Heel Healing 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 help. What could possibly be causing this problem? And is there anything that will help?
JVW: In the 1970s, I purchased and read a small volume about nutrition and general medicine written by a Yale professor. In that book, he observed that heavy heel calluses were a sign of insufficient vitamin A over a prolonged period of time. He recommended vitamin A (not beta carotene) supplementation for individuals with this problem.
Since that time, I have recommended this treatment for my patients and have observed that it is 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, I generally recommend 75,000 units a day until the calluses are gone. Then you can cut back to a "maintenance dose" of 15,000 to 25,000 units a day. (If the calluses return, the quantity can be increased again.) In my 30 years of recommending this treatment, I haven't observed any adverse effects from it.
Please note, though, that heel calluses are not the same as having dry, cracked, and occasionally bleeding heels: That's a different problem. Heel calluses are usually heavy calluses extending along the inside of the heel from near the back of the foot to the front part of the heel. |
