Study debunks duct tape’s use as cure for warts
March 21, 2007 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Apparently, duct tape is NOT be the “ultimate material” we all thought it to be.
A 2002 study showed that it’s effective in removing warts in children and young adults. Cheap and painless, the tape supposedly works by irritating the skin and stimulating the body’s immune system to attack the virus that causes warts.
However, a new study casts doubt on the duct tape’s “medicinal use” when research among adults did not have the same effect as the previous one on children. The big difference – the former used the gray rubberized tape, and the latter study used the transparent variety. Duct tape proponents say it’s the rubber adhesive that acts as immune stimulant.
Common warts are caused by a harmless noncancerous type of papillomavirus that camps out in the skin’s upper layers only, and is of a different type from the papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer.
For more on this controversy (tongue-in-cheek), read “Study Casts Doubt On Duct Tape Wart Cure“.
Tags: duct tape, human papillomavirus, common warts, virus, illness, medicine, viral disease
