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Calluses – What They Are and Where They Come From 

Calluses are the area of thick and hardened skin that people usually find on their feet.  It doesn’t matter if you are an athlete or just someone who does a little bit of walking here and there, anyone can get a callus on their foot.  They are usually formed simply from the constant friction your experiences each and every day from being rubbed up against your shoe.  Scientifically speaking, they are really the body’s defense mechanism to help keep the tissues that lie underneath the skin from being damaged.  Having a callus on your foot is usually more a cosmetic problem than anything, but if you let it go untreated for too long, it can become very painful, especially when you stand up and put pressure on it.

You will most often find calluses on the heel of your foot, also known as the ball, but they can sometimes also be found under or on top of your toes, especially the big toe.  Even a callus on your foot can usually be treated fairly easily yourself at home, it sometimes can be a sign that there is some kind of underlying problem with your foot.  The callus could be telling you that the joint has somehow come out of alignment or maybe even something else.  This is why, despite being able to treat it yourself, you should still consider having a doctor take a look at it, just to be sure.

Sometimes it might be a little hard to see whether or not you have calluses on your foot or simply just a patch of dry skin.  With a callus, you distinguish it by a hard and thick patch of skin on your foot, which might have a tiny bump in the middle of it (a corn).  It will also usually be painful if you apply too much pressure to the area around the callus or rub it up against something.  If you have one, you should never cut the callus to try and remove it.  This can be dangerous as it will almost always lead to an infection.

There are number of different groups who are more susceptible to having calluses on their feet.  These people include the elderly, as they are losing the fatty tissue on their feet, people who wear shoes that are too tight or narrow.  People who also spend a lot of time standing or athletes who regularly run, causing friction on their feet, are also high risk groups.