Warts can be unsightly and just plain annoying. None of us wants a wart to pop up on our skin. Fortunately, viral warts, which are caused by the human papilloma virus, may be easier to avoid — and treat — than you might expect. Believe it or not, you may be more susceptible to viral warts if your levels of a particular mineral are low.
A study published in Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons confirmed this. For the study, the researchers identified 75 patients between the ages of 12 and 65 years old. The patients each had more than 10 warts that had lasted for more than six months. These warts either didn't respond to treatment or had returned after being treated. None of the participants had any other chronic dermatological or systemic illnesses.
The researchers matched the patients up with 75 healthy control participants and compared their serum zinc levels. While 24 (32%) of the control participants had low serum zinc levels, over half (42 participants, or 56%) of the wart patients had low levels. This suggests that zinc deficiency is indeed associated with the presence of viral warts.
Banish Puffy Eyes!
This gravity-defying cream contains over 30 ingredients, including an Essential Fatty Acid Complex, Sandalwood and Barley Extracts to help rehydrate, reduce puffiness, and help minimize the appearance of lines and wrinkles.
Learn More Now
But can correcting this deficiency get rid of the warts? That's what another study, published in The Journal of Dermatology, sought to answer. For this study, 31 patients with more than one non-genital viral wart received 10 mg/kg to 600 mg of oral zinc sulfate a day for two months. Of these patients, 18 (58%) started out with low serum zinc levels. In total, 26 patients completed the study, and 13 of them experienced complete resolution of their warts by the end of the study period. Six months later, the warts hadn't returned. A few patients experienced some mild side effects, such as nausea, from the treatment. But overall, it was a safe and often effective treatment option for resolving the warts for many of the participants.
If you have some stubborn warts that haven't responded to treatment, low zinc levels may be to blame. You can try Advanced Zinc Lozenges to help you boost your levels. You just may find that your warts disappear without any other treatment. And if you've struggled with them in the past, you can also try having a lozenge a day or a few times a week to prevent their return.
One final note: High doses of zinc, as found in this study, can cause nausea. I don't recommend high dose zinc unless you're being monitored by a health care practitioner because it can create mineral imbalances if you take too much. The amount contained in these lozenges, 15 mg, is a relatively low and safe dose. One of the reasons the zinc lozenge is beneficial compared to tablets and capsules is that some percentage of the population has difficulty absorbing zinc. The lozenge form is remarkable in that it dissolves slowly in your saliva and you begin its digestion in your mouth.
To your health, naturally,
Janet Zand
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21352302.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20378032.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19377755.