Q. My daughter had so many warts on her hands that there was nothing the doctor could do. He said freezing or burning them off was out of the question.
He suggested Tagamet. That sounded weird, but she tried it. In two months she had many fewer warts. By the third month, her hands were as smooth as a baby’s bottom, and she went to her prom with her head held high!
A. Treating warts with heartburn medicine sounds a bit bizarre, but doctors have been doing it for years. Controlled trials of Tagamet (cimetidine) for warts have been inconclusive, but we’ve heard of other successes:
“I am a 23-year-old healthy male. I have had plantar warts on both my feet and warts under my fingernails for almost four years. I’ve tried several costly and unsuccessful treatments to cure them (acid, cryotherapy, duct tape).
“Then I read online about Tagamet. I figured it was a long shot, but I didn’t have much to lose. I began taking OTC cimetidine, one tablet at breakfast and the other at dinner.
“It took nearly two months before I noticed something: a small patch of healthy skin in the middle of the mosaic patch of warts near my big toe. A few weeks later, even more of the plantar warts disappeared, along with a big wart on my right thumbnail. It is now about two months since I started this treatment and most of my warts are gone. I am convinced that Tagamet really works.”
