Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is a substance commonly used as an ingredient in various medical therapies. It’s been used to treat aspirin overdoses, aspirin related ulcers, skin conditions such as poison ivy and poison oak, and several other conditions. It’s also a very mild effective exfoliant, removing dead skin cells without being damaging to the rest of the skin.
Its properties as an exfoliant may explain why baking soda is a common home remedy for skin tag removal. While it may not be effective in and of itself, it’s almost always recommended to be used as a mixture with some other treatment. Depending on what substance baking soda is mixed with, it can provide a number of benefits for healthy skin.
There are several ways to use baking soda in skin tag removal; we’ll discuss two of them here. The first is to mix it into a paste with castor oil. The castor oil softens the skin tag and breaks down the tissue, while the baking soda exfoliates the skin to removes the tissue the oil has broken down.
Using this method requires that the skin tag first be treated with castor oil and the oil allowed to soak in for a few minutes. Then, cover the area with the paste and allow it to remain in place for 24 hours. Repeating this procedure once or twice per week, for several weeks, is usually effective in removing skin tags.
The second treatment is very similar but it involves making the paste using the juice from sour apple. You will use the same process as with the castor oil, applying straight apple juice to the skin tag and then the paste for 24 hours. Just be careful to make sure you get the mixture of apple juice and baking soda correct. These two substances combined could irritate the skin if there’s too much baking soda in the mixture. It’s a good idea to make a test run before using this paste on a regular basis.
In some people, the baking soda and sour apple combination take a little longer to work then the castor oil combination. You’ll just have to try them to see which works best for you. In either case, baking soda in and of itself is probably not going to be very effective without mixing it some other substance. You can do a quick Internet search on baking soda and skin tags to find some other treatments that might work better than castor oil or sour apple.
Although baking soda works for some people, for quite a few it doesn’t. This isn’t to say that you have failed in your attempts and must now go to the doctor. You can still try castor oil or sour apple on their own, or you can try one of the dozens of other home remedies including onion juice, cumin, dandelion root, cauliflower, or tea tree oil.
If you prefer an over-the-counter treatment from your local pharmacy, there are several to choose from that contains only natural ingredients. Read product packaging thoroughly so as to ensure the remedy you choose contains no harmful chemicals, because some over-the-counter remedies can cause skin irritation or cause scar tissue to develop.
As a last resort you can see your physician and have him remove the skin tags for you. He may choose to use cauterization (burning), cryotherapy (freezing), or surgical excision with a scalpel. While all these methods are certainly effective, they carry with them an increased risk of infection, skin irritation, and scarring. They can also prove to be quite painful.
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