Q. You wrote about Dead Sea salts as a cure for warts. In my experience, the salts don’t need to be from that far away.
I live in Florida. Several years ago, I used to go dig for clams with my hands in the sand just south of the Sunshine Skyway. A prominent wart on my pinkie gradually disappeared, and has never returned.
A. This sounds like a very pleasant wart cure. We could not find any research that relates to using sea salt brine on warts, but it fits our favorite criteria: won’t hurt, might help and, in your case, doesn’t cost much. Another reader, RA, had this story: “Many years ago my wife had several good size plantar warts on the sole of her feet. She had surgery but that either didn’t remove it all or it returned. They were both painful and itchy.
“That summer we went to an ocean beach and she walked on the sand in the shallow surf. She said she recalls rubbing her feet hard into the wet sand to relieve the itching. Shortly thereafter the warts went away. She recalls the relief was almost immediate.“
Other home remedies that have been used to conquer warts include castor oil, turmeric, duct tape, lemon juice or banana peel. Other remedies include instant glue, vinegar, milkweed sap or regular soaks in hot water. This last was written up in the medical literature more than a half-century ago.