Getting Rid of Warts

Q. My son battled warts for years. They were on the bottoms of his feet, under his thumbnail and on his knee (a really big one). We used many over-the-counter products and even had the one on his knee burned off by the dermatologist twice. It kept coming back.
A student at my school told me that his doctor recommended Tagamet. Taking two pills a day (one in the morning and one at night) got rid of the warts within a month. We tried this.
It took about a month but all my son’s warts shrank away and never came back. This was more than a year ago and to this day my son is still wart free.
A. Dermatologists disagree about the value of this treatment. Some prescribe it and some deride it.
A review of the literature found no conclusive evidence one way or the other (Journal of Dermatological Treatment, online Nov. 6, 2010). Despite this, many readers report success treating warts with cimetidine (Tagamet). Here is one such story: “I had plantar warts on the bottoms of my feet for close to five years. It got to the point where I didn’t wear flip flops or anything that showed my feet, which was hard because I’m a surfer and a skateboarder.
“I tried everything including duct tape. My dermatologist applied liquid nitrogen to freeze them off and eventually used a blister treatment to try to lift them off. Nothing worked!
“Then one day the doctor decided to prescribe an experimental treatment called Tagamet. It took this heartburn medicine about two months to work completely, but my warts finally went away. I have to say this treatment is NOT experimental. It really works.”