20 replies to this topic

[fearfrost]

While this might not have anything to do with immortality or life extension directly, I feel that this is important and useful to share. This is my story.

About 15 months ago I noticed I had developed wart-like growths on my thumb, wrist, elbow, and right ring finger. In total, there were at least 10 growths, all of which were small but unsightly. Three years earlier I had two warts on my foot that I had removed by a dermatologist using liquid nitrogen freezing, so I returned to my dermatologist to utilize the same method to remove my most recent outbreak. For me, this is a very painful process and results in severe blistering and pain for about a week. However, the treatment is well worth it if it is effective. This time, the freezing did not work as well... only 3 of the warts disappeared and all other 7 returned, much larger, a few weeks later. So now instead of 10 small warts, I had 7 large ones and 3 scars. Over the course of the next year or so, I tried duct tape, salicylic acid, wart removal "pads", manual removal (cutting), and went to another doctor. At first I had great success with the duct tape, but in the end I still had 5 warts that would not go away. They were very embarrassing and it even makes me sick talking about it. Anyway, at that point I had enough of the "normal" treatments so I decided to do a little research.

After digging through some journals I found a few articles, mainly this one:

Oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of recalcitrant viral warts [abstract]
Oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of recalcitrant viral warts [complete pdf]

My quick synopsis is that 10 mg/kg of oral zinc sulphate is a very effective treatment for wart removal in 1-2 months with few side effects. So after reading it and doing some further research I decided to give it a try.

So for 5 weeks I took 660 mg of zinc sulphate that I bought online for just over $10. I took three 220 mg pills spread out throughout the day. I did miss 3 days due to a mountaineering trip, but other than that short break I was faithful to the regime spelled out in the article above. To maximize absorption I took the zinc on an empty stomach an hour before each meal (this was based on another zinc related journal article which I no longer have the reference for which stated that absorption is maximized when the stomach is empty). About 10-20 minutes after each pill, I would feel a very slight nausea wash over me. At some points, but very rarely, I felt like I was going to vomit... my mouth would start to water and a few times I even started to cough, almost dry heaving. However, most of the time I would not even notice the nausea because I was too busy doing other things and all in all the side effects were very minor in my opinion.

After 5 weeks, my skin was completely clear of warts. I wish I had taken pictures because the results were honestly very surprising and proved that for me the zinc undeniably cured (or somehow removed) my warts. Where two of the largest warts were was a slight hypopigmentation (coloring scar), however it is very subtle and less apparent than the marks left by the freezing that the doctor had done initially. Overall my skin on my entire body looks healthier, smoother, more moist and flexible, however that is merely a subjective observation and may by my imagination.

It has now been two weeks since I stopped taking the zinc. Every day the scars are getting clearer, to the point that shortly it will be almost impossible to tell that I had any warts ever. Nothing has reappeared, I do not feel any withdrawals from stopping intake of the zinc, and I am frankly overjoyed with the results.

I guess it is also important to note that I did start taking resveratrol (plus related supplements: quercetin, lecithin, and ellagic acid) just over 4 months ago at 40 mg/day and 1 month ago I increased my dosage to 400 mg/day. I am unsure whether the resveratrol had any effect on the treatment of my warts, but I am sure that the zinc is responsible for the results because the healing process of the warts occurred almost directly as outlined out in the journal above (1 week of zinc: warts turned red, tender, multiplied and grew larger, 2nd week the warts started to shrink but still tender, 3rd week the warts were very very small, 4th week the warts were gone, 5th week added just to insure that the entire virus infections was gone). I am sure someone is going to pipe up and mention that resveratrol is a known anti-viral, but I am not sure if any of the results can be directly related to my resveratrol dosing.

I wanted to share all this because it seems that far too few success stories with supplements are ever shared. I cannot personally recommend taking zinc for warts because I am not a medical professional, but it did work very well for me and I could not be more pleased. I also wanted to share this because it brings up some interesting ideas about the mechanism of healing that zinc promoted. Definitely read the article if you are interested in how or why this treatment works because the authors do a fairly nice job attempting to relate zinc, the immune system, healing, etc. One thing is clear though, zinc caused my body to somehow fight off the viral infection. While taking the zinc did my immune system also kill other viruses in my body that I might not have known about? Was my overall immune system strengthened against a wide variety of new infections? It is hard to say because it was only for such a short period (I did however remain completely healthy for the 5 weeks). Was my body lacking the appropriate level of zinc to begin with? Was initially low levels of zinc the cause for the infection (possibly starting over three years ago!)? So indirectly, the answers to these questions might link zinc with longevity somehow since it appears that zinc has such a drastic effect on the immune system.

I also learned a lot about the medical field and doctors throughout this process. Lets just say I am much more inclined to do self-diagnosis and treatment now than I was before. The suggestions I received from the doctors (a total of 3 over the past 3 years just for my warts) all just treated the symptom, but doing some research it appears that I might have found a treatment that goes right to the source cause of the problem. Much better to get a cure than to get a temporary "bandaid". Plus, $10 is much cheaper than all the visits to the doctor and other stuff I had to buy... and it was faster too!!

I would love to hear any ideas or comments, but mainly I just wanted to share. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any.

Cheers!
fearfrost

[lucid]

Yup, Zinc also destroys colds. It works better than anything else. One thing to be careful about though: Zinc levels are tied to the function of sight taste and smell. A company making zinc losenges (think it was cold ezee brand) had a class action law suit filed against them where people claimed that taking the losenges did damage to their sense of smell. I believe the effects were permanent too. Sorry for not remembering any of the details. Definitely be careful about OD'ing on zinc.

[HealthJunkie]

Have your warts returned or was this a complete success that got to the root problem?

Sounds like you got to the root problem.

While this might not have anything to do with immortality or life extension directly, I feel that this is important and useful to share. This is my story.

About 15 months ago I noticed I had developed wart-like growths on my thumb, wrist, elbow, and right ring finger. In total, there were at least 10 growths, all of which were small but unsightly. Three years earlier I had two warts on my foot that I had removed by a dermatologist using liquid nitrogen freezing, so I returned to my dermatologist to utilize the same method to remove my most recent outbreak. For me, this is a very painful process and results in severe blistering and pain for about a week. However, the treatment is well worth it if it is effective. This time, the freezing did not work as well... only 3 of the warts disappeared and all other 7 returned, much larger, a few weeks later. So now instead of 10 small warts, I had 7 large ones and 3 scars. Over the course of the next year or so, I tried duct tape, salicylic acid, wart removal "pads", manual removal (cutting), and went to another doctor. At first I had great success with the duct tape, but in the end I still had 5 warts that would not go away. They were very embarrassing and it even makes me sick talking about it. Anyway, at that point I had enough of the "normal" treatments so I decided to do a little research.

After digging through some journals I found a few articles, mainly this one:

Oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of recalcitrant viral warts [abstract]
Oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of recalcitrant viral warts [complete pdf]

My quick synopsis is that 10 mg/kg of oral zinc sulphate is a very effective treatment for wart removal in 1-2 months with few side effects. So after reading it and doing some further research I decided to give it a try.

So for 5 weeks I took 660 mg of zinc sulphate that I bought online for just over $10. I took three 220 mg pills spread out throughout the day. I did miss 3 days due to a mountaineering trip, but other than that short break I was faithful to the regime spelled out in the article above. To maximize absorption I took the zinc on an empty stomach an hour before each meal (this was based on another zinc related journal article which I no longer have the reference for which stated that absorption is maximized when the stomach is empty). About 10-20 minutes after each pill, I would feel a very slight nausea wash over me. At some points, but very rarely, I felt like I was going to vomit... my mouth would start to water and a few times I even started to cough, almost dry heaving. However, most of the time I would not even notice the nausea because I was too busy doing other things and all in all the side effects were very minor in my opinion.

After 5 weeks, my skin was completely clear of warts. I wish I had taken pictures because the results were honestly very surprising and proved that for me the zinc undeniably cured (or somehow removed) my warts. Where two of the largest warts were was a slight hypopigmentation (coloring scar), however it is very subtle and less apparent than the marks left by the freezing that the doctor had done initially. Overall my skin on my entire body looks healthier, smoother, more moist and flexible, however that is merely a subjective observation and may by my imagination.

It has now been two weeks since I stopped taking the zinc. Every day the scars are getting clearer, to the point that shortly it will be almost impossible to tell that I had any warts ever. Nothing has reappeared, I do not feel any withdrawals from stopping intake of the zinc, and I am frankly overjoyed with the results.

I guess it is also important to note that I did start taking resveratrol (plus related supplements: quercetin, lecithin, and ellagic acid) just over 4 months ago at 40 mg/day and 1 month ago I increased my dosage to 400 mg/day. I am unsure whether the resveratrol had any effect on the treatment of my warts, but I am sure that the zinc is responsible for the results because the healing process of the warts occurred almost directly as outlined out in the journal above (1 week of zinc: warts turned red, tender, multiplied and grew larger, 2nd week the warts started to shrink but still tender, 3rd week the warts were very very small, 4th week the warts were gone, 5th week added just to insure that the entire virus infections was gone). I am sure someone is going to pipe up and mention that resveratrol is a known anti-viral, but I am not sure if any of the results can be directly related to my resveratrol dosing.

I wanted to share all this because it seems that far too few success stories with supplements are ever shared. I cannot personally recommend taking zinc for warts because I am not a medical professional, but it did work very well for me and I could not be more pleased. I also wanted to share this because it brings up some interesting ideas about the mechanism of healing that zinc promoted. Definitely read the article if you are interested in how or why this treatment works because the authors do a fairly nice job attempting to relate zinc, the immune system, healing, etc. One thing is clear though, zinc caused my body to somehow fight off the viral infection. While taking the zinc did my immune system also kill other viruses in my body that I might not have known about? Was my overall immune system strengthened against a wide variety of new infections? It is hard to say because it was only for such a short period (I did however remain completely healthy for the 5 weeks). Was my body lacking the appropriate level of zinc to begin with? Was initially low levels of zinc the cause for the infection (possibly starting over three years ago!)? So indirectly, the answers to these questions might link zinc with longevity somehow since it appears that zinc has such a drastic effect on the immune system.

I also learned a lot about the medical field and doctors throughout this process. Lets just say I am much more inclined to do self-diagnosis and treatment now than I was before. The suggestions I received from the doctors (a total of 3 over the past 3 years just for my warts) all just treated the symptom, but doing some research it appears that I might have found a treatment that goes right to the source cause of the problem. Much better to get a cure than to get a temporary "bandaid". Plus, $10 is much cheaper than all the visits to the doctor and other stuff I had to buy... and it was faster too!!

I would love to hear any ideas or comments, but mainly I just wanted to share. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any.

Cheers!
fearfrost

[HealthJunkie]

Yes, there is research that says Zinc will affect your smell...

Do not put it in your nose. It is ok so far to consume it, but never put it in your nose or it will cause you
to lose smell.

Edited by HealthJunkie, 18 September 2009 - 09:32 AM.

[NDM]

the healing process of the warts occurred almost directly as outlined out in the journal above (1 week of zinc: warts turned red, tender, multiplied and grew larger, 2nd week the warts started to shrink but still tender, 3rd week the warts were very very small, 4th week the warts were gone, 5th week added just to insure that the entire virus infections was gone).

it's interesting that the counterintuitive healing pattern it gets worse before it gets better appears here as well; people not aware of it might give up on things too soon (e.g. week one); I wonder if there's any book on philosophy/principles of pharmacology that explains the mechanism behind this pattern; short of that, i think of it as an instance of action and reaction / Le Chatelier principle.

The problem is how can one tell ahead of time - when something goes worse - if it's a case of:

1. it gets worse before it gets better (don't quit)

2. OR it gets worse before it gets even worse than that (quit immediately)

[Lufega]

Any idea if the warts were due to the HPV virus??? If so, this might work for all HPV infections. Cool!

I think it was George Eby that pioneered this idea.

http://www.pubmedcen...mp;blobtype=pdf

http://www.coldcure.com/

BTW, which ones did you use?

Also, do you have Myopia? If so, did you notice any improvement in your vision??

http://www.imminst.o...showtopic=31638

Edited by Lufega, 18 September 2009 - 08:50 PM.

[Lufega]

While this might not have anything to do with immortality or life extension directly...

Hmmm....

Characterization of the hsp70 response in lymphoblasts from aged and centenarian subjects and differential effects of in vitro zinc supplementation.

Ambra R, Mocchegiani E, Giacconi R, Canali R, Rinna A, Malavolta M, Virgili F.
National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research (INRAN), Free radicals Res Group, 546 via Ardeatina, I00178 Rome, Italy. ambra@inran.it

Human centenarians attract increasing interest as they hold some still undefined molecular mechanisms resulting in the achievement of exceptional old age. Recent data suggest the ability of centenarians to efficiently counter the increased cellular stress normally associated with ageing. The ubiquitous heat shock (HS) protein HSP70, expressed under the control of the heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF-1), is recognized as one of the main chaperones associated with cell protection against stresses. In fact, HSP70 protein induction by heat, a classic well characterized cellular stress, was recently reported to be reduced in cells of most aged humans but not in centenarians. In order to investigate the molecular basis of this feature, we analyzed in vitro the time course expression of the hsp70 gene and the activation of HSF-1 in heat treated Epstein Barr virus transformed B-lymphocytes of centenarians. Our study demonstrates that lymphoblasts from centenarians maintain the transcriptional response of hsp70 gene to heat stress similar to young subjects. Such normal induction of hsp70 is associated to higher binding activity of HSF-1 that compensates an age-dependent delay in HSF-1 phosphorylation. Moreover, in vitro zinc supplementation had an age-dependent effect on hsp70 expression, indicating a role for this nutritionally important molecule and suggesting its involvement in cellular stress responses.

PMID: 15501017 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Lufega]

Efficacy of zinc administration in patients with hepatitis C virus-related chronic liver disease.

Himoto T, Hosomi N, Nakai S, Deguchi A, Kinekawa F, Matsuki M, Yachida M, Masaki T, Kurokochi K, Watanabe S, Senda S, Kuriyama S.
Department of Gastroenterology and Neurology, Kagawa University School of Medicine, Kagawa, Japan.

OBJECTIVE: Zinc supplementation has been shown to contribute to inhibition of liver fibrosis and improvement in hepatic encephalopathy. However, little is known about the anti-inflammatory effect of zinc on hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related chronic liver disease (CLD). We therefore examined the effects of zinc administration on inflammatory activity and fibrosis in the liver of patients with HCV-related CLD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Polaprezinc, a complex of zinc and l-carnosine, was administrated at 225 mg/day for 6 months to 14 patients with HCV-related CLD, in addition to their ongoing prescriptions. Peripheral blood cell counts, liver-related biochemical parameters, serological markers for liver fibrosis, HCV-RNA loads, and serum levels of zinc and ferritin were evaluated before and after zinc administration. RESULTS: Serum zinc concentrations were positively correlated with hepatic reserve before zinc supplementation. A significant increase in serum zinc level was observed after zinc supplementation (64+/-15 versus 78+/-26 mg/dl, p=0.0156). Treatment with polaprezinc significantly decreased serum aminotransferase levels (aspartate aminotransferase (AST): 92+/-33 versus 63+/-23 IU/l, p=0.0004; alanine aminotransferase (ALT): 106+/-43 versus 65+/-32 IU/l, p=0.0002), whereas alkaline phosphatase levels were significantly increased (305+/-117 versus 337+/-118 U/l, p=0.0020). Serum ferritin levels were significantly decreased by treatment with polaprezinc (158+/-141 versus 101+/-80 ng/ml, p=0.0117). The reduction rate of ALT levels by polaprezinc was positively correlated with that of ferritin (r(2)=0.536, p=0.0389). There was a tendency toward a decrease in serum type IV collagen 7S levels after treatment with polaprezinc. However, administration of polaprezinc did not affect peripheral blood cell counts, other liver function tests, or HCV-RNA loads. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that polaprezinc exerts an anti-inflammatory effect on the liver in patients with HCV-related CLD by reducing iron overload.

PMID: 17710674 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[niner]

Zinc clearly has some interesting effects. However, I would hesitate to use what seems like a dangerous zinc dosage just to get rid of common warts. Certainly if they are accessible to topical treatment, freezing with liquid N2 (often requiring more than one treatment) followed up with Lactic/Salicylic acid treatment at home, or excision as an alternative quick fix in some cases, seems like a safer route that has proven to be effective for me. There's kind of an art to getting rid of warts. The important tricks seem to be freezing multiple times with about three weeks between treatments, and using a lot of acid. You want to really soak the wart, and do it after a shower or bath while the skin is still moist. This will take a lot of skin off in a hurry.

If I had warts somewhere where treatment would be difficult, I'd consider the zinc, but I think I'd want to do some serious research on it first. It also sounds like something to consider for recalcitrant warts, but since I've addopted my current methodology, I haven't had any warts that were recalcitrant. This seems to get all of them. It occurs to me that I've had better luck getting rid of warts since I got my vitamin d levels up to snuff.

[Enochian]

I know this is an old thread but im wondering why all the studies i can find that use Zinc to treat viral warts use Zinc Sulphate. Why is this form of Zinc used over the others? It seems unusual as its not he most popular form of Zinc. Does anyone know if it has properties the others dont?

[shp5]

I know this is an old thread but im wondering why all the studies i can find that use Zinc to treat viral warts use Zinc Sulphate. Why is this form of Zinc used over the others? It seems unusual as its not he most popular form of Zinc. Does anyone know if it has properties the others dont?

 

I'd be interested in this too.

[adamh]

Would topical application of zinc work as well? That would eliminate the risk of overdose and put the zinc right where its needed. There are various tecs for increasing penetration such as dmso or just using salicylic acid to remove much of it and apply the zinc as a paste to the part that remains. Has anyone tried that?

[niner]

I don't know why sulfate seems to be so popular, but apparently dosing zinc at hundreds of mg/day is not particularly lethal, based on a little snooping around the net.  I suppose if you took a large dose for long enough, you might be able to induce a deficiency of some other transition metal like copper.  High dose zinc has been used for all manner of medical problems.

[drlarryvon]

for topical use why not try desitin ointment  with 40% zinc oxide for the warts and skin tags??

[RWhigham]

A girl that lived next door to me had warts all over her hands. At school they called her Miss Warty. They had been frozen off with liquid nitrogen twice but they always came back.  I looked on-line and found apple cider vinegar recommended.  I gave her mom a small hair-spray bottle filled with white vinegar. Her mom gave it to her. She sprayed her hands often (when home from school)  for a couple of months and the warts disappeared completely with no trace remaining.  I used cheap white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar so she wouldn't smell like a salad dressing all day. The warts never came back during the 3-4 years before we moved away. The empty hair-spray bottle was ideal for the purpose.

Edited by RWhigham, 22 May 2015 - 04:35 AM.

[Juicy]

Thanks for these post guys. What about skin scarring after wart removal? My warts were freezed on my arm but came back again.... Are you guys crushing zinc and putting into skin with DMSO or so?

[aconita]

SSKI should work very well too, best would be to lesion the wart first by needling or cutting away part of it.

 

It is a bit painful (it actually burns like hell) but doesn't last long, a couple of applications a day for as long as the wart area is all gone...

 

It may leave a bit of a scar mark (not necessarily) but much less than a surgical excision or freeze, somehow SSKI injuries to the skin tend to heal very well.

 

SSKI needs a bit of practice in order to be used for certain skin problems but it is amazingly versatile and effective.

[Juicy]

Thanks Aconita your responses are well informed... It seems that in my eye where the eye-lids meet in the inner part of my nose I have a bump there not sure what this is. But I do have many warts on my hands and one just started to grow on my cheeks (face). I am doing vinegar now and trying not to pick at it.

 

They freezed my warts on my hands last year but they grew back it seems. Not sure how come. but is SSKI beter for leaving no scar-mark like surgical excision/freeze?

 

Can it be ordered online?

 

 

SSKI should work very well too, best would be to lesion the wart first by needling or cutting away part of it.

 

It is a bit painful (it actually burns like hell) but doesn't last long, a couple of applications a day for as long as the wart area is all gone...

 

It may leave a bit of a scar mark (not necessarily) but much less than a surgical excision or freeze, somehow SSKI injuries to the skin tend to heal very well.

 

SSKI needs a bit of practice in order to be used for certain skin problems but it is amazingly versatile and effective.

 

[aconita]

SSKI (Saturated Solution Potassium Iodide) kills all kind of viruses (even HIV) and bacteria, basically nothing survives it.

 

It will get absorbed if applied topically but doesn't arm intact skin (actually acts as a cosmetic), on broken skin is very caustic and will quickly destroy tissues, if applied on a wart it will kill it but it may take a couple of applications a day for many days, if the wart is first injured scraping, needling or cutting it away the process will be probably different and much faster but maybe with an higher chances of getting some sort of mild scar.

 

On intact wart SSKI will get absorbed and kill the virus causing the wart (HPV) from the inside, if the wart is injured it will destroy the wart tissues as well as killing the virus causing the wart itself.

 

On an injured wart a couple of applications a day will very quickly cause the forming of a hole where the wart once was, it depends by the size of the wart and by the size of the injury but probably not much more than 4-5 applications are needed to completely destroy a wart and more.

 

The hole left will heal quite quickly leaving little (just discoloration) or no scar at all, depends by the site and by the dept/extension of the hole, if you overdo it will be more likely to leave a mark.

 

Practice first on you hands and be cautious on your face, while on the hands it may be a good choice to injure the wart first on the face it may be a bit too harsh and even if it will take longer it may be wiser to avoid injury the wart first.

 

In order to make SSKI mix 14gr of potassium iodide in 10gr of water (distilled water is better) and place it in a dropper bottle, be aware that it stains quite badly.

 

Supplementing SSKI orally is certainly worth to be considered too, not specifically for warts removal but for many other reasons (see link below).

 

Pure bulk carries it at 10,75$ for 25gr but I am sure it is ready available from many sellers, probably on eBay too.

 

http://www.olaloa.co...odide-sski.html

https://en.wikipedia...ium_iodide#SSKI

 

   

[BasicBiO]

http://www.medscape....warticle/834183

 

AHCC also appears to kill HPV, the root cause of most warts. Fairly expensive substance, particularly if given at the doses used in the studies.

[Juicy]

Good discussion here I think my buddy Yolf can contribute.