Earth Clinic Mobile: Home Remedies for People and Pets

Apple Cider Vinegar for Warts

5 star (126)		88%
4 star (5)		3%
3 star (6)		4%
1 star (6)		4%
(1)		1%

Sarah (Columbus, Ohio, Us) on 02/22/2013:
5 out of 5 stars

I used regular food-grade Apple Cider Vinegar on my plantar warts after years of trying to freeze or compound-w them away. I had a very bad infestation on my toes and on the balls of my feet. There was nothing except duct tape that could stick to my feet all night long. I cut those make-up cotton rounds to size, soaked them in acv, and taped them in place each night until the pain was distracting me from sleep. I walked around in socks during the day, washed my feet with salycillic acid soap in the shower, and rubbed some reccommended supplemental powder (I forget the name of but was a bear to find at the druggist's) after the shower. I took a break for about a week and went at it again until they were all gone. I went from three- inch by inch sized mosaics, four kissing warts, and at least two dozen stand-alone warts to nothing in two months after having to wear socks and shoes all the time for 8 years to keep from infectin others. Now, I go barefoot all the time!

Kingsdaughter (Syracuse, New York) on 02/09/2013:
5 out of 5 stars

Apple Cider Vinegar cured 14 warts on my hands, most of them in a matter of 1 1/2 weeks, when nothing else would. I applied it at night by placing small bits of ACV-soaked cotton ball on the warts and securing them with duct tape, and then removing them in the morning.

If at any point it hurt too much, or if the skin around the wart got too sensitive, I would just take the cotton ball off and wait a few days before resuming treatment. It's a pretty forgiving method, and super effective. The warts turn black and just fall right off.

Warning: DO NOT PICK at the warts; let them come off on their own. I have absolutely no scarring except from one wart that I picked off before it was ready.

I understand that this treatment has taken a lot longer for some, but IT WORKS. If it's taking longer, I would recommend filing down the wart before applying ACV.

I've only gotten 2 new warts in the past two years, and they were also easily treated with ACV. Warts no longer scare me, because I know how to deal with them!

Blair (Halifax, Nova Scotia) on 01/19/2013:
5 out of 5 stars

I promised myself I would write a review of this home remedy should it work, so here I am letting people know that if you do this right it will work to remove warts. I had had two ugly warts on my face for the last 5 years, one on my cheek and another by my nose, when I first got them I thought they were zits or something, then they weren't going away so I thought they were cysts, the last thing I wanted to accept was that they were warts, so I went for years with those ugly things on my face. I came across this webpage and all the stories of people with success in removing warts so I thought what the hell I am giving this a try. I picked up some cheap Apple Cider Vinegar it cost me less than $5, I used it full stregnth on small cotton ball the size of the wart by securing the cotton to the warts with bandaids. I wore this 24/7 for 3 days changing the bandaids and reapplying the ACV every 4 hours or so. The warts turned Red, then black. I kept on applying the ACV for another full day the wart by my nose peeled off, the one on my cheek hung on 1 more day but it too fell off. I am left with two pinkish color spots where the warts used to be 1 full week later. I suspect in a week or two the pink will vanish with more healing time. I did experience some stinging when I was applying the ACV, and I did burn skin around the wart by making the cotton ball too big a few times, if I ever have to do this again I will protect the skin around the wart by applying polysporin or vasiline to the healthy skin to protect it from the burning. I am so happy this cure worked for me, I just wish I had looked it up earlier and not spent years with bad facial skin. Good luck everyone.

Jim (Oakland, Ca) on 12/04/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

I'd just like to add that I had a similar experience to Reallyworks. I had a deep, nickel-sized plantar wart on the ball of my foot for three years. I had it frozen twice by a podiatrist and then cut out (also by a podiatrist -- very slow and painful healing process) and all three times it came back. While trying to treat this wart (with filing and salicylic acid) I infected the tip of my right middle finger and got a large wart there too. I finally came across this site and started treating both warts with ACV. I bandaged the warts with ACV-soaked gauze nightly for about two weeks, and they turned black and eventually could be sloughed off. The finger was very painful during initial treatments, but my god, what a relief once they both were gone. My insurance company and I were billed well over $2000 for the medical procedures, and I probably went through four bottles of Dr. Scholl's salicylic acid before finding out about ACV. Really bizarre that docs don't tell patients about this extremely cheap and effective treatment!!

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Madeline (Brooklyn, Ny) on 12/01/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

it worked! Siamese twin small warts on my ringer finger. I wet the cotton part of a bandaid with ACV and covered the warts. Used the bandaids that have sticky parts 360 degrees around the cotton part, which helped to keep the ACV moist longer. I changed and reapplied this set up whenever the ACV dried out or my bandaid seemed soaked with water from just normal washing of hands or dishes. I was probably diligent enough to wear this setup 80% of the time until it was gone, in about a week. I tried soaking the cotton ball and adhering it with a bandaid, but the sting was intense, so I just stuck with the bandaids. My warts were pretty small so this seemed ok. As others have said, it turned black within days and some skin layers began to fall off. Sometimes I would file it down if there was loose skin. Then it turned into a blood blister, which I popped. I guess I had to see if the wart was under it! It was not. The wart is now gone! It has been 5 weeks. I wish doctors knew this! It would alleviate so much unecessary wart angst.

Reallyworks (Philadelphia, Pa) on 11/12/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

I promised myself that I would take the time to write a detailed note if ACV ever cures my plantar wart on my heel. I am AMAZED it did. 3 years of almost anything possible: freezing, cantharidin, CO2 laser, pulsed dye laser, bleomycin - and finally ACV got rid of this unbelievable nuisance.

I will not write too much about the past treatments, it was a long and frustrating journey. I will just say that CO2 laser was a BIG mistake. (A few years ago I had a good past experience with pulsed dye laser and I thought that only one type of laser exists; the dermatologist I went to did not fully explain the procedure and when I saw smoke coming out of my foot it was too late - he used a CO2 laser on my heel- painful, useless and makes the wart MUCH more difficult to treat). I spent a year trying pulsed dye laser after I finally found it at Temple University but this time it did not work. The wart continued to grow and became unbearable. I still believe in PDL but it was probably the CO2 laser that made the wart very difficult to treat.

So, after I almost lost all hope, I came across this site as well as a mention of ACV in the Mayo clinic site. I decided to give it a shot. My wife is a physician/researcher and she made fun of me, as this is not a scientifically proven method- but I had nothing to lose.

Here is what I did every night:

(1) Shave the wart with an emery board. I found that the pumice stone is not effective. Also, I found that it is best to do it on a dry skin.

(2) Cut a piece of gauze and SOAK it in ACV. It needs to be dripping wet. Put it on the wart, secure it with a cloth tape and then cover everything with a duct tape. Do not press to hard as it will drip all over. My theory is that other destructive methods did not work because they were applied every 3-4 weeks and this thing just keeps penetrating and kills the skin/wart.

After the first few night (~5) all you see is a puffy white circle. I kept going. At some point, it starts to burn BADLY a few hours after you put it. The wart also turns black. More and more black every day. Keep going despite the pain. I used to go to sleep and it woke me up. It is VERY painful. No way you can continue sleeping. When I woke up in pain, I just removed everything, washed my foot and went back to sleep after a few minutes. In the morning, I put Mediplast (40% salicylic acid) it helped soften the skin for the next "treatment" at night and it is also an analgesic agent.

I kept doing this until I could not stand the pain anymore even in the morning (it was very hard to step on the foot). It took 2-3 weeks. I stopped then and allowed it to heal. After the first round I noticed that the wart had gotten MUCH smaller but it was still there. I was encouraged. I did another round of treatment for about 2 weeks. In the second round it took longer for the ACV to start burning and the black mark was much smaller. It did become painful though and at some point unbearable and I stopped.

Today I went to the podiatrist and she confirmed that the wart is gone. I am still in SHOCK. The described is my personal experience and not any recommendation for anybody to do anything. I will look at this forum in the next few days and try to answer questions, if any.

Alex (Sydney, Australia) on 11/06/2012:
1 out of 5 stars

For a very stubborn plantar wart on the heel I tried ACV after reading about it here. Insanely, monumentally painful and did not work after 6 weeks despite appearing to be working - scrape back and there it was, happy as larry. If anything it seemed to be thriving.

I was determined to make it work so on top of following the method most people seem to use I also trimmed back the top (and later scab tissue) with a medical razor whenever that was feasible usually every couple of days. I used ACV with a cotton pad, covered with duct tape and further taped down with medical tape. Twice daily and left on for at least 3 hours. It gradually became insanely painful. As in I could not think or sit still. Luckily had time off. However I endured the pain because I thought it would work. It appeared to be dying, firstly little dead blood dots and then later gerneral scabbing which I removed to see fresh wart underneath, which I also removed as much as possible. Never, never ended.

I dont know what the ACV was doing - must have just been frying my deeper skin layers which is what caused the insane pain.

Did this for 6 weeks before admitting defeat. Off to dermatoligist to see about bettle juice.

Suggest those with a persistant heel plantar wart check out plantarwartwarrior at blogspot for a hilarious account that is eerily simliar to mine. Warts on the heel are the absolute most stubborn.

Carina (Edinburgh, Uk) on 07/17/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

I am responding to the lady with little white scars from warts, I have stumbled across dermal rollering and I am in awe, be carefull of doing this if you have any flatwarts as they could spread. It will bring the pigment back after time. My flatwarts were everywhere after being misdiagnosed and given cortisones ( which will stimulate them as sugary foods will too... So the CURE IS APPLE CIDER VINEGAR from head to foot ( yes I stank) 1 month 3 times a day and now I dermal roller I want to upload a picture one day as I am 50 and my skin is better now than it ever was in my entire life. Clarins 20 sunblock everyday and argan oil at night. This really does work. I felt like a leper a year ago now I am so happy I found ACV simple but it WORKS be patient and keep at it.. Love and light to anyone out there who feels like I did. BE DETERMINED xxx

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Stretch (La Salle, Manitoba) on 06/26/2012:
4 out of 5 stars

I'm in my third week of the cider vinegar thing with the mosiac warts & my huge wart has shrunk to about 1/3 of what it was. It is very painful at times after reapplying the vinegar & tape but will be worth it if it goes away & it looks as if it's working. Tried everything else including having the doc cut it out which was very painful, they came back in full force with friends so that didn't work but am seeing good results with the vinegar.

Danapoll (Fort Worth, Tx, Us) on 06/23/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to earth clinic and ACV I removed 2 plantar warts from my 8 yr old and 1 from my 6 year old's toes! So excited! I also removed a mole off my shoulder and now am trying one on my face since it worked so well.

I just did what they said here: soaked a small piece of a cotton ball with ACV and put it on the wart/mole wrapped with a couple bandaids at night before bed. Took them off for the daytime. If the skin around it got a little irritated, I simply gave it a rest for one night.

5 nights total for my daughter and left it alone after that and eventually it peeled off. 4 sparatic nights for my 6 yr old son and it eventually fell off in a couple of weeks. Its been 1 month and totally healed! Toes look as good as new!

Took off a mole on my shoulder. Soaked it over night 5 nights total with skipped days in between. Eventually it turned black and into a scab and well, I picked it off. Tiny little mark still there from picking. So excited I'm ready to try it on my face! No pain for any of us as long as we gave the skin a break time of a day when it got irritated.

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