue the treatment 1-3 times a week.

One thing that I forgot to say in my previous post is to mark your nail file in some manner i.e. nail polish. Make it obvious so that you never use it on your finger nails or that somebody else might use it inappropriately. If you are carrying an infection of any kind (and most people do) it will be transferred to the fingers. The nail file can be cleaned with peroxide or rubbing alcohol but the dust is so minute and nail files are not easy to fully clean without a steriliser. So make sure it is kept for YOUR feet. As we say in Ireland "to be sure, to be sure".

Re cracked heels. I have had great success with the following -

Before you put your feet in any liquids use an emery board to remove any dry flaky skin. Your feet MUST be dry for this. Wet skin will only move with the emery board not fall away. The type of emery board is important. Here we use the black style. The types for nails that come in different colors i.e. pink blue etc. The reason you don't want to use the metal ones or the one designed specifically for the feet that are like cheese graters is that they are too hard and pull too much skin at once from what is already a very dry area. Think of how they would leave the cheese looking. I always recommend that this can be done while watching the telly or listening to the radio cos you can't damage yourself with these as you can with the metal type. Try to get the hard bit on the edge of the cracks without making yourself sore. You will be very surprised at the amount of dust that you will see coming away from your skin but this is normal. The brown old fashioned emery boards are too gentle and the black ones are perfect. When the dust stops flying move to the next part. If you are getting sore at all you have done enough for the day. More will come off tomorrow.

Rinse that dust off your feet as while it is blocking your pores you will absorb nothing transdermally. And it should only be dust, if you see larger bits of skin the emery board is too strong for you. At this stage you can soak your feet in any liquid of your choice i.e. anti-fungal, vinegar, peroxide or oils or salts for as long as suits you. Doing this with a couple of sports clubs some of the men chose to do it with plain old washing up liquid (detergent). So it is a case of whatever suits you. Use antiseptics or peroxide if there is any chance of an infection or dirt being caught in the cracks as it may close over the dirt and cause a diferent problem.

Then this is most important. Pack the cracks with some kind of thick oil. Our choice at the time we did this was vaseline but some would not choose this because of the petrolatum issue. Whatever you use press it over the crack to ensure that it has gone in the full depth. These cracks cannot heal while they are dry. If you had an operation on your stomach and the skin dried out to the same extent it would not heal either. We usually put large medical issue bandages over them to keep the vaseline on the feet.This won't suit everyone so a cotton pair of socks will do. The people we did this with all had to walk home so bandages were needed to keep the vaeline well packed. Wash next day as normal and leave bandage off. You want your feet fairly dry to repeat the process the next evening.

Remember it will be easy to slip on the floor until this is washed off. Do the same the next evening and continue til necessary tapering the amount of times done as they heal.

This worked within 3 days for some and some took approx 2 weeks. But it makes sense that the hard skin needs to go and the skin to be wet for the cracks to knit together.

As for the fungal infection. Many people will only treat the area that they can see the infection on. The human eye cannot see all of a fungal infection so if it spreading nor can they see it when it is at the last stages of treatment so it is very important to treat outside the area and for a lot longer that you can see it or feel it. My husband picks up an athletes foot while he is travelling for business on a regular basis. He never feels it but we can see it between his toes. We only know he has it when I catch it because I get the itching and burning long before I can see it. We use a providone iodine antiseptic wash which is normally used for pre-operation swabs in a footbath then antifungal medicated creams. Because he gets the moccassin type we bathe and cream his feet up to the ankles. I only get the moccassin type around the toe area so I only need to cover the shoe area. This is a long winded way of telling you how to do it but it actually doesn't take long perform it. The longest part of it is how long you choose to soak you feet and it is our tried and tested method.

soaked feet nightly in drugstore strength hydrogren peroxide until cracks were healed.