Tag: warts

Warts And The Immune System

It makes sense that some of the risk factors for acquiring warts can be easily controlled. Simply avoiding contact with those who are already infected with warts is the most logical step to aid in not contracting warts. Not using personal items which belong to infected individuals, and taking precautions while in public areas that may contain the infection are also helpful safeguards. But while those who do not have an adequate immune system are much more likely to develop warts, this is a factor which can be aided in many cases.

Although persons who have medical conditions which negatively affect the immune system do not have much recourse, the majority of healthy people do have the ability to take steps to keep their immune systems at peak state. If one’s immune system is safeguarded, this one factor alone will go a long way in preventing warts. It is unlikely that many people consider their immune system as something over which they have control, but basic good health practices are the strongest influencing factors. Stick to a healthy lifestyle, and you will be much less likely to develop warts.

You may not initially realize the correlation between your diet and warts. You may also not consider your sleep patterns to be a factor. Both are related, because both play an important role in keeping your immune system strong and healthy. If you do not have a proper diet, this will compromise your immune system. In addition, studies have shown that specific dietary deficiencies, such as the lack of adequate potassium, greatly increase a person’s risk of warts.

It is much better to adhere to a healthy diet than to be in the position of having to deal with warts after they occur. It is important to keep in mind that one’s dietary practices have a dual role first, in keeping the immune system strong in general, and also to not end up with the potassium deficiencies that increase your risk of warts.

A proper amount of sleep on a regular basis is also very important in preventing warts. Frequent lack of sleep also undermines the immune system. A weak immune system will open you up to a wide range of potential health problems, and the various types of warts is one of the most immediate and visible.

If you add together the factors of diet and sleep, you will have the two main factors which determine the state of your immune system. For a person who is otherwise healthy, free of any serious medical complications, both of these factors should be easily within your control. To exercise good judgment with nutrition and rest will be one of the most significant factors in preventing warts.

If you do not have a proper diet, or do not get enough sleep on a regular basis, you can lessen your risk of acquiring warts by addressing these problems. To make some positive changes in your lifestyle to reflect more healthy patterns will benefit you in many ways, both currently and in the long-run. Making you less likely to develop warts is just one of the benefits.

Professional Treatments for Warts

Warts cause embarrassment and discomfort. Home remedies and over-the-counter preparations work for some people. However, there are times when it becomes advantageous to call in a professional to treat your warts.

Retinoid cream is prescribed by doctors as an experimental treatment to get rid of warts. It is composed of a substance that comes from Vitamin A, called tretinoin. It has been shown, in research studies, to work well. Eighty-five percent of children who used it had positive results.

Retinoid cream shouldn’t be used on pregnant women’s warts because it’s been associated with birth defects. It can also cause changes in the skin of those who do use it. Skin can become dry, sensitive, swollen, crusted, or blistered. It can become red or have other color changes. If you use it, your skin can become sensitive to the sun.

Rather than slow down skin cell growth, which is what retinoid cream does, contact sensitizers work with the immune system instead. The first thing the doctor will do is to apply a contact synthesizer to your arm or back. This will start a reaction in your immune system.

The next time the contact sensitizer is applied, an allergic reaction will ensue. After that, the substance will be put directly on the warts and it will destroy it by summoning your immune system. Eighty percent of people in one study were helped with this treatment.

A doctor might put Cantharidin on your warts and keep it there with a bandage. After awhile, the wart will have a blister around it. Then, the doctor can lift the warts off and remove it.

Warts can also be frozen off. This is called cryotherapy. There is actually at least one over-the-counter kit for this. If a doctor does it, he will apply liquid nitrogen to the wart. After a blister has formed, you have to wait for about a week. At this time, the wart will fall off.

Cryosurgery uses basically the same ingredients, but the deep freezing gets rid of the warts sooner. Or, the base of the warts can be destroyed by applying an electric needle to it. These are miner surgeries.

Laser surgery can be done to remove warts. It is usually reserved for special cases. A pregnant woman may have no other way to have warts removed. A person may have a great number of warts and they may be very large.

The laser is basically just a beam of light that is highly focused. It can burn off warts and leave surrounding tissue unharmed if done right. It may be done with local anesthesia. Or, if the warts cover a large area general anesthesia is called for.

Once the warts have been removed, there will be a wound. This will be painful for a few days, but it should feel better after that. If you have undergone this treatment, you should watch out for excessive pain that persists. Tell your doctor if you notice pus or run a fever. This method has been shown to be successful on warts sixty-six percent of the time.

Is It A Wart Or Is It Something Else?

The outermost layer of the skin is called the epidermis. As the skin covers all parts of the body, warts can be found virtually anywhere on the body. Unfortunately, there are also a number of other types of growths which can appear on the skin in a similar manner. In order to affect the best means of treatment, it is important to determine whether a particular growth is a wart or whether it is something else. Being able to treat a growth for what it is obviously is relevant in selecting the best treatment; but another important factor is that some types of growths can be much more dangerous than most common warts. In taking both of these points into consideration, the earliest possible diagnosis is essential.

A wart is a benign tumor. As the word “tumor” can lead people to scurry off to their doctors, presenting it in this manner can be helpful. The reason for this is that many common warts, benign in themselves, can easily be confused with the malignant growths that are skin cancers. If you have a wart, or a cluster of them, do not be too hasty to dismiss them as harmless. There is a possibility that it could be a skin cancer, and many types of skin cancer are deadly. The significant rate of deaths from skin cancer is usually attributed to the fact that the cancer is not diagnosed and treated in time, and spreads quite rapidly.

For everyone in general, but most especially people who have had a lot of exposure to the sun, any new growth on the skin should be treated as suspicious and checked by a physician as soon as possible. You may indeed have nothing more than an annoying wart, but prompt medical attention to determine this is very important. Most skin cancers are usually one-hundred-percent curable if they are diagnosed and treated in time.

Another growth on the skin which is frequently mistaken for a wart is the common callous. A callous is a hardening of the skin, usually rough to the touch. Callouses occur in areas where there is the most pressure or friction to the skin, such as the heels of the feet, or the areas of the fingers if the person does a lot of writing or other similar detailed work.

Clavi commonly known as corns are smaller, more localized forms of callouses. They are most common on the feet, especially when one wears improperly-fitting shoes. They can bear a striking resemblance to warts, but they are not contagious to other people and will not spread to other parts of the body.

All types of warts are a problem to those who suffer from them, and can be as much of a problem to anyone who acquires warts from another person or infected surfaces. But in the interest of your health, before making a decision about the best treatment for your warts, it is a very good idea to first know for certain that it is indeed a wart and not any of the other types of growths that can appear on your skin. Although the black spot of the blood supply to a wart is a sign that that’s what it is, for the sake of your own peace of mind it is best that you not try to diagnose it yourself. A physician is the most competent judge as whether a growth is a wart, or whether it is something else.