Warts and You

There are a lot of misconceptions about what a wart is, how it is transferred, and how it can be successfully remedied or treated. First of all let us talk about what is a wart. A wart is a virus under the Human Papilloma Virus classification or HPVs. There are more than 100 types of warts of which 30 or more of them can be most often found in the sexual regions.

Any skin surface of the body is susceptible to forming the cauliflower-like appearance which are essentially small, benign tumors on the skin. Warts are most often transmitted from person-to-person contact. If you touch a wart on someone else it is possible that you can grow a wart as well. If contact is made with broken skin, it increases the likelihood substantially. They are also passable via inanimate objects such as bath towels and other objects that might have come in contact with the wart and allow for it to be passed.

Types of Warts

You have several different types of warts. The common wart is the one you would most often find on your hands and fingers. You then have plantar warts or foot warts which can be found on the soles of the feet, normally under the surface of the skin. Depending on where they are located, these can have a debilitating impact on a person's ability to walk. Flat warts are flat on their surface and often grouped in large numbers. They can be found on the legs, of adult females mostly, or the faces of small children. Genitial warts are one of the most common sexually-transmitted diseases (STD) out there, and treated differently, for the most part, than the other classifications of warts.

Treating Warts

Some warts will eventually go away on their own, although doctors do not seem to know why this happens. It may take months or years, but some warts simply disappear one day never to be seen again. Others require treatment to deal with them and make go away. Even if a wart is not causing you physical pain or discomfort, it is a good idea to look at treating them. Just having the warts can allow them to spread and infect other parts of your body as well as infect other people.

I will discuss some of the ways common warts are dealt with here; however, genital warts should not be treated with any of these methods. They could cause you serious harm and damage. Please reserve them to warts on your feet, hands, legs and other non-genital regions. If you want to treat genital warts, your best bet is to consult with your doctor. Probably the most common solution in treating warts is to use salicylic acid. This is available in most grocery stores and drug stores and is the active ingredient in products such as Compound-W and others. It requires a daily application that eventually eats through the wart. My experience differs a bit from the common directions though, and that is I found it more effective to just apply the salicylic acid, and try to leave it on without disturbing it, until you go to apply it the next day. Many products recommend you try to remove the dead skin, before reapplying. I found that extended the time for the warts to disappear.

Another suggested method is to use duct tape. Supposedly you can cover the wart in duct tape which causes a reaction with your body that attacks the wart. My personal experience is this method does nothing or very little in getting rid of warts. As a last ditch effort or for a very large or painful wart, your family doctor has several tools of the trade to also use on warts. From chemical applications to using liquid nitrogen to freeze them off, they could be a consideration if nothing else is working for you.

Warts are very common and most people will experience them at some point in their lifetime. It is not something to be alarmed about, and they are usually treatable. So just take the necessary steps to try and take care of them and you should have no problems.

Information on warts and genital warts


Hot Topics In Health

    How To Treat Sleep Deprivation Using CPAP

    Treating sleep deprivation using CPAP is considered as an effective treatment strategy. Sleep derivation is the condition in which the patient cannot experience a continuous sleep. It is considered to...

    Plantar Warts Explained

    Warts (including plantar warts) are a viral (verruca vulgaris) infection of the skin. They are contracted by coming in direct contact with the virus.

    If you've ever stepped barefoot into a locker ro...

    Is Lasik Surgery Covered By Insurance?

    Lasik surgery is an eye vision correction method that has been growing in popularity. Lasik surgery can greatly improve eyesight, eliminating the use of eye glasses or contact lenses. It's a relativel...

    How Much Does Laser Eye Surgery Typically Cost?

    The cost of laser eye surgery can vary greatly depending on the type of surgery to be performed, the patient's prescription, the equipment used, and the doctor or surgical provider in question. There ...

    Diet And Sperm Quality

    There comes a time in most committed relationships where couples decide that they want to bring a child into the world. Visions of chubby newborns dance in the heads of baby's mom and dad while hopes ...

    Anatomical Charts

    Anatomical Charts

    Human anatomical charts have been used since the 18th century for many purposes in the healthcare profession. Whether you're a surgeon, chiropractor, physical therapist, or masseus...

    Diet Soda; Is It Good Or Bad If You Are On A Diet?

    The debate over whether diet soda is a dieter's friend or a dieter's enemy seems to become more heated every day.

    One side is saying diet soda is a great beverage for people trying to lose weight an...

    Functional Food: Preventing Diseases and Promoting Pet Health

    Food and diet play an important role in health. Every day, research in fields such as epidemiology and nutritional biochemistry teach us more about this relationship. Through scientific investigation ...

    Mosquito Bites - Remedy And Repellents

    It's a nice summer day and you're relaxing in your yard. Suddenly, you feel something bite you. You may begin to itch, when another bite takes place, and then another. It's those pesky mosquitoes agai...

    A Brief History Of Hip Replacement Surgery

    Hip replacement is a medical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a synthetic implant. It is the most successful, cheapest and safest form of joint replacement surgery. The earliest recorde...

    A Practical 12-Month Organic Living Plan

    We can talk and think about something until cows fly!

    But it's what we actually DO, that matters; that creates results.

    If you've been thinking and talking about eating and using more organic prod...

    The True Cost Of Smoking, Literally.

    What would you and your partner do with 07,887.50? Spend it on cigarettes perhaps? Well, if you and your partner both smoke 60 cigarettes a day between you, and you both smoke for another 50 years, th...

Most Recent Health Supplements

Interesting Today:

Most Recent Health Blogs:

Releated to Health:

Health Links:

Health Health Rss feeds.