Cure warts with duct tape

Here’s a great tip for the Do-It-Yourself crowd: Duct tape can cure warts!

Yes, it’s true, according to Anthony J. Mancini M.D., an associate professor at Northwestern University`s School of Medicine Children`s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Dr. Mancini says he uses duct tape as an inexpensive and relatively painless way to treat warts. He has his patients apply the duct tape over the wart, leave it on for about a week, remove the tape, and then file the wart with an emory board. It’s that easy.

But how can such a simple household item treat a sustained viral infection?

No one knows, at least not for sure. But theoretically the tape could be debriding, or stripping the dead skin from the wart and carrying the wart virus along with it. That’s kind of how other wart therapies work. (Like the Compound W or Kryoderm freezing technique). Another possible mechanism is that occluding skin with duct tape somehow triggers the patient’s immune system to fight the virus. There’s no solid data to support this theory but doctors do use immunotherapy against warts in some patients.

How often do you hear of a doctor advocating a simple, cheap solution instead of an expensive medical treatment? Not very often! So the Beauty Brains community sends a big group hug out to Dr. Mancini! Thanks Doc!