The Natural Connection

Last Thanksgiving after my family had polished off the last cannoli, my older Sicilian cousin drew me aside. “I think I discovered a way to get rich, “ he whispered. Older Cousin has a lot of friends at the horse track, and everything he says tends to sound like a bookie sharing a hot tip. 

“I found a cure for warts,” he went on. “Right here”, he pointed to two faint pink spots on his hand, “I used to have two warts. I went to the doctor three or four times to have ‘em froze off, but they kept coming back.”  

“So, every night before bed, I cut a piece of raw garlic in half, and taped a piece to the wart with a Band-Aid. After a few weeks, the warts got black and fell off. I think that someone could sell this idea and get rich”, Older Cousin said. “Maybe you could get some of your patients to try it and let me know”.  I looked closer at his hand, and had to admit that I couldn’t see any evidence of warts. 

Still, I had my doubts that I could convince any of my patients troubled by warts to spend their hard-earned money to masquerade as ambulatory antipasto trays, especially when everyone knows that there are preachers in the Okefenokee who will buy your warts for a penny. You can’t beat the price, and you don’t have to live with the stink. 

The common skin wart is caused by a virus called Verruca vulgare. Warts afflict more than 10 % of all children at some time or other. Conventional medical treatments include burning, freezing, and topical acid treatments, but have only variable success. For years, many of my patients have sworn by the ability of certain preachers, especially those who are “seventh sons”, to “buy” their warts and carry them off to another county. The going rate is a penny to a quarter, less for children, more for adults. 

Others report that if you steal a dishrag from your neighbor, rub it over the wart and bury it, when the rag rots, your warts will disappear. If your neighbor doesn’t do dishes, you can bury a potato that you have rubbed on the wart. Some, like my cousin, have success with applying herbal patches of garlic, onion juice, or banana peel.  

Hypnotherapy has been shown to be particularly useful in treating common skin warts, especially in youngsters. One study done at Tulane University in New Orleans suggested that up to 80% of children with warts could be healed with medical hypnosis by a trained professional. There are also case reports in the medical literature where patients successfully used a technique called lucid dreaming to dream their warts away. 

Recently a group of researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center reported remarkable success in treating warts in children with duct tape. Published in the October 2002 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, it promises to bring a glimmer of hope to those patients living in pockets of the country not blessed with seventh sons or a year-round supply of garlic. 

The Cincinnati team treated 25 children with warts by freezing the warts with liquid nitrogen for 10-20 seconds every 2-3 weeks. Another 26 children had a small piece of duct tape applied to their wart by a nurse. The duct tape stayed in place for six days, after which it was removed. The wart was soaked in water, and then gently irritated with an emery board or pumice stone, and the process repeated until the wart fell off. 

The warts completely disappeared in 21 of 26 children using the duct tape therapy, while only 15 of 26 receiving the liquid nitrogen therapy improved. There were no major complications in the duct tape group, while many children receiving the conventional therapy complained of pain.  

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I’ll be seeing Older Sicilian Cousin again. This year, I’ll have a tip for him on how to get rich. Forget the garlic. Invest in duct tape. 

For more information, write to The Natural Connection, c/o Pauline Bellecci MD, PO Box 777, Waycross, GA 31501 or contact us on our web site www.swampdocs.com 

©2000-2003 Pauline M. Bellecci, MD