What are Warts
Warts are actually caused from a virus, you probably didn’t know that, but it’s true. The Papilloma virus, which actually has hundreds of different strains, is what causes a wart to form. Strains 1, 2 and 3 are responsible for the more common warts but there are other strains that can cause genital warts. Yep, I’m shuddering just thinking about that one.
Warts are actually mildly contagious and they can be passed from person to person. They can even be passed through objects such as towels, shoes and even a wet floor may transfer a warts virus. Now normally we find warts on the hands or maybe the feet, but they are capable of growing pretty much anywhere on the human body. They have been known to pop up on peoples eyelids, rectum and sometimes even in the mouth. Yep, shuddering even worse now!
The good thing is, warts may possibly heal themselves without any treatment at all, but if you have some, it’s best to have a physician look at them. There’s many treatments available, but the most effective is an application of salicylic acid. Now that sounds scary doesn’t it? I probably would prefer the freezing method, this is done with liquid nitrogen. But if you want to get a bit more technical you may choose to have them cauterized or maybe blasted off with a laser. The bad thing about warts is they’re very hard to kill. Even though some of these treatments sound good, most of them will not work 75% of the time. Warts are very bad about growing back rather quickly if the treatment isn’t successful. Not the best odds in the world that for sure.
Legends of the Wart
Of course anything that is this shady is going to have a few tall tales to go with it. This is probably because they are so tricky, appearing and disappearing when ever they feel like it. There’s really no set time on how long the fellers are supposed to last. Some may hang around for many years, while others may disappear within a few short weeks. This also creates a false sense that someone’s “miracle cure” has actually worked. But I believe the wart does what the wart wants to!
Considering that a wart is a form of virus, it’s only logical that it would have a short life span. Such as the common cold, normally they only last about 7 to 10 days, then they’re gone. But this is also a well known fact. Seeing how we’ve learned this from research and science, we’re a lot less likely to believe our recovery has come from some mystical cure.
We’ve all heard the theory of warts coming from toads. Well of course, because toads have all those warts on their back, so you better not pick one up, right? Nope sorry, just an old legend. The bumps on a toads back aren’t actually warts at all. But for purposes of this post, let’s go over some of the ways to cure contracting warts from a toad.
Folk Remedies for Curing Warts
One common theory is that you’re supposed to wear a live toad around your neck, in a bag or something. And you’re supposed to wear it until the poor thing dies. Then your warts would be cured. But let’s think about this one. Going back to the virus theory, in the amount of time it would take for that toad to die, the virus probably would of run it’s course. Ok, so let’s move on.
The next theory for curing warts from a toad was to rub a frog or a snail directly on the wart. Oh no, that’s not all… After rubbing it on your wart, you’re supposed to take the frog or snail that you used and impale them on a twig! Or better yet, the best one of all is to chop the head off of an eel, drip blood from it on the wart, and then bury it’s head in the ground. These are extremely odd remedies and are crossing the border on animal cruelty. Not saying I agree with these methods, just sharing the myths.
Not all cures for warts have been so cruel in nature. One such remedy was to rub a piece of elder wood on your wart, then throw away the wood. What if you didn’t have any elder wood? Then an old bean pod would work just fine.
Now here’s a freaky one. It was said that you also had the option to either sell or give your wart away. You could actually give it to the dead. You could do this by either rubbing the wart while a funeral procession was passing by. If you didn’t have the opportunity to do that, then maybe you could grab some mud from the shoes of someone that was mourning and rub it on the wart. That would definitely be a daunting task trying to get that mud!
Some legends say you could either make faces in the mirror when the clock strikes midnight, or blow on it 9 times during a full moon to make it disappear.
These are all pretty humorous, but I suppose you could try any crazy antic as long as you believed in it. That just goes to show you how desperate folks are to get rid of something like that.
Fantastic article. I had to have an operation in November for internal warts. Worst experience of my life! Wish I’d looked around for alternatives first.
My goodness Stephen, I’m sure that was quite the ordeal. I hope everything turned out good for you. Was there a lot of pain involved?
One of my friends had experienced warts before. Well thanks for this article, I am now informed that warts could be passed from person to person.
Well the good part is that they can only be contracted through direct contact. Either through personal touch or possibly passing them through an object the infected person has used. So it’s pretty easy to stay out of their way as long as you’re paying attention and aware of them being there.
I heard about this legend … “Some legends say you could either make faces in the mirror when the clock strikes midnight, or blow on it 9 times during a full moon to make it disappear.”
Very cool, thanks for sharing these other remedies. It’s so interesting to hear all the different remedies that people have come up with over the years.
Wouldn’t you like to catch someone making foolish faces in the mirror in hopes their wart would disappear…lol
One of my friends had experienced warts before. Well thanks for this article, I am now informed that warts could be passed from person to person.
Indeed, I’m glad you found some useful information in this post. Warts are quite a nuisance to those that are afflicted with them. Hopefully your friend has found relief from them. Thanks for sharing and hope you stop back by again in the future!
Warts will eventually disappear of their own accord. They are however extremely contagious and should therefore be treated sooner rather than later to avoid infecting others. There are numerous forms of wart removal treatments available, most of which can be applied in your own home.
Some good advice Graham. Also some very helpful info in your link, thanks for sharing!
Hi Robert, The folk remedies to cure warts as described by you are quite fascinating and unique for anyone to try it. I got shocked that warts can be removed through folk remedies also but it seems very helpful and new, so people suffering from warts can try these remedies to experience some thing new and adventurous.
It has been noted that warts will often disappear on their own, overtime. This happens when the body’s immune system beings to find and fight them and their bacteria. It has been said, in numerous scientific studies, that duct tape seems to help hurry up the process. Whats your opinion on this?