Plantar warts appear on the bottoms of the feet.
Plantar warts, which manifest themselves as small growths on the soles of the feet, can be unsightly and painful. Simple and unconventional alternative treatments can be effective at completely eliminating warts
Alternative Medicine for Wart Removal
Plantar warts are caused by the human papillomavirus, a mild yet contagious virus contracted through direct contact. While plantar warts are generally harmless, their location on the soles of the feet means they can make standing and walking painful. The virus can also spread and form clusters of new warts around the original wart. A dermatologist can surgically remove a wart or freeze it off with liquid nitrogen, but these techniques can be painful and leave scars. Instead, many people opt to use alternative medicine to eradicate warts.
For a quick home wart-removal remedy, squish open a capsule containing 25,000 units of Vitamin A extracted from fish oil and smear it on the wart. Repeat this daily until the wart vanishes. Crushing Vitamin C into a paste and applying it to the wart, then covering the wart with a bandage might also be effective. The topical application of castor oil, Vitamin E or aloe vera gel have also been known to work. Other folk remedies include rubbing raw potato slices or lemon slices soaked for two weeks in a solution of salt and apple cider vinegar on the wart, or taping the inside of a banana skin over the wart.
The Duct Tape Remedy
Duct tape has shown to be a particularly promising alternative-medicine method for treating plantar warts. A 2002 clinical study in Cincinnati treated 51 patients with warts. Twenty-five test subjects received up to six sessions of wart-removal treatment using liquid nitrogen. The remaining 26 subjects underwent an unconventional treatment in which their warts were covered with duct tape for up to two months. Eighty-five percent of the patients treated with duct tape saw the complete disappearance of their warts, as opposed to 60% of the patients treated with liquid nitrogen.
Researchers theorize that the presence of the duct tape may create enough irritation to stimulate the immune system into ridding itself of the wart.
Those who wish to try the duct tape remedy at home should apply a small patch of duct tape over a plantar wart and leave it alone for a week. After a week, remove the tape and soak the foot, then massage the surface of the wart lightly with a pumice stone or an emery board. Apply more tape over the wart and repeat this process until the wart is gone.
Tags: duct tape, liquid nitrogen, Alternative Medicine, over wart, patients treated
