What helps with warts?

What helps with warts? According to a study, icing should work best.

(15.09.2010) Many people are affected by annoying warts, which are difficult to treat. According to a study by Dutch doctors, the method icing (cryotherapy) should work best. During the course of the study, cryotherapy, salicylic acid treatment and waiting were compared.

A total of 240 subjects participated in the study. The age structure was between 4 and 79 years of age. The study participants were divided into three equal groups. The first part had the warts frozen by a physician every two weeks. The second group treated the warts with salicylic acid daily. And the third group did nothing and just waited. The course of study lasted a total of 13 weeks. According to the results, every second wart in the first group was successfully distributed using the icing method. In salicylic acid therapy, however, the success rate was only 15 percent. No treatment, the warts were only eight percent disappeared.

However, there are more side effects with cryotherapy (icing) than with salicylic acid. Overall, according to the study authors in the medical journal "CMAJ", the patients were happier with the icing because the warts could be successfully treated. In addition, the treatment of the widespread conventional warts on the hands was more successful than in the so-called plantar warts (plantar warts) on the feet. According to doctors, such plantar warts in children heal about 50 percent spontaneously. In adolescents and adults, these warts heal only 5 percent.

Warts are a viral disease that can appear at any age, often affecting the hands and / or feet. However, some patients have not just one or two warts, but the whole body. Warts are recognizable by their pointed and hemispherical outgrowths. Rarely, the warts are also flat. The warts as such usually cause no symptoms such as itching or pain. Most warts are benign, only in very rare cases can they cause pain in certain parts of the body or become malignant. On the contrary, warts viruses are almost perfectly adapted to the host, aslo to humans. In natural medicine, warts are usually treated with rubbing garlic. The method of an aqueous and oily garlic extract should be quite promising. (Sb)