Wart Rant!

[Naughtyhippo]

My husband went to a walk in clinic for something and decided as he was there, he would make sure some warts on his feet were ok - they had been there at least 3 years and he'd tried to use that wartner freeze off stuff to no avail.

The nurse he saw told him to tape a banana skin to the sole of his foot as the antibodies in the banana skin would eat through them. She also said that he was not to cut or pick at them as it would make them spread. She said that the NHS used to do a leaflet on using banana skins to treat warts (!) but she couldn't find it.

I have found a leaflet published by Wandsworth PCT

http://www.wandsworth-pct.nhs.uk/pdf/Podiatry/verrucae.pdf

that lists it under 'Homeopathic' cures for warts. It also states that there was inconclusive evidence that it worked. (Side rant - this makes it look like there's conclusive evidence that the other homeopathic cures on that page work! What are these people thinking?)

The most I've been able to find online is that there is a measurable but insignificant effect of taping banana skins to your feet.

I'm just really angry that not only did the nurse tell my husband to soemthing without informing him it was a 'folk' type remedy (by going on about the leaflet she made it sound like it was the recommended treatment for verrucas), but a supposedly educated health professional told him some tripe about antibodies being in the banana skin! Ridiculous! And it's not like she was shy about telling him that something else would go away by itself and he didn't need any treatment for it so why not the verrucas? Especially as they aren't causing him any pain, or spreading?

I have always supported the concept of the NHS, I've never griped about paying national insurance and I believe the vast majority of NHS workers are hard-working people who do a fantastic job in difficult circumstances. BUT I am SICK of kookiness being supported by my National Health Service. As I write this I am just getting angrier that Homeopathy and other useless and baseless treatments have the support of the NHS - what do I do next?

[Charlie Monoxide]

I always thought banana skins were used as humorous props ...

Charlie (did the skins work?) Monoxide

[Wauthan]

Heh? Banana peals? While I'm no stranger to folk remedies to foot warts, something that my left foot have been cursed with since puberty :( , I just can't see why on earth that would help.

There's usually some 'logic' to most cures I've heard of but the only connection between banana peal and feet is slapstick. Why would bananas have antibodies against human papilloma virus?

The cure that works for me is a combination of duct tape, foot bath and razorblade. The problem is that you need to keep going for several days even after the wart looks completely gone, or it quickly grows back again. It can take well more then three years for me to get rid of a wart. The main reason is that I usually don't put serious effort into getting rid of them until they start to hurt. The trick is to have a daily routine of treatment. You need to be more stubborn then the warts. ;)

[Professor Yaffle]

I had a wart on my wrist as a kid, and because the pharmacy workers were on strike (as far as I remember) the GP told me to try putting the sap from dandelions on it. The wart fell off soon afterwards, but I have no idea if the remedy helped, or if it just got better itself.

[Gate2501]

Are they Plantar Warts?

I have said this before, and I have never seen anything online about it... I had over 100 of them total on *both* of my feet, and a doctor told me it was gonna cost over 3000 to remove them surgically (they didn't really 'hurt' so I hadn't done anything about them for years). Before I could get this surgery, I had an accident and lost MASSIVE amounts of blood, I didn't get any meds or change my diet. About a week after the accident they had stopped hurting, and after taking a look, they were all just like dead skin...

I scraped them off in the shower, the bottoms of my feet were pretty raw, but all of the warts were gone.

I know the story sounds nuts, but believe me, I am not into any sort of woo, I know that correlation != causation. It could have been some other strange environmental factor that killed them, but I always thought that maybe they needed something in my blood (like iron?) that I lost in large amounts.

I wouldn't recommend going and donating massive amounts of blood or anything, but I have always wished I could test if the blood loss is really what killed em.

[Naughtyhippo]

After about half a day, the skin had swollen up, pretty much exactly the same as a callous would swell up after being warma and moist for a while. A lot of the internet comment on this recommends pumicing down the wart after a night of banana-ing - perhaps this could be responsible for any wart reduction?

[Naughtyhippo]

Why would bananas have antibodies against human papilloma virus?


It's both this that really annoys me because it is blatant crap, and the pushing of non-evidence based medicine without explaining what it was first.

[Wauthan]

Yeah that sounds about right, I think. So the banana was essentially a more enviromentally friendly 'duct tape'?

[Naughtyhippo]

Yeah that sounds about right, I think. So the banana was essentially a more enviromentally friendly 'duct tape'?

Ah, but you're supposed to TAPE on the banana skin.

[Capsid]

Plants don't make antibodies at all! Where do people get this misinformation from?

[Ixion]

Plants don't make antibodies at all! Where do people get this misinformation from?

Second this statement. I am an immunologist, who also happens to be treating a plantar wart atm. Plants don't make antibodies. Plants barely have anything even resembling an immune response. I have heard of the banana trick. Complete woo.

Best methods I have tried (I work in a lab, so some of these are easier access than the others):
1) Liquid nitrogen. Stings like crazy, and can blister, but esentially destroys the wart through frostbite.
2) A footbath and a scalpel. Must be done successively to ensure all of the wart is removed, or the virus will just re-establish in nearby tissue. Also painful and bloody and causes risk of secondary infection. Not recommended but it does work.
3) 40% Salicylic acid. You can buy these solutions from a pharmacy. You just apply and cover with a bandage. Every day or two take the bandage off, scrub away the dead skin, and reapply. This method is the easiest but can take weeks to fully remove it.


Possible hypothesis for Gate2501's story: if he received whole blood, then pre-formed antibodies in the donor's plasma helped his immune system eliminate the warts.

[Professor Yaffle]

Cochrane Review (http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD001781/frame.html)

[Gate2501]

Possible hypothesis for Gate2501's story: if he received whole blood, then pre-formed antibodies in the donor's plasma helped his immune system eliminate the warts.

Due to the circumstances and nature of my injury on which I probably should not elaborate, I did not go to the hospital, I just tried to shut it myself over a few days. It eventually worked, but I lost a lot of blood initially and it leaked for a few days as I tried various methods of closing the wound. I was very pale and out of sorts for about a week as well.

All went well however! Lots of gauze and duct tape did the job, and I managed to not die of infection.

Like I said, it may have been unrelated, but the warts all died about a week after the event. I was just glad that they were gone.

[wahrheit]

Best methods I have tried (I work in a lab, so some of these are easier access than the others):

Luckily, I only once had a wart in my life, on my left thumb. I was a school kid, mom took me to the local GP.

He sprayed some icing stuff on my thumb to numb it, and then said that no matter what he was doing now, I shall not look at it.

Well, curiosity killed me. I saw his scalpel and the blood, and immediately fainted. Five minutes later I was all fine, this guy knew what he was doing.

Since then, I never saw another wart again on my body. Except the really big one between my ears, that is.

[Molinaro]

I had a wart in my teenage years that just wouldn't go away. It was on a finger. I later had a job cleaning office equipment and we used a mixture of 25% isopropyl alcohol and 75% water. After a week of having my hands soaked with that mixture the wart fell off. The skin beneath looked pristine and it never came back.

anecdote +=1

[godless dave]

I'd complain to the nurse's boss. "Antibodies" indeed. A nurse should know better.

[kerikiwi]

My husband went to a walk in clinic for something and decided as he was there, he would make sure some warts on his feet were ok


And were they ok? I am really concerned for the well-being of the little guys...

[casebro]

Memory test:

Anybody else remember a study that hypnosis kills warts? Seems they got warts to disappear on half of each subjects body.

And, making a vaccine from the patient's wart. Cut it off, grind it up, re-inject. I suppose if that works, then it's possible that hacking at your own wart might get some virus into the bloodstream- woulds it be an autologous vaccine? I don't know the terminology, but that's the way our immune systems work for zillions of germs. I wish it would work for toe nail fungus.

[patchbunny]

My husband went to a walk in clinic for something and decided as he was there, he would make sure some warts on his feet were ok - they had been there at least 3 years and he'd tried to use that wartner freeze off stuff to no avail.

Every year or two I get a wart on one of my hands. I used to go into the doctor's to freeze them off, but I've found that those home kits work well. You just have to ensure that you freeze them thoroughly. It says to leave that freezing thing on you for 20 seconds, so you leave it on for 20 seconds even though it hurts. Only once have I had to redo it.

If the home kits aren't working right, why not go to a dermatologist and have them do it? They can freeze with a bit more precision than the home kits.

[Capsid]

Memory test:

Anybody else remember a study that hypnosis kills warts? Seems they got warts to disappear on half of each subjects body.

And, making a vaccine from the patient's wart. Cut it off, grind it up, re-inject. I suppose if that works, then it's possible that hacking at your own wart might get some virus into the bloodstream- woulds it be an autologous vaccine? I don't know the terminology, but that's the way our immune systems work for zillions of germs. I wish it would work for toe nail fungus.
Hacking at the wart would may set up an inflammatory response would could the lead to stimulation of the specific immune response to the virus. I got rid of some by rubbing with pumice stone after a bath and this also may cause a local inflammation.

Autologous means self but the wart virus is still foreign to our bodies so it is not an autologous vaccine.

[Denver]

The plantar warts on the sole of the foot can be quite stubborn. I had one once, and after trying all the supermarket cures (not to include banana peels), and once my family doctor's attempts with liquid nitrogen didn't work, I went to a dermatologist. He pretty much did the same thing with the freezing, except had me come back next month, and again the month after, as it kept returning.

Finally (and luckily) he was out sick one week, and I saw his co-practitioner instead. She did more freezing, and had me come back once a week for a couple weeks, saying a more aggressive approach was sometimes necessary.. And That's what finally got rid of it.

It seems to depend on how deeply rooted it is. And the ones on the soles I guess can get pretty deep. They said the next option after freezing was some kind of injections (which I gather sting even more than the freezing), and then surgery. So I'm glad this was resolved better late than never.