thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas) (09/17/85)
When I was about 12, I got a plantar wart on the bottom of my big toe. It was an inconvenience, to say the least! My mom took me to a doctor, who first tried liquid nitrogen once a week for about 3 months, with no improvement. He then tried an irritant plaster, that was basically supposed to burn out the wart and the skin surrounding it. The wart got *bigger*. (and the plaster burned whatever skin it touched, ate holes through my socks, and made wearing most shoes just about impossible) I read an article that said good ol' vitamin E could get rid of warts-- not by just taking the pills, however, but by breaking the capsule open and smearing the oil on them. I stopped using the plaster (except on the days that I had an appointment with the doctor) and started the Vitamin E treatment about 3 times a day. Within a month, the wart was gone! Later, I got another wart on my other foot, and, with my mom's permission, skipped the doctor altogether and just used vitamin E; the wart disappeared within 3 weeks. Does anyone out there have an idea as to why this worked? Ann ...tektronix!reed!thoma "...she will be your friend, until the ocean's end..."
jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (09/19/85)
> > When I was about 12, I got a plantar wart on the bottom of my big toe... > I read an article that said good ol' vitamin E could get rid of warts-- > not by just taking the pills, however, but by breaking the capsule > open and smearing the oil on them. I stopped using the plaster (except on > the days that I had an appointment with the doctor) and started the > Vitamin E treatment about 3 times a day. Within a month, the wart > was gone! Later, I got another wart on my other foot, and, with my mom's > permission, skipped the doctor altogether and just used vitamin E; the > wart disappeared within 3 weeks. Does anyone out there have an idea as > to why this worked? > > Ann A while back I had some warts on my hand. They didn't bother me, so I didn't seek treatment. After a couple of years with no change, they suddenly disappeared within a couple of weeks and didn't come back. This happened without any treatment, either by me or a doctor. It's possible that the vitamin E didn't have any effect, and that you decided to use it when the warts were about to disappear anyway. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..." {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
hga@mit-eddie.UUCP (Harold Ancell) (10/11/85)
My favorite quotation from the Merck Manual (a reference no reader of this group should be without) is on the treatment of warts. It is a great example of the manual's concise and precise language. Ending two paragraphs of painful treatments for common warts is the sentence "In young patients, suggestion followed by an impressive manipulation ---e.g., shining a Wood's light on the wart after painting it with a fluorescent dye, or warming it with a heat lamp---may be successful." - Harold