Dry skin or xeroderma is a common problem we see today. Some might even consider it a normal aging process, but trust me, it’s not. Dry skin can severely impact your life especially when it’s in places that matter such as your heels. They can crack or fissure and cause pain wherever you walk.

What causes dry feet?

Dry feet are caused by either internal factors such as poor nutrition or an underlying medical illness, or external factors such as excessive pressure and friction towards the feet.

Skin becomes dry because, well, there’s not much water in it. To be specific, dry skin is referring to lack of water in the top-most layer of the skin, the stratum corneum.

It’s easy to call it a day and just slap a dab of moisturizer where your skin is dry, but that’s just treating the symptom.

Once the moisturizer wears off, your skin will become dry again and the cycle continues. Why not we have a look at the underlying causes of dry skin and try to treat the cause rather than the symptom.

1. Underlying medical conditions

Medical conditions can be seemingly unrelated to skin altogether, but the body is a mysterious thing. Dysfunction in one organ can cause a butterfly effect that effects other parts of the body.

Below is a list of these medical conditions that can lead to xeroderma, but keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list.

• Hypothyroidism: this is a medical condition caused by a decreased levels of thyroid hormone in your body. A low level of thyroid hormone can cause a person to have weak bones, feel cold all the time, gain weight, depression, and have a low appetite. But especially for the skin, it can cause dryness and thinning of hair. If you are experiencing these symptoms along with your dry skin, it’s best to consult a trad medical professional.
• Kidney disease: the kidney is responsible for regulating water in your body, as in it controls how much water you pee out. if your kidneys are failing, then your body will have an imbalance of water and all sorts of minerals, causing poor hydration to your skin. But chances are, you would already know you have kidney disease before experiencing dry skin in the first place.
• Diabetes: when your blood sugar levels are consistently high for a long period of time, you might just have diabetes. This increase in blood sugar can wreak havoc on your blood vessels, damaging them over time. When the small blood vessels that circulate blood to your skin are damaged, then will become damaged, dry, and have poor wound healing. Among other symptoms of diabetes include peeing excessively, feeling thirsty all the time, and feeling a tingling sensation in your fingers and toes.

2. Skin conditions

This list won’t be complete without a run-through of the skin conditions that can cause dry skin. Skin conditions can simply be divided into two categories: inherited and acquired.

Examples of inherited skin conditions include:

• Atopic dermatitis: also known as eczema, this condition usually happens together with asthma, and allergic rhinitis in what is known as the atopic triad. Atopy is when our body has an abnormally aggressive response towards certain chemicals allergens. People with eczema tend to have itchy and dry skin when exposed to things like dust, soap, and animal fur.
• Ichthyosis: these are rare skin conditions that have an underlying genetic cause. The name itself refers to its characteristic which is fish-like skin. There are more than 20 types of skin conditions under this category, so things get complicated. But the thing to look out for is if dry skin is a thing that runs in your family. Secondly, has your dry skin started since early childhood? If the answer is yes for both of these questions, then it’s best to consult a dermatologist and get yourself diagnosed properly.

As for acquired skin conditions, these are skin disease that you get along the course of your life. This category includes:

• Contact dermatitis: this is a skin condition which happens due to exposure to certain chemicals we call allergens. When the skin becomes irritated when exposed to things such as dust, soap, or animal fur, this is called hypersensitivity. A person can develop hypersensitivity over time. Meaning, you can be fine with washing the dishes with a certain soap brand for years, then suddenly develop hypersensitivity to it.
• Tinea pedis: this is also known as athlete’s foot. It’s a type of fungal infection that attacks the webs between your toes. When a person wears tight shoes and their feet sweat all the time, the feet become a perfect breeding ground for fungi and ultimately cause the skin to become dry and scaly.
• Corn and calluses: these are skin lesions which are areas of hard skin, which developed due to continuous friction and pressure.

3. Malnutrition

Skin requires numerous different nutrients to function efficiently. Deficiency in those nutrients can cause it to lose it integrity and decreases it ability to hold on to more water.

Among the nutrients that our skin needs to be healthy are:

• Essential fatty acids (EFA): these are fatty acids that our body cannot produce by itself, so we get them from the food that we eat. Up to a third of fatty acids of the stratum corneum are obtained through out diet, so food does play a huge role here. Moreover, a research article mentioned that EFA deficiency is linked to dry and scaly skin and inappropriate water loss through the skin.
• Vitamin B3: also referred to as niacinamide, this is a water-soluble vitamin found in red meat, poultry, and fish. A deficiency in vitamin B3 causes a disease called pellagra or “rough skin”. A person might not develop full-blown pellagra, but a deficiency in vitamin B3 could be the cause for their dry and scaly skin. There was a study done in St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan which concluded that vitamin B3 reduces water loss from skin and improves stratum corneum hydration.
• Vitamin A: also known as retinoids, this vitamin plays a role in protecting the skin from infections, mainly fungal. Research demonstrated that this vitamin helps the body’s immune cells to fight off candidiasis.
• Vitamin C: vitamin C works wonders for the skin mainly in three ways: stabilize skin collagen, regulates ceramide levels, and helps in wound healing, as mentioned in this research article. Deficiency in this vitamin causes the famous pirate-gum-disease, scurvy.
• Vitamin D: our body can create calciferol when our skin is exposed to Ultraviolet radiation (UVR). However, too much exposure to UVR can cause damage to the skin and ultimately skin cancer. Nowadays, we use sunscreen to protect our skin, but this has spiked up debate as it can potentially cause vitamin D deficiency. Research has shown that deficiency in vitamin D can cause inflammation of skin cells that leads to psoriasis.
• Vitamin E: this is an essential fat-soluble vitamin present in membranes of cells. Although they have lower concentration in cell membranes, it is actually the first line of defense against free radicals. In other words, it’s a great antioxidant that protects the skin from damage, as proven in this article from the Lancet. In the skin, it is mostly concentrated in the outer layers namely the epidermis.

4. Pressure and friction

Now that we’ve talked about the nerdy stuff, let’s move on to something tangible.

One of the main and obvious reasons that your feet are dry is because you’re wearing tight shoes! When there’s excessive force and friction on your skin, it will thicken over time. In the end, it becomes so thick that barely any moisture can get past through the skin.

In severe cases, your heel can crack causing pain and bleeding. To avoid this, try finding a pair of shoes that fit you nicely and have a soft insole.

Surprisingly, over washing your feet can achieve the same effect. When you scrub your sole and feet more than you need to, it will cause micro damage to the skin and stimulates more skin production. That extra skin will accumulate leading to dry, thick skin.

How do I treat dry feet?

1. Super-moisturize your feet

The first thing you would want to do is to soak your feet in water for about 10 minutes. The goal is to let water naturally seep into the outer layer of your skin and soften that dry skin.

After soaking your feet in water, it’s time to apply a cream moisturizer to trap in that moisture. What you need is a 40% urea cream, as it is excellent in penetrating thick skin. A good choice is this product by PurOrganica, it has the right percentage of urea and is approved by the FDA.

Next, you need a special kind of sock to trap the 40% urea cream and help it penetrate through your skin. Heel repair socks like this one are made of silicone moisturizing gel that contains in vitamin E and mineral oils that help to lock the moisture, as opposed to applying cream alone. They’re also toeless to help your feet “breathe’, as you need to be wearing this for hours at a time, ideally overnight.

Ideally, you should moisturize your feet every night for 2 weeks, then do the a few times a week to prevent it from becoming dry again.

2. Remove the dry skin

Along with moisturizing your feet, you’d want to remove the dry skin and allow space for healthier skin to replace it. You can do this by using a foot file. You search up online on ways to use it, but the tip is to remove dead skin every other day for the first two weeks.

3. Supplements

After superficially treating your dry feet by moisturizing it, it’s time to heal the skin from inside out with nutrients. As mentioned in the previous section, there’s a whole variety of nutrients that play a role in skin health. Ideally, consuming natural food is the way to go but supplementation can definitely fill in those gaps.

Below is a list of natural foods that you can eat, and I’ll include supplemental options if it’s difficult to obtain the natural options.

Nutrient	Food sources	Supplement recommendation
Essential fatty acids (EFA)	Fish, fish oils, flax seeds	Youngevity Ultimate EFA Plus
Vitamin B3	Turkey, chicken, mushroom, fish, avocado	Bronson Super B
Vitamin A	Cod liver oil, liver, butter, egg yolks, cheese	Bronson Vitamin A
Vitamin C	Sauerkraut, cabbage, bell pepper, lemon	Amazon Elements Vitamin C
Vitamin D	Sunlight, salmon, sardine, egg, tuna, milk, mushroom, cod liver oil	Bronson Vitamin D3
Vitamin E	Wheat germ oil, seeds, nuts, vegetables	Amazon Elements Vitamin E

4. Wear loose footwear

A simple, and non-technical change that you can do is to wear looser footwear. On top of that, make sure that the material of your shoe is soft especially the insoles. You might also want to try gel heel pads to protect the heel of your foot, as this is the most common area for thick and dry skin to develop.

5. See a medical professional

Finally, when all methods do you no good, you should see a medical professional, preferably a podiatrist or dermatologist to sort you out. Actually, if you’ve been experiencing some other symptoms aside from the dry skin as mentioned in the first section of this article (asthma, allergic rhinitis, cold intolerance, etc.) then you should prioritize seeing a doctor even before trying to moisturize your feet at home.