One of my kids has been embarrassed by the warts on her fingers and would rather wish them away than return to the doc for another painful freezing treatment, aka a $150 FAIL.
I believe any number of home remedies for removing warts might work but it takes time and consistency…
Anyone have experience using the following home remedies I found on the interwebs and how did you use it?
Apple Cider vinegar - supposed to turn it black then it falls off
Tea tree oil - antifungal, antiviral?
Tagamet - antihistamine (what does that have to do with warts? a histamine reaction?)
bee propolis - sounds promising but but is it dangerous?
garlic - mashed up, really?
bananas - mashed up, really?
duct tape - tried it, how long should it stay on the skin?
COuld anything be lacking in the diet, would supplements help?
I remember at some time in my early teens I had a little patch of warts spring up on the back of my hand. I used to scratch them down so they were less noticeable and after doing this for a while they simply disappeared, never to return.
Keep them covered with a layer of duct tape. You can put band-aids on the duct tape to make it less obvious. Do this for WEEKS. Only remove it to shower. If you want, put some of the acid-based wart remover on it before you put on the duct tape–that might speed it up. File them down with emery boards once a week. This will hurt. There is no pain-free way to remove warts.
Bee propolis would be no more dangerous or useful than tree sap, which is pretty much what propolis is.
Get some compound W or similar. Always worked for me when I was a kid. I don’t know if you would call that a “home” remedy but it doesnt’ cost much and you do it at home.
The “home remedies” will always have enthusiastic proponents because of the nature of warts, which often get smaller and disappear on their own, so the treatment gets the credit.
One thing I don’t see on the OP’s list is a “natural” herbal-based remedy - salicylic acid plasters. If persistently used according to directions they will eat through and destroy warts (not sure if they are easy to find without a prescription). But they work.
Apple cider vinegar is a great example of the principle of cure-alls. The more conditions a wonder remedy is supposed to treat (and ACV is alleged to be great for everything from warts to cancer), the less likely it is to be good for any of them. The principle is OK (an acidic substance to eat away a wart), but unless you can keep the affected part constantly soaking in the (weak) acidic vinegar (not practical) it won’t do much. The salicylic acid plaster will work on a continual basis without affecting surrounding skin, if you use it carefully.
I have had success with duct tape, for a wart on the bottom of my foot. I just kept it on until the wart fell off when I changed the duct tape, as directed by the person who recommended this to me. I remember it taking less time than I’d imagined. There was no pain, actually.
No one uses Compound W anymore? I got rid of a wart on my face last year using an equivalent CVS store brand. Just apply the goo to the wart, and it gradually flakes away. It takes a few weeks and you’ll have an ugly white blotch on top of the wart while treating it, but it’s painless and has never failed me.
I had a Summer of the Wart between second and third years in college. The doc burned off a number of warts on my hands, the top of my foot (I still have a scar there) and plantars on the ball of my foot. The plantars never went away, even after about 3 treatments, so when I went back to college I just started taking a tiny swiss army knife scissors to them and cutting them out. I’d bandage my bleedy foot up, let it heal, and then about a week later go after it again. Got them all done in a few weeks and they’ve never been back.
Here’s the key to wart removal: Salicylic acid, applied EVERY SINGLE DAY, after abrading the wart with a pumice stone, nail file, or similar. The duct tape/band aid idea actually helps as well, but works better in concert with the acid & abrading.
I had an entire forest of plantar warts on one foot a few years ago – what started as one in the center of the ball of my foot grew over time to cover most of the upper foot and several toes. My first round with the OTC freezing compounds, etc., didn’t help. I finally went to a dermatologist and started laser treatments, but I couldn’t handle the pain involved. I did some research and went with the salicylic acid again, but this time being diligent – twice per day when I thought about it – and doing the abrading. They cleared up very quickly! Never been so happy with a home treatment in my life.
Lamb’s blood, urine, rubbing buddha’s belly, anything that will work in less than 90 days would be welcome!
So no ones tried acv here?
I admit I was going to try it, she’s used up bottles of Compound W and shrinkage takes forever. Though once it gets grody and scary looking (the wart(sx20) we stop treatment to “let it air”. Should be less merciful, go at it full guns eh?
This is the drill hmmmm? Soaking first, filing, maybe a little vaseline on surrounding healthy skin,applythe viralcide, tape it, sleep on it, rinse repeat 360 times?
Treatments: sandpaper/emery board, acid wash, cover with duct tape, repeat until gone.
Reason for warts to like people: I’ve had three different doctors tell me that it’s due to what boils down to a lazy immune system. It doesn’t recognize the wart as a threat, so the wart gets ignored.
This can be a normal state for a person (someone who has gotten warts all their lives) or it can be induced by sickness or other mental/emotional/physical stress (immune system sucks ass when the body is stressed out)
If **chela’s **girl is constitutionally able to deal with picking them til they bleed, two of the three docs said that was very likely to perk the immune system up to recognize that it is an irritant, and start working against them for a while.
Husband has had them all his life, picks at them, and they fade and vanish on their own after a week or so. (If he doesn’t, they grow to about twice pencil-eraser size, get really grotty, and fade/fall off over a 6-month cycle, as a contrast.) I got my first one ever this past month, and I can’t pick it because I’m a wuss. The duct tape, emery board, and acid seem to be working very well so far, but I can still tell something’s there.
Dry ice, it’s cheap and effective, you can buy it at the grocery store. Buy it in small quantities (1/4 lb) because there is really no way to store it. Break it into shards and use pliers to grasp it and press it against the wart. You might get two applications out of one purchase if you store it in the freezer when not using it. If the wart doesn’t go away with one application don’t wait for it to grow all the way back before doing it again.
Condolyn ( condolyne?) it works by stimulating your own body’s immune response. Sounds easy? well it certainly works but your own body’s response gives a surprisingly vigorous response which will include as a minimum local inflammation.
I think its also used for HPV genital warts but with the reaction I had on the warts on the back of my neck I sure would think twice about putting that on my dick!
It did completely remove the warts within 10 days .
The best is a wart removing pad with built-in slicylic acid. The pad is 2"x2" and you cut it to the size of the wart. Put it on the wart and cover with first aid tape. Replace the pad every day after rubbing the wart down with an emery board.
I like the pad much, much better than other cures. This was for my daughter. She didn’t want to freeze it because that hurt. The fluid was hard to get exactly on the wart and would melt the skin around it. Plus, it was hard to keep the dried fluid on the wart. The pad worked perfectly and in a few weeks the wart was totally gone and never came back.
Warts are funny things, it seems they can be got rid of by just a placebo treatment. I had a quite prominent wart on a thumb for some years when I was a kid, then I read somewhere that the sap from dandelion stalks was good for a cure - I tried this, and the wart disappeared quite quickly, never to return.
The traditional, ‘old wives’ cure was to pay a gipsy woman to charm it away.
