Using duct tape to remove a wart
I had a wart near my ankle and decided to try the duct-tape treatment. Each morning, every day for three weeks, I cut a small piece and, after my shower, stuck it over the wart.
The top “layer” of the wart seemed to come off each time I removed the tape. When the wart was quite smooth, I filed it gently with an emery board, and it bled a little. Three weeks later, I looked for the wart and it was gone!
Controlled studies of home remedies are rare, but in the case of duct tape, there have been a few trials. In a October 2002 study, investigators found that duct tape worked better than freezing to remove warts in children. Last year, scientists reported that duct tape was only slightly better than a placebo among children and, in March, that it was no better than a placebo in adults. Although science suggests that you were lucky, we have heard from others who rid themselves of warts this way.
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I suffer from leg cramps. Recently while attending a basketball game, I had to try to walk off a severe inner-thigh cramp. A security guard approached me to see if I needed first aid. When I said it was leg cramps, he took me to the concession stand and suggested I try yellow mustard. He said it was an old-time remedy his grandmother used. I ate the mustard. By the time I walked to the end of the concession stand, my leg cramp was gone! I have used this remedy repeatedly.
You are not the first to share the secret of yellow mustard. Some readers keep little packets of this condiment on their nightstand to ease leg cramps.--
Joe Graedon, a pharmacologist, and Teresa Graedon, an expert in medical anthropology and nutrition, can be reached at https://www.peoplespharmacy.com or care of this newspaper.
