All of us at Montgomery Foot Care Specialists want to remind our patients to be on the lookout for changes in your skin. Always include your feet in your periodic skin checks, including the skin between your toes and on your soles. Skin problems come in several forms:

• Athlete’s foot is one type of fungal infection that often appears as red, scaly patches on the skin between your toes. It can be quite itchy and cause your feet to burn. If not treated, the infection can spread to other parts of your feet, including your toenails, and it can spread to other people, too!
• Eczema can look like scaly, thickened, itchy, oozing, blistering, red, or brownish patches of skin. Eczema tends to run in families. It can flare up on your feet when the skin is exposed to something irritating, such as wool fabric.
• Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that causes patches of dry, scaly skin on the scalp, elbows, shins, feet, and nails. On the feet, psoriasis is often mistaken for athlete’s foot or other common nail fungi. It can also affect the many joints in your feet, leading to painful arthritis.
• Lesions are spots on your skin that are raised, colored, or different in texture from the areas surrounding them. Freckles and moles are examples of skin lesions. Get to know the normal lesions on your feet and check them often for changes in color or size. Malignant melanoma can and does appear on the feet and under the toenails.
• Cracked heels may simply be a sign of dry skin, a temporary condition remedied with some targeted moisturizing. However, prolonged pressure on the heels can cause cracks to deepen into heel fissures that invite bacteria to enter. Infected heel cracks require the care of our expert podiatrists, Dr. Heidi M. Christie and Dr. Chanda L. Day-Houts at our Montgomery County podiatry office.

If you suspect a fungal nail infection, notice a change in any skin lesions on your feet, or can’t explain what’s going on with the skin on your feet, we can help. Make an appointment for professional, caring treatment by calling us in Montgomery, Alabama at (334) 396-3668 or by contacting us online.