What are Warts? Types and Treatment

Warts are a type of skin lesion and are of many types and shapes. These may be flat and smooth, large, small, itching, painful, bleeding, dry, oozing, hard, soft, in crops or isolated etc. Most of them are non-cancerous in nature and can be treated differently by different healing systems.

Types of Warts

Most common of the warts are flat or juvenile warts and common warts, which are also called fig warts. As the name goes, flat warts are flat and usually with smooth surface but fig warts are those which look like small cauliflowers. They can be located any where on the body including nostrils, eyelids, genitals and around anus. They are mostly brownish in color. Most important is the shape, which distinguishes them from other types. They are not flat or smooth, can be nearly a millimeter in diameter or as big as a dried up grape or even bigger. Large ones are usually longish in shape and start hanging down due to their weight. If they are given a cut, they will bleed as much as any other part of the skin. Warts on palms and soles are usually hard and non-bleeding and not brown in color. Warts on soles can be painful on walking. In some individuals more than one type of warts may be present at the same time.

Causes of warts

It is said that warts are caused by virus. They can also be inherited. If any of the parents or grandparents had warts or moles or both, most probably the children will also have them though different in shape, size and number.

Treatment

In orthodox treatment system, the treatment for warts consists of local destruction by chemicals (salicylic acid, podophyllin, formalin) or physical methods like burning, freezing or curettage. Surgery plays a major role in treatment of warts. Problem with these methods is that they will not stop the warts from reappearing elsewhere.

In homeopathy there are over 50 medicines to treat various types of warts, which may also be used according to location of the warts. So every medicine cannot be used for every type. It will have to be chosen according to the type of wart and other symptoms of the individual. The treatment is by oral use of medicines. If medication is done correctly, the warts disappear permanently without leaving spots on the skin, never to return.

Fig warts in particular can be also be treated locally by wetting them twice a day with a mixture of homeopathic medicines Thuja MT and Nitric-acid MT. This mixture will be effective for fig warts only. Do not be alarmed by the name of the acid. It would not burn them like common acids do. You would not even feel that you have applied something on your warts. However, drawback with this application is the same as for destruction by chemical or physical means. The warts will reappear elsewhere on the body. So one has to make a choice between different treatments.