I’ve written before about Foot Care and Heel Cracks. What barefooters have discovered is that the magic ingredient that really makes the difference is urea.
I have a recent anecdote that really bears that out.
About a month ago I noticed that one of my tennis buddies had bandages around most of his fingertips. Upon asking him what was going on, he told me that he was getting horrible, bleeding cracks, particularly with the winter coming on.
So I suggested to him the two products that I know have a high urea content. The first is Flexitol Heel Balm and the other is Gold Bond Foot Cream.
The Gold Bond is an oilier formulation and stays gooey longer. The Flexitol goes on a bit drier and seems to absorb faster without leaving any sort of oily residue.
Anyways, my friend, being at his wit’s end, used the Gold Bond for two weeks, putting it on at night under some waterproof gloves.
That did the trick. (I suspect that might have been overdoing it a tad, and that they still would have healed up in two weeks with a lighter application. But hey, whatever works.) He was extremely grateful that his hands had been returned to normal and could be used without the constant cracking and pain.
For maintenance, he is now using a Eucerin product that also contains urea. As far as I can tell, the Eucerin products contain 5% to 10% urea, as opposed to the 25% in Flexitol.
But the real secret is in the urea. It is also interesting that if you go to the web pages of these products, they will generally highlight their vitamins C, E, and D, and you have to search find out if they have urea or not. I suspect that may be because most folks just don’t know how my urea is important for stopping skin cracks. And I also suspect that “urea” sounds too much like, well, you know. It is also a major ingredient in, well, you know. So I guess that’s just not something you hype, even if it is a key ingredient.
Anyways, this just goes to show that barefooters have specialized knowledge in areas that really can help the general public.
“… most folks just don’t know how my urea is important for stopping skin cracks.”
YOUR urea is important? How about MINE? How is your, well, you know, any better than my, well, you know? I’m pissed.
I’ve always gotten cracks in my heels as well, and my feet do not sweat. Could urea be related to sweat as well? Would soaking in urea resolve the problem? Yes I know it sounds, well, not pleasant, but it’s not unreasonable, is it?
@ Kimberly
I know this is several months late, but I wanted to respond here. Urea is very much related to sweat. It is a component of sweat. From what I’ve been told, the ‘pit stains’ you get in the armpits of your shirts? Yup, caused by urea. There is a possibility that the lack of sweat could cause cracks. I’ve always had super sweaty feet and have never experienced a crack.