Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

June• 2018 | 101

Don’t share personal items – socks,

towels – that come into contact with

warts. And resist picking at them,

which helps to propagate the under-

lying viruses.

See a doctor if a wart is painful.

If it bleeds easily or if it

changes colour or ap-

pearance, you’ll want to

make sure it isn’t skin

cancer.

If it is indeed a wart,

then it’s ‘just a cosmetic

nuisance’, says Dr Colm

O’Mahony, a member

of the European Acad-

emy of Dermatology and

Venereology.

Feel free to get your lesions treated

if they distress you; otherwise, you

may choose to just get on with life,

warts and all.

However, warts that occur on the

groin region – genital warts – are sex-

ually transmitted and require difer-

ent treatment from other warts. If you

think you may have genital warts, see

your doctor for treatment, don’t wait

for them to go away on their own.

doctor or a dermatologist, who can
administer more aggressive removal
methods such as freezing the wart of
with liquid nitrogen or using laser sur-
gery to burn it away.
Particularly obstinate warts might
respond to immuno-
therapies, which aim
to give the body’s nat-
ural defences the boost
needed to suppress the
virus. For instance, the
chemical diphenylcy-
clopropenone may be
applied to the affected
area to trigger a mild re-
action and kick the im-
mune system into gear.
Because warts are contagious,
until removal is complete, it’s best
to practise ‘wart etiquette’ to avoid
passing on your infection. Plantar
warts, which mostly afect the soles
of the feet, are caused by viral strains
that thrive and spread in wet envi-
ronments; therefore, wear thongs or
cover your warts with waterproof tape
in locker rooms and public swim-
ming pools as well as in the shower.

At least

65%

of warts

disappear without

intervention

within two years

BEARDY HUMOUR

“I was thinking about getting rid of the beard, but I’ve had it

for so long that at this point it makes the decisions for me.”

DAN ST. GERMAIN

Q: Who shaves up to ten times a day and still has an

awesome beard? A: The barber.