Home Remedies to Remove Common Warts
Warts are ugly and persistent little rascals, but they aren’t the end of the world, nor do they come from toads. Nearly everyone has had a wart at some time in their life and as many can attest, they are often difficult to get rid of permanently.
What is a wart?
A wart is caused by the HPV (human papilloma virus) and that’s not just genital warts either. There are over 100 HPV types currently identified. Since warts are caused by a virus that also means warts are contagious. They can be transmitted from skin contact, sharing towels, sharing razors, not wearing shoes on locker room or pool room floors… nearly anywhere.
Most warts are characterized by their rough, cauliflower appearance and can last for as little as a few months or persist for years depending on how fast your immune system can attack and destroy the infection. Warts are also known to reoccur if they are not removed fully.
Different types of warts include:
Common warts, identified by rough, cauliflower-like surface occurring mostly on hands and knees.
Flat warts which are small, smooth and flat occurring mostly on the face, neck, hands, wrists and knees.
Filiform or digitate warts, characterized by their thread- or finger-like appearance which appear mostly near the eyes.
Plantar warts are usually identified as a large lump that occurs on the soles of the feet. Plantar warts can be painful when pressure is applied to the afflicted area.
Genital warts or venereal warts are soft bumps found near and on the genital area.
Home remedies to remove warts
The most popular remedy is duct tape (also called occlusion therapy) and studies show it works. In fact a study has shown that this duct tape home remedy is 20% more effective than standard cryotherapy. Not only is this method not painful in the slightest, it’s cheap too!
Apply a strip of duct tape to the wart for six days straight. Remove the tape and use a pumice stone or emery board to scrape the dead skin off the sight of the wart. Continue up to two months until the wart is totally gone.
Why does duct tape work? Some say there’s something in the glue that stimulates the immune system into attacking and destroying the wart. Others think that it’s because you’re suffocating the wart. Yet others think that it’s just an affective way to file down a wart. The true answer is not scientifically known.
You can also try placing a banana peel on the site of a wart, covering it then with a bandage. Replace with a fresh peel when the first one gets old. Keep applying until the wart is gone.
Garlic supplements can help your immune system attack a wart and destroy it quicker than without. Applying a small piece of garlic directly to a wart is also effective. Word of caution though; garlic can greatly irritate your skin.
Soak a cotton ball in vinegar and place it on the wart. Cover with a bandage and replace every couple days. Soon the wart will shrivel and fall off.
Put a potato on it. Rubbing a raw potato over a wart a couple times daily will help diminish a wart.
Dabbing a few drops of tea tree oil onto a wart a couple times daily will help it disappear. Tea tree oil is a powerful antiseptic and has a very high rate of success in removing warts.
–Magdalena (source)
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