she could have a thyroid problem. It does that to hands.
I too have suffered with horribly cracked hands for about 10 years AND now a foot for about three years. I have tried just about everything everyone on here mentions. Prednisone (steroid) works, but of course one can only take that for a short time. But, one thing I have not seen on this thread, is getting this dry cracked skin where I have been "injured" - where the skin has been broken. I have a dry cracked sore spot on the palm of my right hand. Exact spot where I got a blister from the end of a screwdriver, from putting pressure on the top of the handle while turning. The bottom of my left foot - from taking a long walk and getting a blister on the ball of my foot. That area is now always cracked, dry, open sore, bloody. I believe the damage on my hands is from handling cement roof tiles (lye?). My husband and I reroofed our own house in 2002/03, using the cement barrel tiles, and ever since, my hands have been damaged. Dry, cracked, sores, bloody, itchy. Another occurrence, when our company's IT "refreshed" my computer, they gave me a new keyboard and mouse. Within minutes, my fingertips, and the crook of my right hand / thumb, index finger, broke out, sore, itchy, bloody. I asked for my old mouse and keyboard back. I think the new product protectant (formaldehyde?) irritated my hands. And one time my skin cleared, other than when taking prednisone, was I finally had gotten a referral to Mayo Clinic. I was thrilled. But, my primary doctor had also just put me on statins for cholesterol. I was taking CoQ10 for the muscle pain of the statin. But, whatever it was, I cleared up just before I went up to the Mayo Clinic. In fact, I was almost embarrassed. Here I was, complaining about this skin condition, but I didn't have it at that time. Of course he believed me, but was difficult to him to picture it since my hands were cleared up. But of course, that only lasted a couple of weeks and it all came back so that doctor did get to see the condition. I used to wear playtex gloves, but found my hands burned while wearing those, so I wear latex free gloves for everything in the house - cleaning, dishes, folding laundry, yard work. (Find folding laundry is a real irritant to my hands). Those help. I too often believe it is internal, but doesn't explain away from the above. If a skin issue, one would think the old damaged skin would be replaced with new healthy skin when it grows out. Why it is persistent and constant, I do not understand. And as a professional woman, it is very embarrassing and frustrating. I am always trying to hide my hands, I often bleed when touching paper (newspaper, glossy print, white paper - all BURN), constantly dropping things because I cannot grasp anything tight or the cracks will split open and bleed. My advise to young people would be, no work done by hand to save a few dollars is worth risking a life time of pain. If I had known roofing my own home to save money would have caused this, I would have told my husband to take a loan out to roof the house. It is a lifetime of hell. And of course, I have a very unsympathetic husband to my pain.
I have suffered from itchy, dry peeling hands for years. I was diagnosed with eczema. Cortisone creams provided temporary relief, but the problem seldom cleared up totally.Then - when I battling to loose weight, a dietician asked if I suffered from dry skin and sinus problems as all these symptoms could be a sign of wheat intolerance. I cut out wheat from my diet - and the weight fell off; in addition, my hands and dry skin cleared up without the aid of creams; and so did my sinuses. Every now and again, I go off the wagon and binge on wheat (I love bread, cakes, cookies), and my hands flare up really badly. Creams and oils simply don't help. I stay off the wheat, and it all clears up, but when I relapse, the effect on my hands is even more severe. So to all sufferers out there - try cutting out wheat from your diets for a month or so and see if that makes a difference. Remember that wheat is found in products like pasta and some instant soups as well as the more obvious ones like bread, cake and cookies.
Walgreen's carries a product called Wlagreen's Medicated Healer Hand Lotion it is a clear liquid and it has ammonia in it which is a natural healer and costs about $5.00 for a 6oz bottle. If you can't find it in the store you can also find it on the internet. If your hands are cracked when you start using it, it will sting a lot but wont last long (a few seconds). Don't sniff it because as I said there is ammonia in it, I usually turn my head. Once it dries the smell and the sting are gone. If you use this 2 to 3 times a day your hands will heal, if you stop using it your hands will once again start cracking and bleeding. Ans ladies I even use it on my feet and they to are baby soft.
My hands have been doing this for about four years. I have always worked in customer service with water. And I am allergic to soap since I was a child. I thought maybe this was brought on buy switching thyroid medicine. That was part of it. Maybe not getting enough vitamins and inefficient digestion; that was part of it too. And menopause. That's part of the problem too. THE REAL PROBLEM CAN BE SOLVED EASILY. I LEARNED FROM A DOCTOR ON THE WEB. I WISH I HAD THE REFERENCE TO THAT SITE. I'M SORRY I DON'T. BUT HE SAID THE ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS IS: VASELINE INTENSIVE CARE PETROLEUM JELLY SMOTHER IT ON YOUR HANDS ALL DAY, EVERYTIME YOU WASH THEM, AT BED TIME AND EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IF NECESSARY. IT KILLS INFECTION AND MOISTURIZES YOUR HANDS AND HEALS THEM COMPLETELY! THIS IS A LIFESTYLE CHANGE, DO IT REPETITIOUSLY, CONTINUOUSLY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. PROBLEM SOLVED. Good luck to you all and God bless you!
this is exactly a description of what i've got, and it hit me in my mid sixties. please, if you find a solution let me know. i've read everything from washing in gasoline, to noxema , aloe, vodka, nail-polish...you name it. even lidex (steroid) doesn't work., can we suddenly become allergic to dairy at this age? or gluten. i'm a yank and not rich enough to see a doc.
OK y'all. I have been battling this for the last 7 years! I have dry cracked bleeding hands on knuckles and fingers and all over the hands. I have been to see doctors both traditional and homeopathic. I have a healthy respect for both. They have helped me get to this point today.
My hands began cracking and bleeding after my first pregnancy. I have had eczema from 2yrs old and I turned to the dermatologists. I tried all the lotions, creams, steroids, and a host of others. I tried gloves at night. Socks all day. Everything. Nothing worked. I began to look at homeopathic options. I learned that this is something from the inside manifesting itself on the outside. The problem was in the gut.
More specifically, I think it is in my liver. The liver is an awesome part of the body that is in charge of minerals, vitamins, and toxins. I began researching how to get more vitamins to the liver. I knew now that my liver for some reason wasn't able to get the job done, and short of opening me up to take a look, I was as sure as I could be this was the source of my problem with my hands.
I purchased a juicer and drank a glass in the morning and night - beets were on my top ingredient list. I began on Wednesday. It is now Sunday evening and I am typing without any pain in my hands. The cracks are healing (HEALING!!) and the redness and swelling is disappearing. (YES!!) I still have some blisters in my palm, so we will see if juicing can take that away too, but really - in a few days I have had more success and healing than I have found in all the doctors and all the creams and all the antibiotics and all that I have tried over the last 7 years. HOORAY!!! I am so excited to share this news - maybe you already know and it just took me extra long to figure it out. But I am totally excited anyway. FINALLY - relief and healing I have been looking for.
Hope this helps anyone out there who also has those dry cracked and bleeding hands!
I have the same thing. I sew and have to check my sugar levels, so I blamed the ends of my fingers on this. But as time goes on it effects my hands, my ring finger is hard, scaley and dark in colour, down the sides of my fingers and a few spots on my palms. The tops of my hands are so far not effected, knock on wood. The ends of my fingers are hard and my sense of touch is almost nil. I have tried all the creams and ointments the pharmasist and Doctor recommended. I sometimes go to bed with the Vasaline and gloves. Sometimes it gets so bad on my index finger, I take some Vasaline, put it on my finger and cut the finger off some non-latex rubber type gloves. Regular bandages fall off or do not cover the tips of my fingers. If anyone finds the cure, I would be forever thrilled. I got married in September and my hands looked like a logger's hands when everyone wanted to see the rings. I have never had this problem till now, it is now 6 months and I am at my whitts end.
I had to write after reading about your daughter's plight with her hands....I have the same thing, whatever it is, I still don't know. After one year of trying one lotion, cream, ointment, over-the-counter, by prescription, home remedies....all to no avail, nothing has helped. My hands and all my fingers and thumbs are affected, extremely dry, cracked, bleeding, stinging, burning all the time. My doctor is perplexed, he doesn't know what to tell me and where I live there are no dermatologists, at least none willing to take on new patients, so I feel like I'm totally on my own here. The pharmacist at the drugstore I use told me today that I may have an allergy to something, but I have no idea, all I know is that it is so painful and frustrating and at this point I am feeling hopeless. I know how your daughter feels, and I feel so bad for her as she is twenty years younger than me. If I find anything that helps I will post it on here, but until then, please tell your daughter she is not alone, and i will say a prayer for her.....
So what did you put in the juicer, just beets?
I'm getting to this really late, but my daughter has the exact same reaction to the soaps used in her school. She had lobster hands, so painful she would cry herself to sleep at night. I asked the school to PLEASE change soap - they said they couldn't use anything but an antibacterial soap for fear of getting sued if a kid got sick. I thought to myself "Are you not worried about me suing you for hurting my child's hands??" Ridiculous. It is clearly terrible for delicate skin. At any rate I started sending her to school with a bar of my own handmade, natural, oil-rich soap. She had no further problems. The liquid antibacterial soaps are BAD NEWS. No one should be using them is my feeling - the triclosan is terrible for your health and they are packed with synthetic fragrance and other detrimental compounds. Get a little travel soap box and bring a bar of natural soap with you to use. Hope you feel better by now!
I had tried everything, too, and NOTHING worked. Then I got some cheapy stuff at Family Dollar called Advanced Therapy Dry Skin Treatment - essentially it's petroleum jelly with mineral oil, ceresin and lanolin alcohol. It's already improving. Not super fast, but steadily. You've got to remember to reapply every time your hands get wet. Use those fabric lined house cleaning gloves when doing house work to avoid that problem. Works great, but slowly. I also sometimes use the ordinary old Vaseline with avocado oil. Smells wonderful and feels great.
It sounds like there is a lot of different skin situations. Two years ago I thought I had burned the end of my finger and thumb, no big deal, then the skin split and no matter what I put on they stayed split. I would wrap them at night with cream and I think that made it worse cause all of a sudden I had a big yellow patch of hard skin develop on my finger. A doctor told me it looked like fungus as many people have said and prescribed Lotriderm which worked pretty good but it wouldn't completely go away and my finger would tingle like crazy. My doctor told me it was excema, but it isn't, I know that. So now I use lotriderm twice a day, hydrogen peroxide which I think helped and tinactin and they aren't split anymore but they aren't right either, it just keeps things ok, the pad on my thumb is always dry. The latest thing I am trying which actually seems to be helpful, is easily found and cheap is castor oil. Sounds like a lot of us have tried a lot of different things but I hadn't heard anyone mention castor oil. I found that on a utube from a doctor or at least she said she was a doctor and it seems to be one of those cureall type things. Anyway just thought I would add my two cents