Posts Tagged ‘Antibodies’
What Causes Unsightly Warts?
Over the ages, there have been many theories as to what causes warts with perhaps the most popular being the theory that they come from toads! While toads are a little warty in appearance, rest assured that you cannot get warts by handling them. You can get warts, however from other people that have warts. This is because warts are actually caused by a virus which attacks your skin cells causing them to grow at a faster rate than they should which in turn creates a benign tumor commonly called a wart.
The Wart Virus
The virus that causes warts is called the human papillomavirus. It can be spread from person to person and it can also spread from one place on your body to another. The virus gets in through breaks in the skin and it thrives in warm moist places so it is often associated with public showers and locker rooms where you would often have skin contact with wet floors where other people have also been walking.
Taking a closer look at what causes warts, one might note that warts could be avoided by always wearing something on your feet at the pool or gym and avoiding sharing personal items with other people such as razors and towels. The interesting thing about the human papilloma virus is that it has an incubation period and can take up to nine months after exposure to actually show up as a wart.
Anyone Can Get Warts
While most anyone can get warts, not everyone does. Some people seem to be more susceptible to them than others. Often younger people under the age of 30 and people with reduced immune function are prone to warts. That’s because warts, being a virus, would have a better chance of settling in on people who were ill-prepared to fight it off. Not everyone who is exposed to the human papillomavirus will get warts because most people have antibodies in their system that will kill off the virus before it can affect their skin cells.
Warts Can Appear Anywhere
Warts can appear anywhere on your body, but are most often seen on the hands, elbows, knees and ankles. Plantar warts are those found in the bottom of your feet and, while they might be different in appearance than warts and other places they are still the same type of wart just compressed and flattened due to the pressure of walking on them. Genital warts, are an extremely contagious type of wart in the genital area also caused by the human papillomavirus.
So now that you know what causes warts, you’re probably wondering how to get rid of them. There are actually several treatments however, it should be noted, that not every treatment works the same on every one. If you have tried a treatment and it hasn’t worked, don’t feel like you’re “stuck with your warts”, try another treatment until you find one that does work for you. Sometimes warts go away on their own, but if you can wait that long come up with a treatment plan and try many different things until you find something that works effectively for you.
By: Sheri Cole
About the Author:
Herpes and Cold Sores
Herpes cold sore is a common illness caused by the herpes simplex viruses. One can easily characterized this infection by noticing a bunch of fluid filled blisters that appears either on red area of the skin or the mucous membrane. After activation, these blisters heal fast, however, they have tendency to reappear.
Viruses of cold sores are of two types, one is herpes simplex type I (HSV I) and other is herpes simplex type II (HSV II). HSV I cause the cold sores and HSV II causes genital herpes that comes on the genital organs of the body.
However, both types of viruses can infect any area of skin and mucous membrane. Almost 80% of the adult peoples have antibodies against HSV I in their body where as about 25% of adult peoples have antibodies against HSV II. Usually viruses transmit through close personal contact with active lesion. These viruses will attack the body in childhood but will never shows symptoms until teen age.
Entry of the viruses in the body is through mouth and then attacks the nerve cells. From there they travel towards the ganglia via nervous system. In ganglia viruses lays in dormant state. In the positive situations viruses comes in active stage and cold sores will out breaks. Weak defense of body to viruses lead to reactivation of the viruses and blisters will again out breaks.
Infection of these viruses can progress in different ways. Some of the peoples have mild or no symptoms. When the viruses gets active they will out breaks the blisters. First out break of blisters starts one to two weeks after the activation and collapse few weeks later. Afterward whenever the viruses will activate blisters will return. Symptom of out breaking is unpleasant tingling feeling in the skin; subsequently number of fluid filled blisters will appear on the skin. Later on scab will cover all the sores and will fall within 8 to 10 days. Until scab covers the sores viruses spreads infection continuously.
Therefore, to avoid the infection by the viruses avoid direct contact with the sores. If such contact occurs, viruses will spread the infection every part of the body that includes fingers and genital organs. You have to wash your hands regularly particularly when you touch lips. Picking at the sores need to be avoided, as this will lead in spreading the viruses as well as it will result in bacterial infection of the sores. To avoid the reactivation of the viruses body need to healthy and therefore try to include healthy food in your regular diet. Key to avoid the infection is varied diet, regular exercise and enough sleep.
Major triggering that activates the viruses is fever, long exposure to sunlight, pregnancy, and menstruation. However, triggering varies from person to person. Therefore, while going out apply sunscreen lotion to the body and also consume healthy and nutritive food. This will help you in shielding the body from infection and reactivation.