Day 2 - Last Image For The Day

Wow. What the hell is going on?

Right. I did some trimming. I took a nail clipper and got rid of loose skin surrounding the wart. I wasn't expecting the center of the wart to look like this. Here's what the wart looks like when zoomed in:


I guess this is what people mean by the wart turning "black?" I'm not sure.

Also, in the top image, you'll notice that it looks like the area surrounding the wart is looking kind of hard and scaly, maybe a little shiny. That's actually nail polish. Warts spread easily, and I had to take my band-aid off, so I covered the warts with clear nail polish. Here's another image, this time without flash.


You can tell where the smaller warts are, even though they're covered with the nail polish: they're the cloudy parts...

Day 2 - Even Later That Day

Came out a little blurry, but this is what the wart looks like after two more hours of applying vinegar. I dare say it looks like a small volcano. The center is now clearly darker. But, it doesn't look "black" so I'll continue with the vinegar treatment.

However, I'm gonna let it dry out for now.

Day 2 - Later That Day

After drying out. It definitely looks like the wart is getting darker. More vinegar, more cotton balls.

Day 2

So this is what we've got after applying the vinegar overnight.

The white, swollen part is now bigger. In fact, it actually seems to have engulfed the two mosaiced warts.

Day 1 - Last Image For The Day

Well, this is what it looks like prior to applying a cotton ball for the next 8 hours. I can definitely see the smaller warts now.

Day 1 - Even Later That Day

So this is about three hours after the last post. There doesn't seem to be much of a change, and I don't notice the dramatic swelling from much earlier in the day. However, I do notice that the main wart now has a bigger area sporting those dark specs:

Compare it to earlier today:

Hmph. Maybe I'm just seeing things regarding the capillaries...but I can definitely see the swell. Letting this one dry out for a couple of hours before applying a cotton ball for the rest of the night, while I sleep....

Day 1 - Later That Day

This is what the warts look like once I removed the vinegar-soaked cotton ball (about three hours later). The wart is not swollen anymore, although I can detect traces of the "whiteness." Also, if you look closer, as in the cropped image below, you can really see brown and black specs in the wart. These are supposedly the capillaries that feed the warts with blood.


Well, here we go with the bandages again...

Day 1

So I take the cotton ball from a Q-tip and dunk it in vinegar. I place it on the wart and then secure it with a band-aid. This is what happens.


Hmm. Turns out that I actually have four warts. Warts are known to spread, sometimes quite rapidly. I guess I hadn't realized their presence prior to applying the vinegar. The upper circle in red shows a case of mosaicing, where the warts grow right next to each other and get a mosaic-type pattern. The wart in the lower red circle already sports a dark brown center.


This is a picture taken right after the first one. The lack of flash shows what's going on with the main wart. You can tell it's quite swollen, and it's taking that "white" look that some people have remarked on. The depression in the center is due to my cutting out a portion of the wart prior to applying the apple vinegar. A scabrous, hard outer layer protects warts, so I got rid of it prior to applying the vinegar.

The scabrous part is supposedly not the living virus that causes the wart (and indeed, cutting it out hurts no more than cutting your hair), so it makes sense to get rid of whatever stands in the way of the virus making contact with the vinegar.

The Beginning - Is Apple Vinegar Really Effective On Warts?

So one day I'm massaging my feet while watching TV and feel a rough area. I look and I see what looks like a plantar wart. I've had one of these before, about 15 years ago, and I had used a weak concentration of salicylic acid to get rid of it. I went on-line to see if the times had changed. A college roommate of mine had his removed by freezing, and this was nearly 10 years ago, so technology in the wart removal area seemed to be progressing.

I figured something new must have come by.

Lots of new methods, no guarantees

There are several methods for getting rid of plantar warts.

• Burning with lasers
• Freezing (usually liquid nitrogen)
• Salicylic acid (liquid)
  
• Salicylic acid pads (solid)
• Excision (cutting them out)

However, it turns out that there are no guarantees that the warts won't return. Lots of people had gone through the painful processes (lasers and freezing) only to find that their warts had come back, and with a vengeance.

Lots of people claim apple cider vinegar works on warts

Here and here, for example. I also found plenty of people claiming that home remedies were the only solution for them. (Granted, these forums would attract those whom orthodox treatment failed them, so there must be quite a bit of bias.) They had tried the medical solutions with no avail. Some of the offered remedies:

• Duct tape
• Apple cider vinegar
• Just vinegar
• Banana peels
• Aloe
• Onions
• Potatoes

Of them all, it looked like the apple cider vinegar seemed most popular and effective. However, I couldn't find any images to see anticipate what would happen. Most who undertook the vinegar treatment talked how the wart would initially turn white, then black in the center, and then kind of fall off.

I opted for this one to see what would happen. I figured, hey, salicylic acid is a weak acid, vinegar is a weak acid...they should work on the same principle of, essentially, melting the wart away.

And, more importantly, I figured I would document the process to see what would happen with trusty Pentax Optio WPi which happens to have a kick-ass macro mode (read: great close ups)