WART REMOVAL

Photo: Rubbing Echinacea on a wart could help to remove it.

WART AN ORDEAL

Ian.
I wondered if you knew of any remedies for getting rid of warts? I have three on my left hand and find them very embarrassing. I have tried a couple of the over the counter remedies but none of them seem to work. D.S. by e-mail

Reply.
Hand warts are very common and are caused by a virus called The Human Papilloma virus (HPV). This virus is not just responsible for hand warts. It is the cause of all warts. Hand warts make up a few strains of the wart virus. There are over 80 different strains of the warts virus and therefore warts can be found anywhere on the body. HPV is contagious and can be passed from one person to another, without the carrier of the virus actually having any hand warts or any other type of warts. The virus can lay dormant in the body for months without any warts surfacing. This makes HPV one of the fastest spreading viruses known today.

Getting rid of warts can be a bit of a trial and error. Here are a few ideas.

Warning: Even though these ideas appear harmless be very careful, as there could be side affects. Consult your doctor if you have and doubts. Never use any products with bleach in them

SIMPLE REMEDIES TO TRY

Lime juice: Drink diluted lime juice for a week or two.

Potato skin: Rub potato skin over the wart for a few weeks. Eventually the wart will drop off.

Sticky tape: Any form of sticky tape will do including sellotape or plasters. The tape is bound around the wart to cut off the air supply. Keep changing the tape until the wart disappears.

Clear nail varnish: This is also to cut off the air supply. Someone I knew used super glue to do it but this could prove to be a bit difficult to get off. I stuck my fingers together the other week with the stuff and it took a day washing in soapy water to get them unstuck!

Apple cider vinegar: Take the little cotton bit off a cotton bud and roll it into a ball. Soak it in the apple cider vinegar, apply it to your wart and tape it on. The first two days you might notice that your wart gets really big, but don’t worry- this happens to everyone because the vinegar is soaking in your wart. Normal white vinegar could be just as effective.

Raw garlic: Cut a section of garlic in half and rub it on the warts. After a couple of weeks they should disappear.

Witch hazel: Rub into the wart a couple of times a day until it disappears.

Banana skin: Rub in the same as above

Vitamin A and E: Increase these vitamins in your diet, this is said to help.

Dandelion’s milk: The white liquid that comes from the stem is rubbed on the wart a few times.

Tea tree oil: Rub oil on wart two times a day within a week or so it will be gone. Use good quality 100% tea tree oil.

Echinacea. Health shops stock this plant extract. Use as per the instructions on the bottle. The plant is said to increase your immune system and comes highly recommended by those who try it.

Power of thought: People can cure their ailments with the power of positive thinking. This might be just as effective as any of the remedies I have just mentioned.

Household.

WINDOW CLEANING

Most of the products on the market for cleaning windows are very powerful, considering the simplicity of the job, to get the glass clean. You might like to know that when you buy the products, the spray ones in particular, they contain mostly water. A vast majority of products contain large amounts of water, as it is a cheap bulking agent. (Bulking agents are found in other products too, especially the food industry -salt and sugar being the favourites, -think how your rasher of bacon shrinks when you fry it up). Back to windows, the spray type containers, whether they are aerosol or pump action are used at very close range to the face, inevitably you inhale a small proportion the contents. Some of the ingredients can be very irritating to the lungs. Apart from harsh solvents there is a chemical called ammonia that will irritate people with asthma. Don’t spray them near children, people or the elderly as they will be more sensitive the irritations.

If you have no choice but to use these products then choose the pump action ones in preference to the aerosol ones. The aerosol ones contain propellants that are highly flammable, damaging to the environment as well as your health.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
Consumer research has found that water is the beat cleaner for windows. The statistics found that it was better at getting the grime off the glass than 60 per cent of the glass cleaning products on the market. Home made concoctions also came higher in the list and of course they are a fraction of the cost of the commercial brands.

Get the right tools for the job before you start cleaning. I usually use a lint free cloth, or muslin squares. We have the liners left from when nappies were used in the house, they are very good for the windows. This material is effective to get a shine after cleaning. Newspaper is another alternative for getting a shine; try not to use paper towels, as they are an expensive, wasteful method of cleaning.

GLASS CLEANER METHOD 1
Get hold of some plain club soda from the shop and put it into a spray bottle. People swear by this method and it appears to work because it contains a product called sodium citrate, which acts like a water softener and helps in the cleaning process. It is good for lightly soiled glass. The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t dry as fast as the shop bought products so you can go and put the kettle on and have a brew whilst it dries a bit.

GLASS CLEANING METHOD 2
Mix equal amounts of water and distilled vinegar in a spray bottle. Not only does the vinegar cut through the grease of fingerprints, it also acts as a room deodoriser.

GLASS CLEANING METHOD 3
If you would like a cleaner that foams to show where you have been on the window then here is a simple recipe.
½ teaspoon full of liquid soap
3 tablespoons full of white vinegar
2 cups of water

Put the ingredients into a spray bottle and shake well. This mixture will clean the dirtiest windows and it can also be used as a light, all-purpose cleaner for around the house.

More natural cleaning tips....

WINDSCREENS
It is very important that the glass in a car windscreen is kept clean at all times. Some of the additives that can be added to the water to clean the windows can be very harmful to health and the environment. A lot of them contain solvents such as ethylene glycol, which can cause blindness and damage to internal organs. Try to choose the ones that are detergent based. Treat them carefully as you would any poisonous substance.

Household.