Foot Care Tips

Causes of Cracks in the Skin of the Feet

Cracks in the skin of your feet are almost always due to your skin being too dry. Some people are more prone to dry skin on the heels and soles of their feet than others, but almost everyone experiences cracks in their feet at some point in their lives. Unless you are a diabetic, these cracks seldom develop into a serious medical condition, but they are bothersome and can become quite painful. The root of the foot cracks problem is that your skin does not have adequate moisture retention capacity. As a consequence, the skin on the heels and soles of your feet cracks. The cracks further reduce the moisture retention capacity and this vicious circle results in more and deeper cracking.

Foot Care Tips for Dry, Cracked Skin

For centuries, shea butter has been used in Africa for foot care - to treat dry, cracked skin and to keep the skin moist and healthy. In the 1900's, the French discovered shea butter and began to use this magical substance sparingly as an ingredient in expensive moisturizers. Shea butter is now finally becoming more readily available world wide.

Shea butter, especially Karite Gold Original Formula with its additional essential oils, is a wonderful agent for foot care since it revitalizes skin cells so that they regain their moisture retention capacity. Unrefined shea butter not only contains a high moisturizing fraction, but also contains an extraordinarily high healing fraction.

The Healing Fraction: Because of age or a genetic predisposition, the skin cells in our feet sometimes become porous and insufficiently elastic. When a moisturizer is applied, it hydrates the cells, but the cells quickly lose the moisture. The essential oils we add to Karite Gold work synergistically with the shea butter's healing fraction to restore the skin cells' elasticity. As the healing progresses, the cells continue to admit moisture as before, but after the healing are better able to keep it from escaping.

The Moisturizing Fraction: Shea butter is a particularly good moisturizer because it penetrates the skin quickly, while leaving it feeling softer and smoother with no oily residue.

For the most effective foot care, apply a moderate amount of Karite Gold to the cracked area of your feet at least once a day. After you have coated the cracked area with shea butter, spend some time making sure that the shea butter works its way down under the surface of your skin. First move your fingers back and forth in the same direction as the cracks; then move your fingers in a circular motion across the cracks.

Click here to find out how you can order shea butter for foot care - to revitalize and moisturize the dry, cracked skin of your feet. Click here to learn about other skin problems, besides feet with dry, cracked skin, that shea butter has been known to help. Click here to go back to the top of this Foot Care Tips page.