Have you ever held a frog? Or maybe you kissed a toad hoping it would turn into a handsome prince?… Well, I’m assuming you did not get your prince, but perhaps you did get a wart or two on your hand. Dang it! Maybe you should’ve just listened to your mom and stopped kissing toads. Or maybe you just didn’t kiss the right one yet! Well the good news is that warts have absolutely nothing to do with the handling of frogs or toads (There’s a difference.)! So get back out there and find that prince!

Disclaimer: Kissing frogs or toads is not medically recommended.

Where do warts come from?

Warts do not come from frogs or toads. That’s an old myth, likely related to the fact that toads look very “warty,” as in covered in small bumps that look like warts. They are not warts, however. Warts are caused by certain viruses, which we’ve established before are basically microscopic zombie pirates plundering your cells. Specifically, warts are the result of a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. These viruses (HPVs) are found all over the place on surfaces and in the ground. Think TV remotes, doorknobs, tabletops, public shower floors, the gas pump, that coffee cup the barista just handed you, etc. There are over 150 different types of HPV, and they’re literally named by numbers. Ex: type 1, type 2, type 3, etc. Each type has a typical kind of wart that it can cause.

The fancy medical word for wart is verruca. There are many more fancy terms to describe their type and location. For example, condylomata acuminata are genital warts and DOES NOT mean “no worries.” However, for the purpose of this post, we will simply categorize warts as body warts, foot warts, and genital warts. Regardless of location and type however, the general way warts happen is the same.

What are they?

Your skin is made up of multiple layers. Even the outermost layer (epidermis) is made of several sub-layers. If you have a cut or scrape, and the deeper layers of your skin come in contact with an HPV, the virus (zombie pirate) invades the local skin cells, hijacks them, and makes the cells replicate abnormally fast. This results in a small local overgrowth of skin that sticks out and becomes what we call a wart.

If you’re curious, the specific type of skin cell we’re referring to is a keratinocyte. Cells are essentially tiny factories in your body. Therefore, keratinocytes produce keratin (and a bunch of other stuff). These specific cells are built deeper in your skin. As they age and die, they are pushed outward to the surface where they form the thick outer protective layer of your skin. These outermost skin cells are dead and don’t have a blood supply. This is why very shallow cuts and scrapes may not bleed. These are also the cells that “flake off,” causing dandruff and such.

All that being said, imagine a factory (keratinocyte) that makes roofing shingles (keratin). Now imagine someone came in and manipulated the factory’s machinery so that it produced shingles five times faster than normal. Great! However, the factory still cannot ship shingles out any faster than before. Before long, you’ve made a whole bunch of shingles that you can’t get rid of fast enough. That ginormous pile of shingles (keratin) you’ve created is the wart.

What do they look like?

Warts can have a variety of appearances. In general, most look like an overgrowth or outgrowth of your skin. Body warts (common warts and flat warts), for example, are what most people think of when they think of warts. Often occurring on your hands, they are skin colored “bumps” that are usually painless. You can’t “pop” them, and they don’t ooze or bleed (usually). They can occur anywhere on your body.

Foot warts (plantar warts), on the other hand, can definitely be painful. Although they can look very similar to body warts, they occur on the bottom of your foot, usually around pressure points. Sometimes they can grow more inward than outward, making them more painful as you step on them constantly.

Genital warts (condylomata acuminata) occur around your genital and anal areas. They typically are also flesh colored. Sometimes they have a sort of stalk connecting them to your skin. These typically are not painful but may cause some itching or discomfort. Genital warts are a type of STI (sexually transmitted infection) which means they are spread by having contact with the genitals of someone who has a genital HPV infection. Genital warts can take weeks to years to show up once you’ve had contact. Also, you can spread genital warts even if you don’t have any visible warts at the time (see infection vs disease). Frustratingly, there is no cure for genital HPV infection although the resulting warts can be treated.

Quick Note: A simple skin tag can be easily confused for a wart as they can look very similar. However, skin tags are totally different and are nothing to worry about. These too can occur anywhere on the body. So before you accuse someone of having warts, make sure you’re not confusing skin tags for warts. Your medical provider can help you tell the difference if you’re not sure. 🙂

How can I get rid of warts?

As mentioned above, sometimes you can’t get rid of the virus that causes warts. Genital HPVs, for example, can live in the body’s cells for the rest of your life, occasionally causing an outbreak of warts if/when the body’s military (the immune system), lets its guard down. It’s not all doom and gloom though. Outbreaks can be treated.

Many types of warts will often go away on their own although it usually takes months to years for this to happen. So you don’t have to do anything! Treatment is aimed at speeding that process up. Here’s a quick list of some of the most common treatments:

• Surgery (shaving them off with a scalpel)
  • This is pretty self-explanatory. This may need to be done multiple times as the wart may grow back. You definitely want an experienced medical professional to do this. Without the proper equipment, you could easily end up with a really bad cut, an infection, a permanent scar, or all of the above!
• Topical creams, ointments, or injections (Putting something directly onto or into the wart)
  • There are a lot of different types of these, and they work in different ways. In general they either help the body’s military fight off the viruses (play defense), give the viruses birth control so they can’t make more little virus babies (play offense), or simply physically destroy the skin (kill everything). Some require a prescription because they can have some serious side effects, whereas you can pick up others, such as salicylic acid, over the counter. Salicylic acid, for example, takes a gentle “kill everything” approach by causing layers of the epidermis to peel off. (That’s “exfoliation” for you beauty nerds out there. And “keratinolysis” for you biology nerds.) In fact, salicylic acid is a great thing to add to “the duct tape method.”

The duct tape method is a sort of home remedy that can really work by suffocating the virus! However, it doesn’t work all the time and it can take a while too, so be patient. 🙂

• Freezing (cryotherapy)
  • This method uses liquid nitrogen, which is VERY cold, to freeze the wart. This effectively kills everything in the area, causing the wart to stop growing and eventually fall off.
• Burning (electrocautery)
  • This is pretty self explanatory. You find a wart, heat it up until it’s nice and crispy, then scrape it off. This is often used in combination with the surgical method above. For obvious reasons, DO NOT try this at home! It WILL NOT end well! Doctor’s offices have very specific equipment so they can do this safely.
• Lasers (pew pew)
  • Yes, we can literally blow warts up from the inside out with lasers! Special lasers actually can destroy certain molecules (hemoglobin) in your blood stream, which essentially destroys the wart’s blood supply. Said differently, it disconnects the wart’s food supply.

How can I avoid warts altogether?

Ultimately, there is no “best” treatment for warts. They all have their pros and cons. Often treatment will consist of multiple methods. In fact, warts are known for being annoyingly resilient. Therefore, like most medical conditions, the best treatment is prevention. Admittedly this is hard to do completely, but here are a few general hygiene tips that can greatly reduce your chances.

• Wash your hands! Often! With soap and water!
• Wear shower slippers or wet shoes in public showers.
• Don’t make a habit of touching other people’s warts. (gross) And if you do, wash your hands!
• If you have a wart already, avoid picking at it as that can promote spreading.
• Don’t reuse things like nail files or pumice stones after they’ve been in contact with a wart. This could transfer the HPV virus to somewhere or someone else. Also, generally avoid using other people’s skin care equipment.
• If you cut a wart shaving, stop using that razor and throw it away.
• Regarding genital warts:
  • Use condoms (not 100% effective).
  • Limit sexual partners. Or hey, try monogamy! Or if you’re a true germaphobe, abstinence!
  • Ahem, how about just turning the lights on and having a general peek before you get into a “situation” that you might regret.

Finally, speaking of genital warts and sexually transmitted infections, you should consider getting the HPV vaccine. That goes for both men and women! Certain types of HPV are more risky than others. Types 16 and 18 for example cause most cases of cervical cancer. The vaccine greatly reduces your risk of getting this type of cancer! There are a few different versions of HPV vaccines; however, most are aimed at reducing cervical cancer specifically. And for those of you you don’t have a cervix (males), you can still transmit the HPV to someone else. Therefore, you can protect those close to you (as in VERY close) by getting the vaccine too!

So, long story short: next time you come across a toad, feel free to pick that bad boy up and show your friends how you like to live on the edge. You might get sick with salmonella, but you certainly don’t have to worry about getting any pesky warts! What’s a potential prince worth to you?

…Ribbit

Learn more, stay humble.

TL;DR: Warts don’t come from frogs or toads. They come from a virus that infects your skin cells, causing them to overgrow into little bumps. They often go away on their own, but not always. Regardless, there are multiple ways to treat them. Also, everyone should get the HPV vaccine.