Heal Cracked Heels Naturally: Remedies & Supplements for Skin Health

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.

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 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.

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.

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

Castor oil for cracked heels.

I recently read how castor oil helped someone with cracked heels. My girlfriend has been suffering with this for many years. I suggested that she try it. She said within days of applying it and rubbing it in before bed at night, that her heels have never been so smooth and crack free.

After 5 years of painful cracked heels, I finally tried Mentholated Vapor Rub on my feet. UNBELIEVABLE! The pain was completely gone in 24 hours and has not returned. Cracks closed up. No more walking around on my tippy toes because of severe pain.

I wrapped my heels in plastic wrap and tape after applying the Vapor Rub. I kept both heels wrapped overnight and by morning my feet were healed. AMAZING!!!

I have severely dry feet with horribly cracked heels, esp in the fall and winter months. I have been testing various remedies to see which one works best the past few years. My remedy tests include pure shea butter, olive oil and coconut oil, all applied externally and massaged into the bottom of the feet. I have also tried taking borage, fish and evening primrose oils (not altogether, one at a time).

Hands down, fastest and best results were applying coconut oil and then putting a cotton sock on. I do this twice at night, before or after dinner and then again before going to sleep and in the morning my feet are impressively softer with less indentation in the cracks. Not terribly fond of the coconut oil smell, but learning to live with it!

Great info on the zinc for splitting fingers. I just want to add one thing. My mom whose 60 has had splitting finger tips her whole life which got very bad to the point that it looked like her skin was unravelling at the seems. The lines would follow her fingerprint marks and just seperate like little layers being pulled apart or layers of onion without anything holding them together. She cried and bled out daily and had to stop washing dishes altogether or getting her hands wet. I started getting the same issue when I was 39 after a health issue that left me house ridden for about 4 years.

I one day was leaving my mom's house and she made the remark about her and I being identical in the same way that we are vampires, meaning we don't go out in the sunlight, and it hit me. She never liked going outside during the day all of her life and especially adult life and I had been indoors for a long time when mine started. I had a flash back on vitamin d deficiency causing split fingers in many people tested for their vit d levels as well as vit c levels which contribute to the production of collagen which holds the skin together. I take vit c daily (around 4 to 5k mg) and have for years but mom never took any vitamins and perhaps that is why she had it soo much longer than me, but she started the vit c at 5,000 mg per day which gave her zero diarrhea (this means her body was using up the full amount taken because if her body did not need this much it would have used what she needed and the rest would have gotten spilled over into the intestines as diarrhea which is what is referred to as bowel tolerance) .

I started taking 10,000 iu of vit d along with vit k because the body relies on vit d to activate over 100,000 hormones and functions in the body but needs vit k to process the vit d properly.

Within 2 days my fingers were heeled up and felt soooooooo much better. I would cry from the pain and inflammation from the scores of splits all up and down my fingers.

Mom's fingers healed up wonderfully and she still had problems with feet (heel) fissures but she is now obese as well as diabetic. I found that the so called healthy canola oil is really death waiting to happen and is being forced into our diet under false pretense as heart healthy but in actuality is not healthy at all and there is not even really a such thing as a canola plant. It comes from a hybrid rapeseed plant and has omega 3 added to it afterwards do to the lack of heart healthy ingredients. Labels are now even adding organic to the canola deception but how is this possible when the plant is not even organic in nature.

The true underlying cause of diabetes is using bad oils such as canola(stands for Canadian oil plant) Canada was the first to create it and name it. The bad vegetable oils create an artificial fat wall around the cell which prevents the uptake of glucose (sugar that every cell in the body needs as fuel). This creates an insulin imbalance and takes up to 6 months to undo the damage from one serving of vegetable oil. The imbalance of insulin and glucose now disrupts the electrical balance of the cell. We are all electrical beings who rely on electric as fuel( men have actually given up all foods meat and veg, alike and lived off the power of the sun by sun gazing(google man lives for 15 years without food by sun gazing) we began to eat meat and this in turn lowered our vibrational frequencies.

Back to the bad oils. Never eat margarine or buy into the whole low fat lie because fat actualy allows us to lose weight opposite to what the FDA would have us believe. Lack of fat and high grain intake causes inflammation and disease. Avoid all grains as much as possible not just gluten containing grains. You can reverse all diabetes type 2 from 6 weeks to 6 months depending on weight and diet. Stop all margarines and veg oil intake and follow the budwig diet which is 4% cottage cheese 3 times per day. Mix 1 tablespoon cold pressed flaxseed oil to every 3 tablespoons cottage cheese and stir voraciously. This causes the oil to bind to the fat of the cottage cheese and allows the flaxseed oil to enter the blood stream where it goes to work breaking down the artificial fat wall around the cells so the glucose uptake can regulate itself and put in balance the cells electrical balance. cinnamon can also be added to the mix to help fix the insulin imbalance. Cinnamon acts as a synthetic insulin inside the body.

Sorry to ramble and I only lightly touched the surface and just outlined the concepts mentioned and you should research deeper into the budwig diet and all info mentioned, for yourself. The vit d deficiency was the problem for my hands splitting and the vit c and d defic was mom's problem.

Hope this helps many many people.

God bless you all.

Ive been using Vicks vapor rub for years on my cracked and rough heals and it works great. Around 6pm or so I will take off shoes, clean feet, rub in the mentholatum on the whole bottom of foot, put on socks til I go to bed, then take socks off as can't wear them at night. Baby soft heels in the morning.

Not sure if this is helpful, but I had cracked heels such as you describe some years ago. A kidney cleanse and then kidney support program got rid of the problem.

In response to the post by Kathyp (Cedarburg, WI) on 03/15/2014 in the cellulitis section...

Have you tried for cracked feet and it sounds crazy, slices of onions on the soles of your feet? Wrap with glad wrap and don socks. Do this overnight for several nights.

Onions have many benefits including anti microbial. But Google the benefits first. It's an old remedy and it works.

I had cracked heels, to which until then I prided myself on having none. This crack was deep raw and painful. It cleared up quickly after using this remedy. The onion will sting for a little bit, but is worth it. I heard cracked feet are a sign of bad digestive system.

There are many essential oils you could look at for cellulitis.. It best to see a qualified aromatherapist and also a bio chemical tissue salt consultant for options to help with all your needs

I hope this helps cheers from Australia

I have been using Castile soap on my cracked heels for about 10 days and I'm amazed. I think I have purchased every cream on the market for my dry feet but the soap seems to work so much better. I don't use any creams and think this will solve my problems but will need more time. My feet are at least 90% better!

Hi Deirdre,

Did you try the 1% Clotrimazole on your heel? It's worth a try if you haven't yet, as the cracks can sometimes be fungal related. It may take a moment because the heel skin is fairly thick, but definitely worth a try.

Niacin is antifungal and that may be its mode of action for this problem. The combination of Clotrimazole and Niacin may hit it from the inside out and the Clotrimazole from the outside in!

Art

I do take natures plus B it has a little paper in it to say how it has the actual level of B it states. Gut issues I have faced since birth and hepatic liver surgery in 2010 that made my condition worse but got healed at church 8 years later, to a degree< I don't have to soak my liver at night with castor oil any longer to control misery. Amen. Cortisol is my main issue from trauma programming, since birth. My 4 siblings have similar problems and 3 self medicate daily. I know I am old but it has been a long journey untangling the mess and Eric Berg helped me learn a lot, with my gut/cortisol understanding. My heels are better. I also use fresh comfrey mint vinegar soaks on my feet. I take a LOT of supplements. Ox bile is helping with taurine. I wouldn't have to take so many if I could get my programming to stop running in the sub conscious mind . It runs 24-7. I do go watch teaching healers on youtube and zoom church mark hemans. I study most days and learning to grow a garden. I also watched John Bergman on youtube Digestive Disorders Health Rant - YouTube He was hit by a car as an adult and then he became a doctor who teaches what he learned trying to get himself well. The spine information, as I was hit by a car at age 4 and flew about 18 feet and my head hit a fire hydrant and I had brain trauma. I had about 150 stitches, told I would die of a stroke. My mom was a violent bi polar and father a pedophile. I had split personality I discovered when I was almost 58 and I'm 64 and almost have that all worked through. I still have some dyslexia and ADHD.

Dr.Berg explains Cortisol & Long Term Chronic Stress Effects on Body - YouTube

I could write a book but I am not that focused and need Holy spirit to lead me, so hope this gives you some insights. Love, charity

Hi Charity -

Your perseverance is amazing. You've been through so much and you keep learning, trying new things and sharing with others. Thank you.

You mentioned in your post about taking supplements:

I wouldn't have to take so many if I could get my programming to stop running in the sub conscious mind. It runs 24-7.

Dr. Daniel G. Amen is a physician, clinical neuroscientist, child and adult psychiatrist, and brain imaging specialist as well as a best-selling author. His latest book is called Your Brain is Always Listening.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Always-Listening-Happiness/dp/1496438205/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=your+brain+is+always+listening&qid=1623814073&sr=8-1

It has good reviews (I haven't read it yet). It might be worth getting from the library (published in 2021 - so there may be a waiting list).

According to Dr. Amen, your brain is always listening and responding to hidden influences and unless you recognize and deal with them, they can sabotage your health, among other aspects of your life. These influences include things from your past that ignite your most painful emotions, negative thoughts, grief and loss, etc.

By the way, I'm a big fan of Dr. Berg's videos, too. I've learned so much from him. One of my favourites!

Take care,

Tessa

My mom, who is 62 and has had severely cracked heels for as long as I can remember, started spraying herself with magnesium oil (magnesium chloride). Within a couple of weeks her heels were completely smooth.

I also gave some magnesium oil to a friend in her late 40's. After 1-2 weeks of spraying in on her body, she got "baby feet". She had had very cracked heels.

Neither of these ladies sprayed it on their feet, just on body once daily after a shower. We did not know it would have this effect, but they are very happy about this!

My feet went south about 8 yrs ago. Cracked, dry, peeling all the time. My little toes and one other are thickened. Moisturizers and oils, and antifungals don't have much effect. Finally I thought maybe I need to wash them with soap to make sure the shampoo and conditioner are off. So I've been washing them last in the shower with Castile soap and soaking them in full strength vinegar every couple days. Instead of getting drier and hurting they immediately started looking better. The toes are starting to look better too. One day I put some oil on to moisturize before work and that had a bad effect. It's been a week and they aren't perfect but I'm no longer peeling chunks off (tmi! )

I as well tried Castile liquid soap after seeing the below post. Put peppermint scented on my feet and wore either plastic bags or socks to bed and in 15 days they were 90% better. It's coming back again but that lasted 6 months should've kept up with maintenance treatments but am starting the regimen again!

I have both cracked heels and dry hands. My dry hands are from washing them often and from cold. I took 500mg of niacinamide per day for a month, as Dr Berg suggested in the video and absolutely nothing happened. The problems remained (until I tried Tricia's Cracked Heel Remedies).

Thanks, Art. I did try clotrimazole cream during the winter, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I will start up again but I want to test the niacin supplementation first for a month to see if it can make a dent. Will update!

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!

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".