Ok, that was disturbing.
Of course now I have to go watch the whole thing so I can see what happens when one fires up a flamethrower indoors.
2 Likes
As other posters have mentioned, there are an amazing variety of folk remedies, which anecdotally can at times be pretty effective. Are you in the UK by any chance? Iâve heard that âwart charmingâ of the type youâre referring to was, at lest at one time, pretty common there.
My interpretation is that these things work through what is largely called the âplacebo effect,â and IMO medical science would be well served to try to understand what is going on there (as opposed to its current strategy of vague hand-waving about things âbeing in the headâ and trying to correct for it in its data sets). There are scads of clinical data showing the control or autonomic processes with placebos that medical science really doesnât have a framework to understand. And while some of the research seems intuitive (for example, the fact that placebos are increasing in efficacy as the perceived efficacy of drugs increases), much of it is counter-intuitive (such as the âHonest Placeboâ study conducted at Harvard that showed that placebos help even if the patient knows its a placebo.
Even from the most reductionist/materialist perspective itâs clear that medical science has a lot to learn from the mechanism and activities involved. And if you have even a bit of woo-woo in you (which I probably do), the case is even stronger, though it doesnât really need to be.
1 Like
When I was in grade school, I would just pick at 'em and rip them out by the ârootâ â seemed to work well.
4 Likes
I tried that, and it started bleeding like crazy, dripping blood down my fingers, and it started to seem like a really bad idea.
2 Likes
Oh, ya â bleeds like a sum-bitch⌠I think that I made âbandagesâ out of notebook paper and wrapped 'em tight enough to staunch it. I kindâa fall into the same sort of DIY repair that @nixiebunny implements.
5 Likes
Iâve had good luck with crazy glue or new-skin. Keep 'em covered a few days and they wither away. (I find duct tape doesnât stick well enough.)
Yeah, the virii themselves arenât aerobic, so go figure, there are lots of hypotheses, but it works for me and apparently lots of other people, according to an internet search. (The highest authority) 
Iâve done it with Radio Shack parts freezer in a spray can. You can now buy a similar product designed for this on Amazon or any drug store⌠One $12 product is Dr. SchollâsÂŽ Freeze Awayâ. Using a soldering iron sounds pretty medieval and dangerous.
1 Like
This is basically what a dermatologist does, using liquid nitrogen. In my experience, it works sometimes, but not always.
Actually drilling was not the preferred technique for pre-historic trepanations - controlling the depths of the drilling instrument was probably too difficult. Sawing or scratching the bone away with a razor sharp flint knife were the preferred methods - 80% of the âpatientsâ usually survived the procedure. I personally handled a 7000 year old skull of a man who survived two trepanations and lived on for at least 10 years.
7 Likes
They did not have access to fine Taiwanese drill presses back then.
2 Likes
Just make sure it really is a wart before burning/freezing/drilling/slicing/biting/getting Ted Cruz to kiss it. I just had something shaved off by a dermatologist, and itâs off being biopsied. 
6 Likes
No need to ⌠if you have unlimited access to flint and opium poppy.
3 Likes
I had so many friends who were into this and it is so absurd that I donât even know what to say. âLook at all the toxins that came outâ they say. 
2 Likes
Oh, youâre wrong â it is a thing!
Not saying its a good thingâŚ
4 Likes
Strap it to a shoe overnight and see if if looks the same in the morning!
I read a fun article in an old issue of Skeptical Inquirer debunking the whole âear candlingâ think by candling a mannequin head. The effluent looked identical to that produced by a real head, thus showing it was coming from the candle.
3 Likes
related?
1 Like
Toxins. Gah.
A couple of years ago, I decided to assume that whenever one of my friends talks about toxins or detoxing, I take it to be a metaphor. Canât be literal. It makes it easier to avoid rolling my eyes. OK, so maybe itâs a nonsense metaphor, but Iâm friends with a lot of poets, so nonsense metaphors are pretty common.
1 Like
When I was a kid, I had an ear-ache. My father took a sheet of newspaper, rolled it into a big cone, and put the small end in my ear. He lit the other end on fire, over the sink, and after a few seconds something went POP, and the pain went away. So, there is something to it, like melting earwax I guess, but not for the litany of baloney thatâs printed on the ear candle packaging. I imagine doctors have less smokey ways of doing the same thing.
Many times an earache is caused by swelling inside the ear that creates a sort of inner suction, pulling your eardrum inward. I can imagine that if the end of a cone is on fire, itâs drawing oxygen upwards, and popping your eardrum back into shape through gentle suction.
5 Likes
