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Warts and Verrucas: it’s a sticky business

Over the next few weeks parents all over the country will discover that their child has a verruca. I think its because children go bare foot more in the summer. For whatever the reason we always have a blip of verrucas in August. Now verrucas are difficult. They are basically nothing more than a wart on the foot, but because we walk on our feet the wart gets pushed in by our weight and ends up sore and painful. Over the centuries all kinds of treatments have been tried, often involving the odd part of a frog’s anatomy. More recently “science” has tried burning them off with red hot cautery, freezing them off with liquid nitrogen or use various acids. These do work to an extent but there is now something new and really effective, something new and really effective and scientifically proven to cure 85% of all verrucas in just 2 months. 85% cure: that, I can tell you in the wart and verruca world is brilliant. So, you ask, what is this amazing new scientific breakthrough? Some kind of pill, or immunisation, perhaps a particular brand of essential oil you ask?
Well no. Its sticky tape. Not any kind of sticky tape mind you. It’s got to be Duct tape: that thick really sticky stuff you get from DIY stores. We’re not the BBC here so I can say that DUCK is one of the brands. All you do is cut a small square of duct tape so it will cover the verruca and stick it on and leave it on for six days. Take a frogs skin.. Sorry getting carried away there… After the sixth day take the tape off that night and put a fresh piece on in the morning and leave that on for another 6 days. 85% of verrucas will have gone by the end of 2 months and most will have gone in a month. You may also find that other verrucas and warts you did not treat will also clear up. This treatment is more effective than cryotherapy, a lot less painful and a lot cheaper.
Brilliant. Yet I am always left wondering with these sorts of treatments how somebody first found out that it worked? Joseph Babinski for example, what was he doing tickling the soles of his patients feet, but that is for another day.

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