Ever had
corns and calluses on your feet?
If there is one part of the body that is most often used and abused, that would be the feet.
How the foot was engineered is very impressive. They have been well designed to withstand a lot of wear and tear. In fact your feet support your body weight, the clothes you wear and anything that you are carrying. It can not be denied that the feet are sophisticated structures. However, even though this is the case, there is always a possibility for things to go wrong. Foot problems can arise.
Corns and calluses are two of the most common foot problems that people suffer from.
What Are Corns and Calluses
You probably know or have seen or even had a few
corns and calluses on your feet. But what are they exactly and how or why do they invade our feet? They are actually patches of skin that has toughened. They start forming to protect the sensitive foot tissue from repeated friction as well as pressure.
Corns on Feet
Corns on feet can either be hard or soft. The hard ones are commonly found on the top of toes or on the outer side of the little toes. These are the areas that usually rub against your footwear. Soft
corns usually develop between toes. They usually form when the bones of a toe put pressure on its neighboring bones.
Soft
corns, which are moist and rubbery, form between toes, where the bones of one toe exert pressure on the bones of its neighbor. Both hard and soft corns are cone shaped, with the tip pointing into the foot (what you see is the base of the cone). When a shoe or another toe puts pressure against the corn, the tip can hit sensitive underlying tissue, causing pain.
Calluses on Feet
In general,
calluses develop on a flat surface and affect the parts of the foot that bears weight. The ball and the heel are common areas of the foot where calluses form. As we get older there is thinning of the padding on the bottom of each foot.
Calluses then form naturally to provide protection from pressure and chafing. This is why as you get older, your feet are more prone to getting them.
Although corns and calluses offer protection to our feet, there are times when they are no longer just unsightly and uncomfortable but also very painful. For example, one who already has a callus on the ball of his foot and developed a corn just beneath it, can feel a very sharp pain whenever taking a step.
Calluses can eventually become painful, as with every step, the callus is pressing against the underlying tissue.
The good news is there are ways for you to alleviate the pain from
corns and calluses. We’ll discuss them in one of our posts in the future.
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