Warts are a common viral infection of the skin. Plantar warts grow on the sole of the foot. The virus that causes warts, HPV-1, infects only the superficial layer of skin, producing a thickened callus-like growth that can become quite tender. Plantar warts often go away on their own, without treatment – about 60% of the time.
Are Warts Contagious? There are a few risk factors for plantar warts; public showers, previously damaged skin, and a weakened immune system.
How Are Warts Treated? Medical treatments usually involve applying chemicals to the skin that “burn” the wart off, as well as lasers, freezing, and surgery, all of which damage the skin.
In the end, the treatment could be making matters worse. Recall that one of the risks for these warts is skin damage.
Warts can grow back, indicating that the virus is still in the body and damaged skin may make it easier for the virus to find a home. One of my compounding associates wrote, “With all of the prescriptions we fill for warts, we hear a lot of stories where the listed treatments caused the warts to rebound to a greater degree.”
This May Be a Safer Treatment Plan One less aggressive approach is to use therapy that sensitizes the person’s immune system, referred to as the “squaric acid immune stimulant therapy”. It consists of a pre-treatment with squaric acid, (application of a 2 inch square patch of 2% squaric acid in acetone usually applied to the forearm) waiting two weeks, and then applying directly to the wart at bedtime.
The idea is to rev up the immune system to go after the squaric acid and hopefully the papilloma virus as well. A compounder in Illinois reports it works 58% of the time in four days to four months with an average of seven weeks.
The strength of the immune system is important for all forms of viral attack.
Other Approaches and Support. It is prudent, then, to do everything possible to keep it operating efficiently. This includes using probiotics (I recommend Florajen 3) on a daily basis along with a dose of FOS (fructooligosaccharides).
While warts are present, the dose of probiotics and FOS can be doubled or even tripled. It is also good to avoid consuming substances that dampen immune activity, such as processed foods, sugar (all sweeteners), white flour, caffeine, and alcohol.
A General Plan to Prevent and Treat Warts.If you are plagued with plantar warts, consider the following;
- Avoid surgery, laser, or freezing as long as possible
- Don’t walk around bare foot
- Aggressively support your immune system
- Consider using the squaric acid plan