Try These Natural Remedies For Warts Dear Dr. Conte I saw an article about a person who had a wart removed by rubbing chalk on it. I had a wart on my hand for several years. Then I started teaching and using a blackboard and chalk. A couple of months later, I noticed the wart was getting smaller and eventually it disappeared and has not returned as of yet. My family and friends laughed when I told them I thought it was the chalk dust that did it. I’m happy that someone else agrees with my very unscientific conclusion. Dear Reader: The white chalk you use in your classroom is generally made of calcium carbonate, a processed form of natural limestone. This chemical compound is found in rocks around the world, and is used for many purposes, such as a dietary supplement. It is also used as an over-the-counter antacid. Calcium is required for healthy bones, muscles, nervous system and the heart. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that calcium carbonate dries the lesion as much as a liquid “coating” would. Once air is prevented from reaching the area where the wart is present, the lack of necessary oxygen causes the wart to involute. Readers who would like additional natural and considered by some to be unusual remedies for wart removal might consider the following: *Cover the wart lesion with clear nail polish to create an air tight seal. Cover with duct tape and repeat the procedure daily. As the wart begins to turn white, wash the area with soap and water until you can no longer see the small back dots that may be in the center of the wart. * “Tang” and “Coverlete brand of adhesive dressing” (Coverlete ban aid). Mix the “Tang” with a small amount of water to form a paste. Put the paste over the wart and cover it with the Coverlete adhesive dressing. If you don’t have any “Tang” in you cupboard, dampen a baby aspirin with water and place this mixture over the wart. Remember not to choose the latter method if you have an allergy to aspirin. Both remedies will require repeated treatment to be effective. * Apply undiluted tea tree oil directly to the wart several time a day until the wart disappears. Some patients tell me that this treatment works better if you cover the wart with duct tape. * Consider Superglue or a similar type of glue to cover the wart. Peel or file the glue off after it dries and repeat the process once or twice a day until the wart is gone. * Rub the wart against the inside of a raw potato several times a day for at least two weeks.
* Warm castor oil dabbed over a wart two or three times a day and covered with duct tape has been found effective. Again, repeat the process until satisfactory results occur. * If you have dandelions growing in your back yard or a field, crush a stem until the “milk” appears. Rub the milk over the wart several times a day until the wart is gone. * Crush raw garlic and dilute or blend with vitamin C from a capsule supplement. Apply to the wart and cover with duct tape for 24 hours. Remove the duct tape and wash the area with warm soap on water. A blister will most likely form using this treatment for your wart. Let the fluid out of the blister with a pin dipped in alcohol but do not pull the blister top off. If the wart does not fall off in a week repeat the treatment till it resolves. In closing remember the black dots in the center of the wart are not “seeds”, they are the blood vessels that supply the wart. Remember if you use a cardboard Emory board to file down you wart during the treatment don’t use that same Emory board to file your nails. You run the risk of spreading the warts to your fingers and around your nails. You can’t “kill a wart”, you can only irritate it so much that the irritation stimulates you own innate immune system within your body to fight off the wart virus. If any of my readers have any interesting treatments they have used for the treatment of their warts please email them to me at: drconte@cosmeticdermatologyprescott and I will discuss their merits on my blog at CosmeticDermatologyPrescott.com. Dr. Eugene T Conte Prescott, Arizona