What Causes Blisters On Feet?

Tell me, what do you think causes foot blisters. Chances are you’re saying something along the lines of: Heat, moisture and friction or poorly fitting shoes … or something along those lines. Well firstly, there’s more to it than bad shoes. You can have perfect shoes and still get blisters, just like I did.

And secondly, blisters on feet aren’t caused by heat – they’re not a burn; or moisture – you don’t have to get blisters just because your feet sweat a lot; Are they caused by friction? Well, kind of! The problem is, when you say friction, you actually mean rubbing – and blisters are not caused by rubbing. Let me explain. Do this with me:

• Place the tip of your right index finger on the back of your left hand.
• Wobble it back and forth but keep it stuck to the same bit of skin. Notice how your skin stretches? This is what causes blisters – the skin stretching too much. This stretching is called skin shear. Now keep wobbling while you think about this…

Shear might look like rubbing but it’s not. Notice how your finger tip has not actually moved relative to the skin of the back of your hand – because your finger is stuck to the same bit of skin? But your skin has moved relative to the underlying bone and everything in between is stretched. This is shear - a parallel sliding of tissue layers across one another. Shear happens internally, whereas if we were rubbing the back of your hand, rubbing happens on top to the surface of the skin. Yes it involves shear too, but it’s the internal stretching part that causes blisters, not the external rubbing part. When skin shear is excessive and repetitive, a tiny tear occurs just under the skin surface that within 2 hours, fills with fluid to look like what we know and love as a blister.
Does that make sense?

Learn more about what causes blisters on feet here:
https://www.blister-prevention.com/wh...

Now think about it: is it any wonder, that if we’ve got the wrong end of the stick when it comes to what causes blisters, that we find it difficult to stop blisters, or to make them feel better when we treat them. No – it’s not surprising at all. We’re focusing on the wrong thing!

You know, it’s when you match the science of what causes blisters, to the science of how blister prevention strategies works that everything just falls into place.

Related:
What causes TOE blisters: https://www.blister-prevention.com/to...
What causes HEEL blisters: https://www.blister-prevention.com/he...