Medical expert of the article
New publications
Healthy feet: some of the most interesting facts
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
To keep your feet healthy and beautiful, it is not enough to just have a pedicure or reduce stress. It is important to take care of your feet in a comprehensive manner. How to do it?
[ 1 ]
Where do calluses come from?
Doctors identify several reasons for the appearance of calluses and corns. When we suddenly discover these unpleasant defects on our feet, we immediately begin to worry about the question of where calluses and corns come from. So: small scratches, injuries from uncomfortable shoes can provoke the appearance of calluses on the feet.
Are there any other reasons for the appearance of calluses and corns?
Of course, and they are very unexpected. At least for people who have not studied medicine thoroughly. It turns out that a lack of certain vitamins in the body can cause calluses and unpleasant growths on the feet.
These include vitamins A, E and B, which are best taken in combination. If these vitamins are lacking, metabolic processes in the skin are disrupted. This causes the skin to become rough and calluses and corns to appear. Sometimes cramps in the calves of the legs can also be added to this.
Moreover, they appear so suddenly that a person cannot even sleep. It is important for you to know that if the skin on your legs becomes rough, which is also accompanied by cramps, your body clearly lacks calcium. This microelement must also be included in the vitamin menu.
What else contributes to the appearance of corns?
Oddly enough, bad habits can also be considered as causes of corns and calluses. If you drink too much coffee, smoke cigarettes one after another, walk a lot or stand at the same time, then calluses can also be mixed with leg diseases such as varicose veins.
The first symptom by which you can determine that there is something wrong with your legs and varicose veins are suspiciously close is blue stars on your legs. Added to this is heaviness in your calves, muscle pain, and a feeling of fatigue in your legs. As a rule, these symptoms are felt more in the evening, towards the end of the day.
There is also a downside: varicose veins can also affect those who sit a lot. In this case, the vessels are pinched, blood flow is disrupted, blood stagnates, and leg disease is inevitable. To reduce the load on joints and vessels, it is important to relieve the legs by changing the position of the legs, alternate sitting with standing, walk more and jog.
Products for the prevention of varicose veins
In addition to physical activity combined with a gentle attitude towards your feet, you also need to include foods in your diet that will help keep your feet healthy and beautiful. This is, first of all, garlic. It has the beneficial property of strengthening the walls of blood vessels. This makes the vessels more elastic, stronger, less brittle, and reduces the risk of thrombosis.
Wheat (sprouted). This simple but very useful product helps to fight leg diseases very well. It helps to reduce the intensity of pain in the knee joints, it helps even those who are often nervous due to stress.
Amazingly, it turns out that this fact is directly related to joint health. Because a person is nervous, joint health also deteriorates significantly. They become more brittle and hurt more often. Therefore, the health of your feet also depends on whether your menu includes foods that play a calming role for you.
A fact from folk medicine
It is strange, but according to statistics, joints may hurt more often in those patients who wear a lot of jewelry on their hands, feet and neck. Especially if it is heavy jewelry.
Doctors say that if you just give up jewelry for a short period of time, the condition of your joints can quickly stabilize.
B1 or thiamine
According to historical data, it was vitamin B1 that was the first of all vitamins to be discovered back in 1911. Thiamine helps the body remove harmful substances, and therefore clean the same vessels, activate the work of the joints of the legs. A lack of vitamin B1 can lead to the accumulation of toxins in the body, which has a negative effect on the nervous system and all other systems of the body.
The work of the heart and blood vessels, as well as digestion, depends on whether the body has enough vitamin B1. And the legs, of course, will be healthy only when the rest of the organs are normal, since there are no organs and systems in the body that are not connected to each other. Vitamin B1 also affects the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, so it must be included in the diet to eliminate problems with metabolism.
[ 9 ], [ 10 ], [ 11 ], [ 12 ], [ 13 ]
When Thiamine May Not Work
If you drink alcohol, smoke a lot, be prepared for the fact that even the full norm of vitamin B1 may not affect your body. Pay attention to the symptoms that indicate the destruction of vitamin B1.
This is a disturbance in the speed of the pulse, it becomes too strong or too weak.
The pressure can be much higher than normal – that is, the lower pressure can exceed 90.
Inability to concentrate, poor memory, sudden weight loss, swelling of the legs (any part of them), no appetite - all these are signs that the body lacks thiamine
If there is not enough vitamin B1 in the body, a person may develop leg diseases. In particular, muscles ache, there may be tension in the joints, muscles may cramp. In this case, the patient may have insomnia, irritability, pain in different parts of the body, as well as constipation and intestinal problems. Children with a lack of vitamin B1 may grow much slower than their peers.
How Much Vitamin B1 Should You Take for Health?
If you manage to use more vitamin B1 than the norm, there may be an allergic reaction in the form of a rash, difficulty breathing. An overdose can occur after injections of vitamin B1 prescribed in larger quantities than necessary.
For health, vitamin B1 requires 200 to 300 mg per day, and for children the dose is much less - up to 100 mg per day.
Vitamin B1 will act much faster and more actively if it is taken in combination with other B vitamins. This can be a vitamin supplement or products containing vitamin B1.
Vitamin B1 can be taken in sufficient doses in plant products: wheat grains, buckwheat, oats, broccoli, peas, strawberries, strawberries, potatoes.
As for animal products, vitamin B1 is found in abundance in eggs and liver, as well as in kidneys and yeast.