Thursday, July 23, 2009

Benzoyl Peroxide And Acne

Benzoyl Peroxide And Acne

When you are investigating the over the counter options, always focus on medicine or ointments contains Benzoyl peroxide 5 percent.

Apply this to your problem areas before bed, each day.

Benzoyl Peroxide And Acne

The Benzoyl helps with open sores and pimples as well as unblocking blackheads and removes the bacteria that commonly inhabit the pores in your skin. You should only need a small amount, just a fingertip measure will do.

Benzoyl Peroxide And Acne – How Act?

Benzoyl peroxide effectively kills bacteria, drys your skin and promotes the renewed growth of new cells.

You can purchase lower doses over the counter however stronger forms will require a prescription.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Freezing or Cryosurgery Kits for Warts


Relatively new on the market are so-called freezing kits. These try to duplicate the effects of liquid nitrogen on the skin. Instead of liquid nitrogen, the material is freon. This is a refrigerant.
The effects of freon are similar to those of liquid nitrogen. The refrigerant spray hits the wart and freezes it. The wart then crumbles off. Only one application is recommended.

This over-the-counter treatment is expensive. It is also not found to be very effective in killing off Plantar Warts. You can never apply it to facial warts. There is also the problem of removing pigment. This particularly applies if you have dark skin. Where you use the spray, you may find a white spot.

Silver Nitrate and Warts

Silver nitrate (salt of silver) is caustic. In other words, it is a burning agent. You can apply it to eliminate your wart problem. The substance is available in the form of a pencil. This allows easy application. You can also obtain it in cream form or as a solution.

The substance can never be applied to facial warts. You must also avoid use on inflamed or broken skin surfaces. If your wart is distended or obviously sore, do not use silver nitrate. Also be aware that silver nitrate can stain your hands and clothing. It may also discolor your furniture.

The process for applying silver nitrate is as follows:

· Carefully file off any dead skin on your wart. Gently do so using a pumice stone or emery board.

· When the area is clear, moisten the tip of your silver nitrate pencil. Use water. Never lick it with your tongue or dampen it with the tip of your fingers.

· Take the pencil and gently apply it to the individual warts. Hold it there for between 1 and 2 minutes.

· Remove the pencil and cover the warts or warts with a dressing. This will act as protection from damage due to daily life. It will also inhibit infection.

· Keep the protective covering on for 24 hours. After this period, remove it and repeat the process all over again.

Treatment using silver nitrate may vary according to the package directions. Some treatments state to treat once every 24 hours for a total of 7 treatments over as many days. Another possibility is 3 to 6 treatments daily given 3 days apart for 1 month in total. Be sure to carefully read and understand the instructions of your specific type of nitrate.

Treatments For Warts

There are several different ways to treat warts. You can see a doctor and have a surgical treatment. You can take care of the problem with prescribed medication. This involves a visit to a doctor. An initial visit may be necessary anyway. You may not be aware of what the problem actually is. You may actually need a doctor to diagnose what you or your child has. Once this is accomplished, you can proceed with the actual treatment.

A doctor can treat your wart problem. This may not be your best option for a number of reasons. Using a doctor to remove a wart make be expensive. The cost of a visit as well as the actual treatment may be steep for some individuals. This is particularly true when multiple visits are required. In the instance of warts, this is usually the norm and not the exception.

Warts are persistent. They appear, disappear and reappear. The period of this pattern may be a week, a month or even years. Warts may even multiply during a treatment. This variability and unpredictability combine with the cost of professional treatment to consider an alternative over-the-counter drugs.

This approach to curing or at least removing warts is very popular. A wide variety of over-the-counter drugs are readily available at your drugstore or pharmacy. Some large chain or mega stores also carry the products. These are appealing because of easy access. They are also desirable for both their effectiveness and low costs.

Over-the-counter medications also are considered fairly reliable. The manufacturers of these products are also quick to update their products. They snap up any modern approach as soon as possible. As a result, you can even try various types of freezing at home.

Home Remedies for Warts

Periungual Warts

Like many of the warts commonly growing on your body, Periungual Warts are a type of Verruca vulgaris. They are thick, cauliflower-shaped growths. These can be a particularly painful type of wart. Periungal Warts are usually located around and even under your nails. This includes both your finger and toe nails. If the wart is referred to as subungual it is under the fingernail. If the term used is periungual, this is on the cuticle.

Periungual Warts may start off very small. They can be tiny, pinhead-sized growths. They can be less than a millimetre in diameter. If they remained this tiny, there would be fewer problems. Unfortunately, the wart grows and grows. As it increases in size, both its color and texture change.

At its initial stages, the Periungual Wart is very smooth. It is also see-through. AS it increases in size, the wart becomes rough. It changes color. No longer translucent, it now appears as either a dirty brown or black. The texture is horny.

The once inoffensive and unobtrusive wart now becomes a problem. Its growth pattern causes discomfort in, around and under the nail. The area itches and becomes irritated. If it progresses seriously, you can actually lose a cuticle. This will leave you open to increased instances of skin and fungal infections.

Periungual Warts are more common among young people. They are specifically prevalent among those with bad nail habits. Those who bit their nails or pick at hangnails are more susceptible to this type of wart. These warts may also be tricky to treat. The major difficulty is a tendency to recur.

Filiform Warts

Filiform Warts are an interesting variant of Verruca. Unlike Plantar, Common or Flat Warts, this type is elongated in shape. Filiform Warts are slender. They are often described as finger-like or referred to as thread-like. This contrasts with the cauliflower, flat or round shapes of most Warts.

Like other warts, Filiform Warts have a preferred body area of the host. They are generally located on the face. They particularly are found around the eyes and the eyelids. They hang their like hairy appendages.

Filiform Warts are often on children’s faces. They may also be on adults. Generally the adults who have Filiform growths are middle-aged and/or over weight. While preferring the face, Filiform Warts may also be found on the neck and in the arm pits. Their location may make them a problem to remove through topical methods.

Flat Warts


The scientific term for the Flat Wart is Verruca plana. It is a type of Common Wart. This growth is also referred to as the Plane Wart. Furthermore, because of its tendency to appear on children and young adults, it is also called “Juvenile Warts.”

Distinguishing characteristics of this type of wart include its size and texture. The Flat Wart is small. In fact, it may be described as pin-sized. It may range from only 1 to 5 mm. This is less than a ¼”. The growths are smooth and pink, yellowish-brown or flesh-colored. The surface of the wart is usually slightly raised. The lumps are marked out by a flat top on this surface.

Flat Warts are rarely found alone. Of all the warts, Flat Warts commonly appear in multiple groups. These can range from 20 to 100. They also tend to form a pattern. This can be the result of a trauma or, more likely, from scratching. Flat Warts may be itchy. As a result, a child will scratch the wart. This opens up susceptible skin for the HPV infection. The wart then expands along the scratch line.

To add to the problem of numbers is the location. Flat Warts grow on the face hands and shin, forearms, knees and neck. Among children and adolescents, however, Flat Warts are more commonly located on the wrist and face. It is this latter location that creates 2 problems. It accounts for an initial misconception the warts may actually be acne. It also creates social discomfort. Flat Warts on the face are extremely embarrassing for youth.

Among adults, Flat Warts tend to be present on the face and legs. They form on male adults close to the beard. This is the result of shaving. It is here the irritated and broken skin is most susceptible to this specific type of HPV. For female adults, legs are the target area. This is true only for those who shave. As in the case of beards, the skin becomes broken and irritated. It is thus more open for an incursion.

Flat Warts are harmless but tend to be persistent. They may remain for several years. Their numbers are also a factor in treatment. Their spread pattern and sheer numbers makes treatment more difficult.

Mosaic Warts

As noted above, mosaic Warts is a term applied to a group or cluster of Plantar Warts. The term Mosaic Warts may also apply to a knot of Common Warts with Plantar Wart-like characteristics. This grouping is also called a plaque.

Mosaic Warts are Common Warts. They present a more serious problem than either a single Plantar Wart or a group of other Common Warts. This is especially applicable to Mosaic Warts located on the sole of the foot. This is not only an issue of discomfort but of treatment.

The depth of the roots of Mosaic Warts is affected by the varied surface. Some members of this plaque are on higher levels than others. The group is also irregular in shape. The thick and dry skin they inhabit may often dry out and crack. This leaves the skin open to other infectious incursions.

Adding to the problem is the arrangement of the Mosaic Warts. The individual warts are tightly packed together. This creates problems of sorting out the various individual warts. Overall, Mosaic Warts on the foot create a challenge for treatment.

Plantar Warts


Plantar Warts are known under the scientific name of Verruca pedis. This refers to their position - on the foot. Pedum, pedi is Latin for foot. While a kind of Common Wart, Plantar Warts differ in a few ways from the average wart. This is mainly the result of their location - on the bottom of the foot. This affects their growth pattern. It also creates a situation where the wart is painful.
Plantar Warts are firm, rough-surfaced lumps of flesh. They are dark-brownish in color. They are rough and often crumbly looking. Plantar Warts do not resemble the average Common Wart. They are even flatter than Flat Warts. In some instances, Plantar Warts may be mistaken for calluses. Yet, Plantar Warts may be more detectable when they grow in clusters or obtain full size.

This type of Common Wart may appear as a single wart. It can be a small, solitary, somewhat-rounded lesion on the sole of your foot. The lesion is clearly marked by tiny “seeds.” These are small black dots. Each Plantar Wart may have 1 or 2 of these black pinpoints on their surface. The spots are actually capillaries. They are clotted. This is the result of the very rapid skin growth brought about by the viral wart.

A Plantar Wart may crop up on your foot as an individual lump. It may even start off as a small entity. This is not likely, however, to remain the case. Warts have a tendency to grow. This is particularly true if they are in the right environment. If the Plantar Wart continues to thrive, it may reach a circumference of 1" or more.

A Plantar Wart does not always go solo. It may also appear in and create a group. These are often referred to as clusters. When Plantar Warts are clustered together, the term frequently used to describe the growth pattern and type of wart is mosaic. These Mosaic Warts may cover as much as 4" across your skin.

Whatever shape they take Plantar Warts are specific in their location. They can appear on the top of your toes. When they do so, they are raised and fleshy. However, this is not their favored place. Plantar Warts are more commonly located on the sole of the foot. In fact, in both children and young adults (ages 12-16), Plantar Warts are usually found on the ball and heel of a foot. The result is painful for the child or teen for several reasons.

The skin of the foot is thicker than that of the face, hands and other parts of your body. As a result, Plantar Warts are tougher in design. They are also harder to treat. The skin is at least 2 times thicker creating questions? Can topical medications for wart removal handle the task?

Warts of the sole of the foot create another issue. When you walk, you place the eight on the bottom of your foot. This increased and intense pressure affects the growth pattern of the wart. The Plantar Wart is forced to grow inwards instead of outwards. The support system of the wart penetrates deeper into the thick skin. This causes pain. It also makes Plantar Warts difficult to treat.

The incidence of Plantar Warts is common for a variety of reasons. The wart thrives in warm and moist environments. This describes perfectly the settings of many child-friendly areas or entertainment venues. This includes splash parks and swimming pools as well as the cracked tile floors of public showers and the communal gym spaces.

The Common Wart


The Common Wart is the Verruca vulgaris. It is a small, rough, flesh-colored growth. They are firm in shape. They are also well-defined and clearly delineated. Sometimes, the growth is described as grayish with a cauliflower-shape. A Common Wart may grow up to ¼” in width. Generally, they are small in size.

The growth pattern of Common Warts varies. They may develop as a single unit. Yet, a single Common Wart can also spread, becoming multiple units. Furthermore, several Common Warts may join together to create a small cluster. These clusters may become visible suddenly. They may also disappear as quickly and completely as they came.

Common Warts may appear on various parts of the body. They are on the fingers, the back of hands, on feet, toes, knees and the face. In general, however, they are more common on the hands. This is particularly true for children. Common Warts are often found on the hands of children aged between 5 and 10 years old. Common Warts are not a pleasant sight. They can be quite ugly. While not harmful, there is a specific type of Verruca that is painful. This is the Plantar Wart.

Information About Warts

Warts are a common problem among people of all ages. This chapter examines the causes and presence of warts. It also looks at the environmental and human factors involved. Under consideration as well is how you and/or your child can catch warts.

Causes Of Warts

Warts are the result of a DNA virus. The agent of this viral infection is the circular, double-stranded and supercoiled Human Papilloma Virus - commonly referred to as HPV. It is not a rare substance. In fact, it is very common. There are actually more than 100 different types of HPV currently identified in this family or viruses.

As is the case with large human families, while related, each one has its own distinct nature. Each type or subtype infects a certain part of the body and produces a specific type of wart. Some warts grow on your respiratory tract; others infect your genitalia. While the large HPV family does cause both respiratory papillomatoris and Genital or Venereal warts, this does not account for all members.

The most commonly recognized warts are not of this nature. They do not affect the health of their host. Most of these warts are those present on the surface of the body. These are typically neither cancerous nor harmful. In fact, the specific type of HPV responsible for the average wart on your face, finger, foot or leg is noncancerous and common. The pages of this chapter will not look at cancerous warts. It will not examine the characteristics or treatment of genital or cancerous warts. Its focus is on warts commonly found on the body. These are the warts perceived as blemishes. These are the warts you want to remove because they affect your appearance or interfere with how you make an impression.

Presence Of Wart

HPV warts of the common variety can grow on all parts of your body. They are restricted by their nature not by the size of your body or the color of your skin. Warts are located on the top layer of your skin. (The only exception to this maxim is Plantar Wart.) In general, their growth pattern varies according to their type.

Within this specific variety of wart, there are different species or subtypes. They may be grouped as Verucca. This family includes the Common Wart, the Flat Wart, the Filiform Wart, the Digitate Wart, Plantar Wart, Subungual Wart and Periungal Wart. Each member has its own characteristics. These pertain to color, size, shape, preference for body part and difficulty to remove. These characteristics may or may not impact upon the regiment and kind of treatment you will require to remove your Wart.

Except for Plantar Warts, you will see clear signs of the presence of a wart. It sits on the surface of the skin. Only Plantar Warts - discussed further in the following chapter, dig beneath the surface. A Plantar Wart may reveal little of its external existence. It is embedded deep in the thick skin of the sole (Plantar) of your foot. The force and motion of walking ensure the wart is pushed even further into the skin. This does not occur with the other types of warts. The Plantar Wart also does not grow anywhere except the foot. Other warts have their own preferred position and growth pattern.

Common Warts, Flat Warts and Filiform Warts are all found in specific surface areas of your body. They are on your hands, wrists, legs, arms, feet, fingers, toes and face. Each wart type has its designated body part. Yet, all are found on the surface of the skin. They may be raised or flat, but they are obvious blemishes on the surface of the skin. This gives them a commonality. There are also other similar characteristics.

Further compounding the situation is the various growth patterns of the wart. You may find yourself with a single growth. You could also be the host for 100 warts. Your Warts may grow clustered together. Your warts could also be scattered in a sporadic pattern across a specific area. While, it is true, some warts are more disposed to grow together in group formation, this does not mean, they will. Warts truly are unpredictable.

Environmental And Human Factors

Warts prefer to grow in warm places. They like moist environments. This includes places like small cuts or scratches. These are most common on fingers, hands and feet. Some, particularly the Flat Warts, hide out in the beard. This is the result of the abrasions to the face from razors. The same type of Warts can occur on women’s legs and arm pits. Flat Warts make their home there if the skin is broken or irritated after shaving. Like beards, arm pits act as a moist and comfortable home.

Certain types of adults may be more susceptible to warts. People who are middle-aged are more apt to have Filiform or Digitate Warts. Overweight adults are also more at risk for Filiform Warts. They find them growing on their face.

Yet, in general, warts are more prone to appear on children and young adults or teenagers than mature people. This may relate to a developing immune system. More likely, it is the result of childhood habits. Children are very communal in their behavior. They share towels and run barefoot across shower floors. They think nothing of playing or standing for long periods of time on damp surfaces. Children from a young age to adolescence are still taking sports and gym in school. They take part in extracurricular activities where they soon may share more than a wet towel, socks or shoes. These are the very kind of environments that attract wart-causing HPVs.
Children are also more disposed to certain unhygienic habits. They are more apt to bite their finger nails. They pick at hangnails and scratch at scabs. This exposes the less protected skin. As a result, children create more possible entry points for the virus. Children and teenagers also increase the further chance of spreading the problem further. They do so by scratching at an established wart or warts. This ensures the wart has a higher incidence of spreading. This becomes particularly obvious with cases of facial warts. The development of the infestation of warts follows scratch lines made on the face.

The current condition of your skin may also effect whether you get warts. Certain conditions make you more susceptible. Among these is atopic eczema. Atopic eczema is also known as atopic dermatitis. It strikes about 1 out of 10 children in North America. Atopic eczema makes the skin more sensitive and receptive to other skin-associated problems. This includes warts.

Another factor in ensuring the presence and proliferation of warts is your immune system. Since HPV is a viral infection, the state of your immune system governs aspects of its ability to infect you. If your immune system is weak, compromised or fails to function properly, you are open to this, and other HPV. Whether you are a child or a mature adult, you can get warts in this fashion. Some people simply have a lower resistance to HPV viruses.

Catching Warts

It is not easy to catch warts. While some HPV e.g. Genital Warts, spread easily, others do not. Warts are obtained through contact with an infected surface. If a person has warts, you usually will not catch them. There are exceptions. If you scratch their wart, and then touch your body, your chance of getting warts increases. However, you generally catch warts from contaminated surfaces.If you are a constant user of public showers and gym facilities, you may have a chance of contracting Plantar Warts. They thrive in this warm and moist environment. If you wander barefoot through the communal showers, you may get warts. If you use someone else’s towel, you may come home with warts.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Child Eye Care Tips and Guide

Child Eye Care and Vitamins
Vitamins A and B are essential for children to have sparkling and clear eyes. Vitamin A prevents night blindness, eye strain and fatigue. It also helps the tear ducts in secreting moisture, which gives eyes their sparkle. Babies can be given vitamin A drops orally, which can be fed in a spoon or by a dropper into the mouth, in the first month of their birth.

Child Eye Care – What Should you Know?
As your infant grows into a toddler, when he shows interest in seeing the pictures in a book, be sure that the room is well lit. Natural light is best during daytime, so ensure that your child's room gets plenty of sunshine and air. At night, be sure that enough light falls on the book, which he is seeing or reading.

Make sure that your child is not put to any eye strain. See that he does not read in very dazzling or dim light. Initially, check that the books the child reads has large prints. If he watches television, be sure to have a soft indirect lighting in the room, and let your child watch it from a distance of at least eight feet.

Child Eye Care Guide
If you suspect your child of having difficulty in focusing or having a blurred vision, see an eye specialist immediately. If he advises wearing spectacles for improvement of sight, see that he gets a pair as early as possible, and that he wears them at once. He should remove them from time to time, and close his eyes for at least five minutes: then blink a dozen times before wearing them again. This helps to relax his eye muscles.

A child may suddenly develop squint between the ages of two and six years. This can be cured if it is attended to immediately. It is common for a baby to have crossed eyes in the first couple of months, but by the third month they become steady and straight.

Some babies have watery eyes but they clear up by the time they turn one year. You may also notice a discharge from the comer of the eyes. White matter collects in the comer of the eye and along the edges of the lids. This discharge will make the lids stick together, caused by obstructed tear ducts. But even this is a passing phase. Wet a small ball of cotton and gently wipe the matter away. Do not apply pressure at all.

Foreign Particle and Child Eye Care
If some grit or foreign particle gets into your child's eye, you can remove it by drawing the upper eyelid down and away from the eye, and holding it by the lashes. This allows the tears to wash the grit out of the eye. Otherwise you can ask your child to open the eye into a cup of water and blink a couple of times. If this too proves unsuccessful, take him to see a doctor, but see that he does not rub his eye. He can hold a soft cloth or a wad of cotton on his affected eye till the doctor sees him.