Talk:Wart/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Recent Developments paragraph

I agree with Dirk Gently that unless there's a source for this information to back it up, it should be removed from the article. Icarus 05:27, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Corn/callus

What is the difference between corn and wart? Meursault2004 15:40, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

A callus is a thick hardened patch of dead skin. It's caused by long-term repeated rubbing and is the body's way of creating a protective layer. Anyone can get calluses, and they are not contagious. A wart is a growth caused by the Human Papilloma Virus, and it has no beneficial qualities. You can only get a wart if you have the virus (though most people do get it at some time in their life). Warts can go away on their own (though persistant ones that cause problems sometimes need to be removed), but calluses do not go away on their own (though, like warts, they don't always cause problems that require them to be removed). --Icarus 23:30, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Wart in the brain

May a wart occur in the brain? --213.138.128.13 05:58, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Warts only grow in certain kinds of skin tissue. For example, they cannot grow more than a few inches up inside the rectum because the kind of skin they need to grow does not exist further in. I sincerely doubt they'd find the kind of tissue they need to grow within the skull cavity. Also, I am not aware of any mechanism by which the tissue inside the skull cavity would be exposed to the HPV virus in the first place. It's my understanding that it needs pretty direct contact to spread. (Insert standard warning about how I'm not a doctor here). --68.239.196.248 07:09, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Home Remedies 2

This section has once again gotten way too large. It doesn't need to explain every last thing that people have done in an attempt to get rid of their warts. I propose that the banana skin, washing detergent, vinegar, and potato all be merged into one paragraph, something along the lines of this:

Many home remedies involve putting common household things, such as banana skin, washing detergent, vinegar, or sliced potatos on the affected areas for varying amounts of time. Proponents of these remedies say that the warts will then disappear after a varying number of days, but there have been no studies to prove their efficacy.

Would it be too POV to also add that they're probably no more likely to remove warts than kissing a toad is to give warts? Seriously, if bananas and potatoes were all you needed then there would be no need for expensive (compared to potatoes, at least) medical products. --Icarus 18:04, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

This article is in need of additional material and restructuring!

I have not made any revisions to this article, since I am not a medical professional and do not feel comfortable doing so. Hopefully someone who is and is fully confident of the accuracy of the information they are providing will do so. This endeavor should be undertaken with the utmost social resposibility, as many will use this article as their primary source of medical advice on this topic.

  • The distinction between different types of warts should not be under "see also:" but rather at the top of the article.
- It should be made clear that the term "warts" can refer to:
* Common warts (verrucae vulgaris)
* Periungual warts (around the nail plate)
* Plantar warts (on the sole of the foot)
* Mosaic warts
* Filiform warts
* Flat warts (smooth, flat-topped, yellow-brown papules)
  • There should be a subsection detailing risks and advising readers on when it is recommended to visit a licensed dermatologist (as opposed to pursuing over the counter treatments). One such risk is cancer. Warts can also present additional complications for those with immunosupression (either induced or as a result of HIV or any other immunodeficiency). This subsection should also detail the potential risks of different treatment options. Laser treatment is the fastest and most efficient of available options, but may cause scarring (as can electrodesiccation).
  • The most relevant information, after treatment, to anyone who may have contracted HPV, that is contageon, is missing from this article!
- "can be contagious from region to region" is in no way sufficient as a discussion of this issue. Under what circumstances can this occur? How can this be avoided? Is contageon possible between different people?
  • "A few Papilloma viruses are known to cause cancer" Again, under what circumstances? Should anyone with a wart be worried about cancer? This needs to be clarified.
  • "None of these treatments are very effective on single uses" This is untrue. Destructive methods, such as laser surgery, are performed only once.

--Jadorno 08:28, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup?

Jadorno, I see that you just added a cleanup tag to this article. What about it do you think needs to be cleaned up? The "Home remedies" section needs to be pruned quite a bit, as I mentioned earlier on this talk page (and I'll do that cleanup myself in a few days if no one objects or does it before me—I just wanted to have a chance to get others' input before making major cuts), but I do not see what else is messy right now. Otherwise, it seems pretty well organized (though additional sections, like you suggested above, would of course be good if someone feels qualified to write them). --Icarus 08:54, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Icarus3, I am new to Wikipedia, perhaps I have chosen the wrong tag. If this is the case, please feel free to replace it with the appropriate tag. I believe that a cleanup of this article should involve an expansion of the introduction to include a disambiguation of the different kinds of warts and their respective treatments (which are not the same, according to The Merck Manual), and the replacement of the inadequate "See Also:" links at the end with this introduction. (Incidentally, The statement that "None of these treatments are very effective on single uses" is contested by the same source.) In its final form, I believe the article should follow the format of:
  1. Introduction
    1. Definition
    2. Disambiguation
  2. Methods of contraction, contageon and prevention
  3. Diagnosis (Do I have a wart? If so, what kind?)
  4. When to treat, when not to, when you should call a doctor
    1. risks of treating, risks of not treating, cancer, immunodeficiency, etc..
  5. Treatment (specific to kind of wart)
Until the article meets an acceptable standard of accuracy and comprehensiveness, I believe that it should be tagged. Basically, I am concerned that this article contains at least one inaccuracy and several instances of incomplete information. I don't believe that this would be grounds for "cleanup", were this not an article regarding health. Whether cleanup is the appropriate tag or not, there should be some tag on the page that makes it clear to readers that the information provided is beneath Wikipedia's standards and should be regarded as such in making decisions about their health. Could you suggest a better alternative to the cleanup tag, or would this be the best way to warn readers of the ( hopefully temporary :) ) substandard content? Again, I would like to stress the importance of providing accurate and comprehensive information when health is involved. --Jadorno 12:10, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Re: Cleanup

I'm an expert on the topic of papillomavirus molecular biology. However, I'm not a physician and I may be out of my depth when it comes to some aspects of clinical treatments. I recently updated the papillomavirus main article, which had been a stub. I restricted the focus of the article to general features of papillomavirus biology. I'm now gearing up to help with HPV-related articles, but I'm kind of bewildered by the overall organization of various HPV-related topics in the Wikipedia. For example, the entry plantar wart - which I think is an exemplary Wikipedia article - is almost perfectly redundant with this wart entry. I imagine the two articles could be merged into one article covering all non-genital skin warts. I vote that the merged article be called "Skin wart" or "Common wart". Genital warts are different enough that they deserve a separate article.

I'm with Jadorno and Icarus - the unreferenced/unverifiable folk remedies in the current wart article are outside the Wikipedia mission statement and should be pruned away from the merged article. On my user page I'm compiling a list of papillomavirus-related topics in hopes of coming up with a more rational way of grouping other HPV-related articles. Retroid 17:55, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

(This the same comment I made here Talk:Plantar_wart).
There are numerous types of wart including Common warts, Flat warts, Filiform warts, Mosaic warts, as well as plantar and genital [1]. I think wart should hold information common to all types with specifics of each type on separate pages. So, I'm not convinced that merging is a good idea. But I would agree that much information is being duplicated and this should be addressed. This would probably involve moving content from plantar wart into wart and vice-versa. Pgr94 09:33, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

See Talk:Plantar_wart for further discussion

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, and not a medical encyclopaedia. It seems right to me that the article mention the "folk" remedies or at least reference an article/series on folk remedies, as long as it is made clear that these alleged remedies are not supported by clinical research.TeamCoachingNetwork 13:01, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Merging Wart and Plantar Wart - not a good idea

The HPV virus has over 100 subtypes. Plantar warts are merely a subtype of the wart virus. There are body warts, foot warts, hand warts, face warts, molluscum contagiosum, genital warts etc etc etc and plantar warts... To merge warts with plantar warts is nonsensical - to INTEGRATE plantar warts to warts is a possiblity. You can find out more about on warts in general as well as COMMERCIAL_LINK and COMEMRCIAL_LINK options by clicking the links - if you're interested that is.

I removed two links in the above that held no information that is not already in WP and were blatantly commercial. Wikipedia is not an advertising platform. Pgr94 09:22, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Advertisement?

"Some people have used successfully the following medication: ShopRite's Antifungal Cream (Tolnaftate 1%). This is actually used to cure athlete's foot, but for some reason it works very well also against warts, possibly by creating an environment in which the verruca vulgaris virus cannot live."

Might be true, might not be true, but it sounds EXACTLY like something a stealth marketer would say, and as such, I deleted it.

--PsychoCola 00:31, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Even if it's not an ad, it's unsourced (and written in an unencyclopedic tone). Removing it was definitely the right thing to do. --Icarus (Hi!) 01:45, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

"cauliflower-like"

The phrase "cauliflower-like" in the introduction is confusing. In what way is a wart like a cauliflower? Is it a similar plant? No, it's a virus. I'm editing the sentence to reflect that a wart resembles a cauliflower. Aaronimo 15:08, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

They really should show a picture of your classic verruca vulgaris, which resemble cauliflower. Personally, to me they look more like the fried onion dish at TGIF.70.132.29.133 03:16, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Animation

Why do we need an animation consisting of only 2 frames. Surely 2 separate pics would be far better!--Light current 23:41, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

The animation in the treatment section has 5 or 6 frames, no? I'm the creator so I could easily create what you request, but I thought this might be better...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 12:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Experts?

Another treatment for warts is to simply cut them off, or dig them out of the skin (for instance, if a wart appears under a finger or toe nail). Anyone want to phrase this in a medical manner? Hyacinth 03:08, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

My _completely_ inexpert understanding of warts is that cutting them can lead to the spread of the infected cells and thus the infection to other areas of the body, and that moreover, the removal would have to be reapplied a number of times for any reasonable chance of success. In any event, advising people to cut out parts of their bodies without medical supervision is not, I believe the role of an encyclopedia, nor safe, nor reasonable. Readers, please do not do this! JoshuaRodman 21:34, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
This was not intended as discussion of home remedies. Any wart removal method may need to be applied a number of times. Hyacinth 21:56, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
I apologise, I misunderstood the context of your comment. To me, it sounded like a suggestion. If we can find a reference that lists this as a commonly used practice, inclusion makes sense to me, but I would prefer it if it included the medical community view of such a practice. As for multiple times, I wasn't suggesting this is specific to this action, but that the recommendation of causl readers to cut out parts of their bodies mutiple times was perhaps a bad idea. JoshuaRodman 06:06, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
I understand this this is not the most "medically sound" reasoning for it, but I do know that cutting is a method employed by some doctors. Both of my brothers and my mother have had warts removed by cutting - but the doctor did it. If we can find some sources, and include that it should never be attempted by someone who is not in the medical field, I think it could be informative. 207.32.33.5 14:50, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
For the record, I would like to say the way it reads now is very good. In fact, I was considering slicing a wart off the back of my wrist before the Wikipedia article talked me out of it. heh... Thanks, Wikipedia! --Jaysweet 00:50, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

More questions

  • How do warts spread?
I agree, there needs to be more info on contageon. The article only notes that contageon is sometimes possible. --Jadorno 07:35, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
  • How long can a wart "live" outside the body (e.g. on a floor)?

Papillomaviruses are super-sturdy. For example see J Infect Dis. 1997 Oct;176(4):1076 (PMID 9333171). A locker room floor would be a happy home for quite some time.Retroid 00:47, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

  • I'm very interested in why the skin gets hard because of the virus. What does it do to the skin to make to change? While picking at one a few years back, It always seemed to resemble tall standing structures, perhaps stemming from just below the skin. --Cngodles 21:02, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

I just fixed some silly vandalism to this page...

Has this page been a frequent target? Should it be semi-protected?Matt Kurz 20:01, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

That Picture

This straw poll is in regards to an image that is no longer part of the article. It is preserved here for historical reasons, and is no longer active. Thank you.

Good god, aside from how disgustingly huge that is, that's not an accurate representation of a 'normal' wart like one sees commonly. I realize it says 'very large' but I think most of us would prefer to see the most common sort of wart.

  • Remove Yeah, it's gross. Can't even read the article normally with that thing staring at me ;)
  • Remove -- That's just going for shock effect, not instruction. MShonle 15:19, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove Nasty nasty. The picture has been in my head since I saw the article yesterday, so I'm going to go ahead and remove it. Dreamyshade 03:06, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
  • Keep It may be nasty, but somepeople don't no what warts look like. (like me till i saw it). --Andrewcool 01:38, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Comment Whoops, I guess no one remembered to leave a note here when the picture was changed! This straw poll wasn't for the picture that's currently there. It was for one (which I believe has since been deleted) that was very unrepresentative of normal warts. Thanks for you input, though! Were the poll still relevant, your opinion would be very helpful in deciding what to do. --Icarus (Hi!) 02:27, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment THANK YOU for removing that stomach-churning picture. Aaronimo 15:20, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment I wanna see! Send a link!70.132.9.144 10:53, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

- Perhaps the duct tape effects the skin cells which are keeping the virus in such a way that the wart virus cannot maintain its hold. Janine Hodges M.Sc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.153.232.57 (talk) 04:38, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Cryosurgery Over-the-counter

I'm not an expert, but from what medical students I know have said, the over-the-counter "freeze sticks" do not work in a cryosurgery manner. They work by stimulating an immune response, not by freezing and killing the affected cells (which would be little different from burning them with a hot knife). This makes me a little dubious about the cryosurgery being used at all, or being used in the way described on the cryosurgery page. I suspect the idea of "freezing off" a wart is one encouraged by the freeze stick manufacturers, as the idea of making a wart just fall off is quite appealing. Anyone who knows a bit more the subject around?

Response: From my (recent) experiences, the freeze sticks do NOT work. I have a wart on my index finger, right where I pluck harp strings and pick up objects. I've been dealing with this wart since August, and spoke with one of the ER doctors at the hospital where I work. He suggested a Compound W type wart remover, and advised against the "freeze sticks". Naturally, being an impatient person, I sprung for the money for the freeze stick anyway. It caused an inordinate amount of discomfort, similar to having a toothpick pushed slowly into my fingertip, but the wart did not fall off even after being treated twice with the freeze stick over the course of a few months. In fact, the wart actually got worse and grew hard again. I have found much better results with the "gel" form of salicylic acid (Compound W, for example). The liquid form of this turned into a gel within the bottle after about a week of treatment and I personally find it very difficult to apply a gel-like liquid with a brush, but the edge of the gel tip works quite well for removing the bubble.

Also put down the money for a freeze thingy, part of one came off, but only part. I think it might actually have triggered the growth of two more. Since using it, i've noticed two small dots developing.

See below, it is my personal belief that the freeze-sticks come with instructions that were prepared by legal teams who were very concerned with possible loss of portions of limb, etc that could come from any aggressive use of them. I had eventual success when I used them beyond their stated limitations, but it was plainly obvious how using them in the exact manner I used them in, could easily result in extremely serious damage in a person with both less calloused skin and a slower circulation. Zaphraud (talk) 00:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Home Remedies

Although a disclaimer is offered for treatments, I think removal of the mentioned treatments (lighter/air-duster) should be given discussion. These are hardly factual and are against any recommendation a board certified physician would make. In my opinion, this is not what Wikipedia stands for.

  • Remove I think the efficacy and description of various treatments as explored by the medical community is indeed relevant, although I do not think this is what you are talking about. I believe the suggestion of unstudied treatments, especially with instructions, is not reasonable material for wikipedia. It is not testable or verifiable without a medical study, and wikipedia cannot provide such. Further, the suggested methods if strictly followed might not be notably harmful, but recommending self-burning and freezing tactics is sure to lead to a trial of errors. As such I believe it is conventionally not appropriate for Wikipedia for having no source, being nonfactual, but as a seperate case completely irresponsible to allow this material to be published in this fashion. JoshuaRodman 21:41, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove A sentence or two along the lines of "Some people try to remove warts at home using lighters or aerosol propellant, but there home remedies are potentially dangerous and not recommended by doctors." would be okay, but the current form should go. Icarus 20:37, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove I agree with Icarus. I don't have much of a medical background, but those "home remedies" sound like misguided attempts at a substitute for professional treatment to me. --Dirk Gently 03:03:59, 2005-07-30 (UTC)
  • Stay I believe that such information may be useful for individuals who wish to find a home remedy to remove a wart. Wikipedia could add a disclamer but I believe the information may prove itself useful to some and isn't that what Wikipedia is for? Cassova 21:41 2007-03-28 CST

Stay I have had a wart removed by a doctor and it left a nasty scar and then returned. I am interested in information about other more gentle and natural methods even if they haven't been scientifically tested.

It sounds like a more "gentle" method is not what you need. 74.68.114.168 (talk) 22:59, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
  • Remove the OTC method uses methyl ether and propane which produces a much colder (-35 to -60C, roughly) temperature than the HFC134a (-25C to -40C, roughly) in the duster products. Also, isn't that crap the same stuff as the "New Freon" used in post-1995 cars that has been linked to testiclar cancer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zaphraud (talk • contribs) 00:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

85% efficacy?

A study[1] found that the duct tape method was 85% effective, compared to a 60% success rate in the study's cryotherapy group.

According to the Cochrane report, modern treatment methods are not more than 75% effective. [2] The study reviewed 52 randomized clinical trials dating up to 2003. The other main findings were:

  • overall there is a lack of evidence (many trials had poor methodology and reporting).
  • the average cure rate using a placebo was 30% after an average period of 10 weeks.
  • the best treatments are those containing salicylic acid. They are clearly better than placebo.
  • there is less evidence for the efficacy of cryotherapy.

This casts some doubt on the 85% efficacy result reported by Focht et al. which precedes the Cochrane survey.Pgr94 08:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's right for a wikipedia article to say which study is correct, but if there have been studies with different results, then the article should neutrally and factually report on that. (Of course, a "study" that was widely ridiculed as utter quackery would be another matter, but even that could probably be handled with factual reporting of the medical community's response rather than the article outright taking sides. I don't know enough about the studies in question to know if this applies in this instance.) --Icarus 09:35, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

This article further undermines the duct tape remedy: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/06/warts.duct.tape.reut/index.html . It makes sense to mention some studies have found that duct tape can help, but it might be worth trying to research if there is any form of consensus. --134.68.77.186 17:37, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

My personal experience, years ago, with the duct tape therapy is that it worked amazingly well for a wart that was on a finger next to a fingernail, but failed repeatedly for a wart on a palm. For warts on a toe, the duct tape may have worked but it appeared likely to do far worse damage to the toe before the wart would be killed, and in this case the wart appeared to heal just as fast as the toe did, so I didn't get any shrinking at all. An OTC cryotherapy remedy eventually took care of the warts on the palm and toe, but required multiple uses over a period of a few months, and at longer exposure times that were allowed in the product's documentation to be effective. Given a friend's multiple first time successes with either use of a soldering iron or sulfuric acid, it appears the main challenge in wart removal is not, in fact, killing the wart successfully, but rather, doing so in a minimally painful way that does not leave a permanent scar. Zaphraud (talk) 00:26, 4 April 2008 (UTC)


heres what i want to say, i am unsure of how a wart would grow in the brain, because it seems inevitably unrealistic to me

and i would also like to say, NASTY PICTURES but thanks for the VISUAL aid. joke... haha

Anna and Sarah —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.16.67.67 (talk) 01:50, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Stress

"Some scientists believe they are also caused by stress." - Can anyone find a source for that? I kind of doubt that... That Jason 02:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Removed. If somone finds a source, put it back in.
Possible Source This study is limited, but the conclusions point to increased frequency of warts in people with stress. --AzazelswolfsuperPUAwithacherryontop (talk) 01:23, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Warts on other animals

I arrived at this article from pig as I was surprised that pigs could get warts and asked "well, what actually is a wart, anyway?"
This is an interesting article, but didn't answer my question particuarly well. Whatever HPV is, given that the H stands for Human I find it unlikely that this is how pigs gets warts...and the article fails to recognise that any animal other than humans can get warts. Just thought you guys would like a bit of feedback :) AnthonyUK (talk) 15:02, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, a section on warts in other animals would be helpful. Started a section for it with links to articles about Papillomaviruses that infect other animals. Zodon (talk) 18:26, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Duct-tape therapy

The section on duct tape therapy is very poorly written and confusion. It seems to imply that several patients died in the testing of this treatment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.64.156.1 (talk) 17:11, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Hypnotism and warts

Sometime between 1960 and 1970 I read a paper which described warts removed selectively from one side of the body as a result of hypnosis. I had thought it was in BMJ or Lancet. Perhaps somebody could check. RayJohnstone```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.32.147 (talk) 15:31, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Duct tape occlusion

That section on 'Duct tape occlusion therapy' is horrifically written! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.2.112 (talk) 22:47, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Article suggesting that the cryo method is better?

See [Here]. The article suggests that cryotherapy is better then salicylic acid... Perhaps to avoid WP:POV and WP:UNDUE we should avoid which treatment is "better" and percentages that seem to go all over the place depending on which article you read, unless there are specific governmental statistics? - Pmedema (talk) 05:02, 15 September 2010 (UTC)


Hot water

I had a wart that we tried to get rid of via freezing, topical ointments etc. In the end I remembered a lecturer saying that hot water can denature proteins, so every morning when I had a shower, I blasted the wart with the hottest water I could handle. It was gone in less than two weeks. Other web sites mention hot water, but this doesn't. Perhaps it ought to be added. Have any reputable studies been done? RobertTristram (talk) 07:33, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

How are they spread

As far as I can see this article doesn't describe how warts can be spread. It does simply state "they are contagious". Are they an airborne pathogen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.187.199.192 (talk) 20:41, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

systemic or local?

Is the virus localized, so that one should be careful of infecting other parts of the body when filing it down, or is it already systemic? — kwami (talk) 10:41, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I believe it is localized but will spread eventually in some cases. Being localized makes it risky to open as a wound, but also allows the body's immune system to react to, and sometimes eliminate, the virus. It is a common veterinary practice to tear the warts off a cow so that the virus is no longer "walled-off" from the cows immune system. The immune system will then destroy the infection. Painful though.72.187.199.192 (talk) 20:46, 15 May 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. I don't think I'll try that. Liquid nitrogen seems more attractive at this point. — kwami (talk) 00:02, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Prevention of human papillomavirus infection

This section of the article is awful. Tad Lincoln (talk) 11:26, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Return of Home Remedies

I added a home and folk remedies section, not realizing one was already here at some point in the past and had been removed. Hopefully, this new home remedies section is more valuable than the old one which was previously removed. There are references now. My main reasoning for adding this section is the Wikipedia article on vinegar already indicates its effectiveness on warts, so really all we are doing here is providing the reader a more valuable reference to material that already existed in Wikipedia.Dbilling (talk) 04:05, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to remove this section again. It's only been back for a few days, and already it's attracting a growing list of unsourced and even ridiculous magical-thinking based claims (e.g. the wart will disappear as the raw meat buried in the garden rots). Furthermore, none of the sources given for the few that do have them are from reliable sources. I wouldn't be opposed to a short section simply documenting the fact that an inexhaustible number of scientifically unsupported folk remedies and old wives' tales exist, even giving a few examples of such for the sake of illustration, but the past and current form that uncritically presents an ever-growing list (the former version could pretty much have been summarized as "any random food or cleaning product found in your or your neighbor's kitchen") as potentially effective cures cannot stand. --Icarus (Hi!) 18:35, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Not sure if there is any scientific research on it, but my warts (had some for 10 years) started disappearing after starting an exercise program in gym and eating a special powder for growing mass. Haven't changed anything else. About half a month ago I went running regularily, this didn't help, in fact I got new warts on bottom of my feet. Two months ago, in December 2008, I started going to gym and bought some nutritinal supplement, now all of the warts are nearly invisible, except one, but it has definitely shrunk. Might be something in the powder. KSiimson (talk) 05:09, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

That's interesting. It might have something to do with increased metabolism and a better immune system as a result of exercise. Who knows. Either way, as interesting as it is, correlation does not equal causation so it doesn't make sense to put it in the article. --AzazelswolfsuperPUAwithacherryontop (talk) 01:14, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

And I added one back, looking for something to do with a mizzable little stub on "spunk-water" from Tom Sawyer. Apart from Mark Twain, whom I don't think anyone is going to confuse with anyone making medical claims, the other instances I added are cited to medical sources, though on a folklore subject I'd question the necessity. I'm happy to insist on sources for specific claims if it starts growing again, but if you want to get rid of it let me know, and I will break it back off into a separate article agai. Folklore wart cures are a huge subject, and if too much sourced material gets added I'd be happy to make it a separate article. - Smerdis of Tlön - killing the human spirit since 2003! 03:21, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Glacial Acetic Acid

A treatment I haven't seen listed in the article involves the use of glacial (high concentration) acetic acid (GAA). The surface of the wart is first isolated by the application of a protective layer of Vaseline to the skin immediately surrounding the wart. A minimal amount of GAA (one drop) is applied to the exposed wart surface in the center of the Vaseline annulus and allowed to air dry; the Vaseline is then removed. The application is repeated every day until the wart turns black and drops off. Care must be taken to avoid damaging unaffected skin since GAA is corrosive (hence the Vaseline).

A relative was treated in the 1960s using this method at his GP's recommendation. The GP suggested employing an unused match (not the business end, obviously) rather than a dropper to deliver the single drop of GAA to the wart surface.

I checked here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_acetic_acid#Niche_applications) and elsewhere online and found that GAA is still listed as a possible wart treatment but I don't feel competent to edit the article at this time; perhaps someone else can oblige? AncientBrit (talk) 11:20, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Frogs/Toads and warts

Just thought in a "foklore" section that the myth about frogs/toads carrying/causing warts should be mentioned. It was a strongly held belief by both kids & adults throughout my childhood. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.66.106.111 (talk) 03:57, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Onions

I've heard claims of people using onions to get rid of their warts. Is there any truth to this? Do onion juices really work against warts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.67.86.44 (talk) 20:56, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I am a little bit confused. So I will write it all down, in hope, that somebody might answer.

1. When I got a wart of my own (at 50yrs age), I first looked into Wikipedia to find some Information. Everything medical was OK, but I could not find a link to a "how-do-I-easy-remove-this-buggers" information / or website.

2. So I started to roam around and look for information. Long story short ... I found some Onion-Garlic-Treatment and tested it by myself. I did also ton's of photos to document this.

3. Well, after 2 weeks my foot-wart was gone and I did my own webpage about this, as I thought that this might be highly interesting for other people.

4. So the question is - would be a cheapo removal of foot-wart's without pain and without costs (Plaster, Vinegar, Garlic) worth enough to be included into a wart-article? Self Experiment of Foot-Wart Removal

You know - I went to wikipedia first - to find such an information ... and not only the medical explaination.

MikeMackeHkt (talk) 13:21, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Prevention section needs update to reflect new gardasil.

The prevention section/heading says that gardasil only protects against 4 types of HPV. There is a new gardasil that protects against 9 types of HPV. This section should be further updated to say whether or not plantar warts can be prevented now with gardasil 9. I don't know if they can be or not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.90.218.32 (talk) 08:23, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

Viruses can't be aerobic

Viruses can't be aerobic or non-aerobic themselves- they aren't living things. Is the article implying that the wart itself (cells infected with virus) needs oxygen to grow, and absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere?

Yes. Please some clarification on this. You can't "asphyxiate" a virus!!

I've removed the sentence that read: This treatment is effective because the virus that causes warts is aerobic (oxygen-breathing), and duct tape is impermeable to air molecules--thus asphyxiating the viral colony and curing the wart. The study the paragraph refers to does indicate that the duct-table method works, however it does not provide any explanation as to why it works. The aerobic virus theory seems unlikely at best. --PJF (talk) 10:04, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This is very true I am not an expert in the subject but I have learned in my high school studies that a virus is nonliving therfore, there is no way it could possibly be aerobic (need oxygen to live) or anerobic (don't need oxygen to live). And also with the duct tape thing it is the rubber in the duct tape that triggers your bodies immune system to fight the viruse and make the wart go away. The viruse however hasn't left your body it is just in a dormant state. -Benton Urquhart

That's a little far-fetched. Viruses are living. ~~JL~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.181.25 (talk) 04:49, 1 May 2014 (UTC)


It is clearly taught in every scientific text that viruses are in fact non living organisms; they cannot replicate without the help of a host and harbor no cellular machinery in and of themselves. They are either DNA or RNA with a few proteins that help help viral replication with the help of the infected cells ribosomes (proteins that read RNA and make more proteins).

Anyways regarding the duct tape theory, yes viruses cannot be classified as obligate aerobes (or anaerobes etc.) but a theory could be made that the cells that they infect, once infected, rely on oxygen in part to survive. Of course this is in contrast to the non transformed human epidermal skin cell that does not use atmospheric oxygen for survival (and I am unaware of any research testing this theory, perhaps because it seems far fetched from anyone familiar with the histology of skin cells).

NOW: More than likely the duct tape method just softens the wart (the ingredients of the adhesive may break down the skin it is covering), so when you peel it off and immediately wet it and file it down (using a cardboard based nail file), the layers are shaved off. The added irritation from the duct tape may also stimulated local inflammation (and hence blood flow) that will send more immune cells to the location, which could lead to further detection and destruction of the HPV virus infected skin cells (HPV is the most common cause of warts). Citation and best advice on warts from the authority on all skin diseases, the American Academy of Dermatology: https://www.aad.org/dermatology-a-to-z/for-kids/about-skin/warts/how-to-get-rid-of-warts — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.145.67.115 (talk) 04:44, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Candida Antigen - proven therapy for stimulating immune response

Can we include more on candida antigen therapy? In 2003 I uncovered several studies proving efficacy in the 60-80% range, the science behind it being a localized immune response to the wart virus. I used these published papers to convince my podiatrist to use it. My usage of the therapy was wildly succesful, but there is also much data beyond my anecdotal evidence.

I am not affiliated with Type IV Technologies, which is trying to launch a commercial version of the therapy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.217.200.214 (talk) 16:11, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, it's already mentioned. We wouldn't want to add too much more, lest we give undue weight to an uncommon treatment. More sources and possibly a slight expansion of how the treatment is purported to work probably wouldn't hurt, though. --Icarus (Hi!) 17:37, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I have been through about 6 different treatment types (including squaric acid which is not listed either), and candida antigen has been the only one that has actually worked for me. There is a lot of information about this treatment here http://www.altoonafp.org/wart_study.htm . A vignette of the study can be found here: http://www.altoonafp.org/a_vignette.htm . A full paper version here: http://www.altoonafp.org/full.htm . They claim there was an article in the the Archives of Dermatology, October 1, 2000 although I have not verified that source. There have also been several studies of its efficacy found here: http://www.altoonafp.org/other_studies.htm . The only working link I could find from there went here: http://archderm.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=394870 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:470:E259:FFFF:3041:EC64:E36D:B82 (talk) 12:32, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Here's a reliable source on the matter. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3778775/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A000:46C1:A700:95C8:3260:5E53:31B6 (talk) 05:28, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Apple cider vinegar

I am surprised that the 'Folk remedies' section won't even mention what many people report in numerous online forums, that is topical applications of undiluted apple cider vinegar over a period of a few nights has been effective at getting rid of warts after the standard procedures prescribed by medical doctors have failed.

In my view vinegar is a genuine 'Folk remedy' and should be listed as such. What people have been documenting extensively in YouTube videos and in picture sequences taken over periods of months is 'serious' data and is information worth of mention. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rlx0007 (talk • contribs) 13:58, 8 April 2014‎

Do you have any reliable sources that discuss apple cider vinegar as a remedy? Just to let you know, online forums are not reliable. GB fan 15:03, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Here are some references showing pictures. Those testimonials are not complete from a medical perspective, but there are a number of them. So I feel those are good leads.

1. "http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/removal-of-warts-using-apple-cider-vinegar.html"

2. "http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2013/08/how-to-use-apple-cider-vinegar-to-remove-warts-its-easy-gross-picture-just-ahead.html"

3. "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfNR8RDDgwk"

4. "http://imgur.com/a/30tp2"

Cases where vinegar did not work.

1. "http://plantarwartwarrior.blogspot.ca/2009/01/how-i-killed-my-plantar-wart.html" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rlx0007 (talk • contribs) 21:00, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Since none of these are reliable, do you have any reliable sources that discuss this treatment? -- GB fan 17:31, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Or proper controlled trials? PJTraill (talk) 10:37, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Water filtered Infrared A therapy

I gather that there is in Germany a “WIRA” therapy for Warts which is not mentioned here. See for example:

We also have no article such as WIRA Method / WIRA method or WIRA Therapy / WIRA therapy (WIRA is a radio station). Does anyone feel qualified to contribute some information? N.B. I have also placed this request at https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Warze
PJTraill (talk) 10:35, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Per WP:MEDRS we tend to stick with review articles rather than primary sources even if peer reviewed. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 23:40, 19 September 2016 (UTC)
Both the reaction on de.wikipedia and that it ¿is unknown in anglophone countries? suggest it is not needed here.
I gather that the therapy used to be described on de.wikipedia, both under Warze and in its own article, but was removed as many felt it insufficiently established; they felt, I think, that no-one had reproduced the results and/or that the research was well described but did not support the conclusions and/or that the work was of low quality. The wart therapy discussion is archived, the separate article deleted (so I cannot read why!). Unfortunate, as a neutral description of claims and counter-claims says more than a black hole. Someone said that a quarter of German dermatologists apply it, yet someone who looks it up in de.WP draws a blank! PJTraill (talk) 11:56, 22 September 2016 (UTC)
Yes there is not much in the EN literature on this. Will look further in a bit. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:39, 24 September 2016 (UTC)

Duct tape

These refs

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=22972052

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=24921240

are better than this one

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25116975

The first journals have a much higher impact factor. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:43, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

How reliable is the cited information about cryogenic therapy?

I'm asking because in large parts of western Europe cryogenic therapy is the standard treatment. When I was a schoolboy I got warts several times, as it spreads during phys ed. The treatment was conducted by our GP and his assistant and according to their experience, and ours, it usually only took one treatment and cured in the same amount of time as any blister, which is much shorter than the time it takes warts to resolve by themselves as mentioned in the article. They also impressed upon us how important it was to get pupils treated as soon as possible since the treatment prevents the warts' further spreading. In our area warts were an uncommon occurrence; I've only witnessed a handful of outbreaks in my entire childhood and half the time I was spared. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.86.20.136 (talk) 13:47, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

Restored folk remedies section

I have restored the section on folk remedies and made it a subsection of the 'alternative' heading. Folk remedies for a common and usually minor complaint like warts is in fact a vast subject. I also removed an 'in popular culture' tag, which did not seem to me to be pertinent; the section is not a collection of random appearances of warts or wart remedies in popular culture. If the section is to be removed, I would suggest at a minimum that it be removed to a separate article about warts in folklore. This is a large subject that the short text here only scratches the surface of. Smerdis of Tlön - killing the human spirit since 2003! 05:52, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

unusual treatments but helping

A german, sorry, "Frag Mutti" (´Ask mum´) site with reports of experiences about Plantar wart unusual treatments. Source: https://www.frag-mutti.de/dornwarzen-am-fuss-entfernen-a41257/ (Translation to english http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frag-mutti.de%2Fdornwarzen-am-fuss-entfernen-a41257%2F)

Translation to english http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSch%25C3%25BC%25C3%259Fler-Salze)
(This as english wikipedia article exists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Heinrich_Schüßler)

--Visionhelp (talk) 05:27, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

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