Millions of people experience heartburn on a daily basis. Those who not suffering from chronic heartburn might experience it due to the wrong diet. Several food items (like spicy food, mint, citrus juices, etc.) can cause the lower esophageal sphincter to relax which leads to acid reflux and heartburn. [01]
Usually, medicine like Tagamet (which contains cimetidine) works best in heartburn by blocking H2 receptors and stoping the stomach from producing more acid. Tagamet aka cimetidine is an FDA approved drug. Though clinically it is not recommended, it can be useful for treating warts.
Is Tagamet (Cimetidine) effective against HPV?
Tagamet contains cimetidine which works as H2-receptor blocker and stimulates the T-lymphocytes population, which plays an important role to kill the virus-infected cells. Clinical studies that included children with warts show a positive outcome of cimetidine use for treating warts. [02] [03]
What is Cimetidine (Tagamet)?
Tagamet is a brand name for the drug cimetidine. It is an FDA approved drug commonly used for the treatment of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).
Being an H2-blocker it can also be used for the treatment of hives, stress ulcers, and itching.
How does Tagamet work for wart removal?
Cimetidine is known to block the action histamine in the stomach which results in the immune system modulation.
It also causes the stimulation of T-lymphocytes and helps to control viral infections. T-lymphocytes are a type of white blood cells that produce gamma-interferon and interleukin-2. These two substances attack the viruses which result in the disappearance of warts.
Tagamet dosage for wart removal:
Tagamet (cimetidine) comes in the form of tablets for adults and can be taken 2 to 4 times a day and dose is decided by considering the body weight and the type of disease you are going to treat it with.
Usually, people use 400mg tablets twice a day as an off-label dose to treat the wart. In children, 20-40mg/kg per day dose is used.
Risk factors
The drug is tolerated well by most of the population but like all other medicines, it does come with some side effects or risk factors that need to be noted before you take the cimetidine.
Tagamet aka cimetidine has a weak anti-androgen effect which means it can disrupt the hormonal balance in male and can cause estrogen to secrete a bit more than required.
If this happens, some male patients may show the sign of gynecomastia, a condition where male shows an enlargement of breast tissues. Good thing is, it can be reverted back by discontinuing the cimetidine.
[thrive_text_block color=”light”] Bottom Line: Overall, Tagamet can be a good alternative for non-genital warts and usually safe to use. Anecdotal evidence and few clinical studies showed the promising results for using Tagamet for warts removal but often it is more effective in the younger population than adults.
Before taking the tablets, doctors advice must be considered. [/thrive_text_block]
References:
[01] Choe, J. W., Joo, M. K., Kim, H. J., Lee, B. J., Kim, J. H., Yeon, J. E., … Bak, Y. T. (2017). Foods Inducing Typical Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Symptoms in Korea. Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility, 23(3), 363–369. doi: 10.5056/jnm16122
[02] Das, B. B., Anton, K., Soares, N., Riojas, S., Mcdermott, J., Knox, L., … Puente, B. N. (2018). Cimetidine: A Safe Treatment Option for Cutaneous Warts in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients. Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 6(2), 30. doi: 10.3390/medsci6020030
[03] Bauman C, Francis JS, Vanderhooft S, Sybert VP. Cimetidine therapy for multiple viral warts in children. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1996;35:271–2 DOI: 10.1016/s0190-9622(96)90351-5