Corns and Callus and the older foot
Posted on 13th December 2017 at 15:07
The riveting subject of the aging foot continues and this week the natural progression is towards corns and callus.
These phenomena are not restricted to the older person or even the older woman although these are stereotypical who we think of when the words corn, and callus are mentioned.
Callus is just hard skin…
Callus is just hard skin… we all get some and there is no magic wand to prevent it, but it is caused by friction and pressure and as mentioned in the last two blogs these are increased in the older foot due to the skin becoming thinner and fatty pad loss.
Thinner skin is stretched over bony prominences and our body thinks it is helping by generating some hard skin to stop the skin tearing. This in turn becomes harder and painful and in some areas, it thickens and becomes dense and this is a corn.
Feet change shape from the moment we start walking until we stop walking and this means that older feet will be more knobbly than most younger feet. These lumps and bumps occur in the joint spaces like the knuckles would be in your fingers or on the sole of the foot under the metatarsal heads. Where there are lumps and bumps there is the opportunity for skin on skin to rub e.g. between the toes or skin on shoe e.g. tops of the toes or indeed on the sole of the shoe.
The solution is regular maintenance by a podiatrist to remove the callus and enucleate corns. Roomy shoes but not too big a size, the depth of the toe box is the key. Decent socks e.g. not tight sock or pop socks and the old favourite… foot cream!
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