| Most types of viral outbreaks elicit sympathy and | | | | impeccable application techniques to avoid injuring the |
| compassion. You have a cold? Poor thing - let me | | | | surrounding skin, and often don't have long-term |
| make you some chicken soup. Caught the flu? You | | | | effectiveness. |
| must feel miserable - remember to drink plenty of | | | | Other doctors will embark on various treatment |
| fluids. Have an outbreak of shingles? I'm so sorry that | | | | regimes, such as repeated liquid nitrogen applications, |
| you're in so much pain. But one kind of viral outbreak | | | | which freeze the common warts and surrounding |
| elicits more derision than tenderness: common warts. | | | | skin, causing painful blisters. If that doesn't work, the |
| Social Stigma | | | | next step is often canthardin, a power chemical |
| Yes, verruca vulgaris - or the common wart - is | | | | derived from beetles that also causes blistering. |
| caused by a virus. A person with verrucae vulagres | | | | Needless to say, such treatment regimes are not |
| isn't dirty, hasn't been touching toads, and probably | | | | only physically painful, but reinforce the emotional pain |
| won't infect you. Nevertheless, someone who has | | | | and internalized sense of shame that many children |
| warts on his hands - the most common location for | | | | feel. |
| an outbreak - is treated a bit like a leper. | | | | Natural Alternatives |
| This kind of social stigma becomes heartbreaking | | | | When parents find out that there is an alternative |
| when the person with common warts is a child. Given | | | | treatment for common warts, one that uses 100 |
| that children and adolescents are more likely to have | | | | percent natural essential oils, they usually embrace it. |
| warts than adults, there can be long-term | | | | After all, burning your child's skin with liquid nitrogen |
| consequences to the disparaging remarks made by | | | | or other powerful chemicals is something most |
| classmates and peers. Lowered self-esteem, lack of | | | | parents want to avoid. In contrast, natural essential |
| social confidence, and an internalized sense of shame | | | | oil formulas boost the immune system and draw out |
| can linger long after the warts are gone. | | | | warts from the root upwards. Although it can take a |
| Painful and Tedious Treatments | | | | few weeks for the warts to be eliminated, the |
| Within the medical community, there is no single, | | | | treatment is not at all traumatic, does not irritate the |
| standard recommended treatment for common | | | | skin, and leaves no scarring. |
| warts. Some pediatricians will tell parents that warts | | | | The bottom line? Common warts should not be a |
| will eventually go away on their own - although it | | | | cause of shame, and parents of children who have |
| may take two years or more. That's little solace to | | | | warts should think twice before putting kids through |
| the child who's being ridiculed at school. Other doctors | | | | painful courses of treatment. Natural alternatives are |
| will recommend salicylic acid - the active ingredient in | | | | gentle and effective, achieving the same or better |
| most over the counter wart removal products. | | | | results without physical or psychological pain. |
| However, these over the counter products require | | | | |