Banana for Seborrheic Keratosis: All You Need To Know
Anmita Das
In a world full of diseases where we prevail, one of the most common and well known diseases that strike us against our will are skin diseases. Some of these skin diseases are Acne, Atopic Dermatitis, Ichthyosis, Pemphigus, Alopecia Areata, Hidradenitis Suppuravita and Seborrheic Keratosis.
For the purpose of today’s article, we will be learning all about Seborrheic Keratosis. As Seborrheic Keratosis is a benign skin growth, it is generally unharmful, but it can cause issues if an infection crops up.
The main focus will be on the home remedial treatment of using banana for seborrheic keratosis. As Seborrheic Keratosis is similar to warts in some characteristics, banana peels work as a great long term home remedy with proven results.
So, keep on reading to learn more about Seborrheic Keratosis and how a banana can be used to treat the skin disease easily and effectively at home without any hassles.
What actually is Seborrheic Keratosis?
Seborrheic Keratosis is a skin condition that is a common and noncancerous benign skin growth on the skin. Seborrheic Keratosis is not unlike other skin growth diseases, so it bears a resemblance to other skin conditions that are commonly seen, like warts or moles.
It is similar to a mole, and most people get it at least once in their lifetime. They are a harmless skin condition and possess no need for treatment because of that, but they can be removed easily if it bothers you.
Seborrheic Keratosis being a skin growth, is also commonly known as senile warts, wisdom warts, barnacles of aging or epidermal tumors. Technically, moles and warts are also epidermal tumors because they are also a type of skin growth. But don’t be alarmed, because that does not mean they have cancer in them!
What Causes Seborrheic Keratosis
While there isn’t any specific or root cause that is responsible for the skin growth, Seborrheic Keratosis, we can look at the circumstances that go along with it and figure it out. Seemingly, if we look at the circumstances that come with Seborrheic Keratosis, we find a few different causes for the disease.
First and foremost, age seems to be the leading cause of contracting the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis. It is predominantly found to be common in adults over 50, and the skin growths seem to multiply as their age progresses.
Secondly, the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, also seems to be a genetic issue; that is, the skin growth disease seems to frequently appear in between families regardless of age and gender. It can be said that the disease runs genetically in this case because we know Seborrheic Keratosis cannot be spread as it isn’t a viral or contagious disease.
Some scientific research also suggests that people who are constantly exposed to the sun run a risk of increasing the chances of getting the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis. The skin growth is caused by long term exposure to UV or UltraViolet Rays, which are often seen in people who spend extended periods of time outdoors.
Another cause for contracting the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, can be pregnancy or hormone replacement therapy. In both of these cases, a person undergoes major hormonal changes, which makes their skin vulnerable, and from that, Seborrheic Keratosis occurs.
It is also found through scientific study that people with a lighter skin tone are more commonly known to contract the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis. Lastly, we know that the skin growth of Seborrheic Keratosis is usually slow, and it develops its texture gradually as time progresses.
But if the skin growth erupts suddenly in groups, it is a matter of concern because this can be a sign of internal skin, stomach or colon cancer. Although it is very rare, symptoms of internal skin, stomach or colon cancer might be a cause of contracting the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, so running a cancer scan wouldn’t hurt if the symptoms match.
What are the Symptoms of Seborrheic Keratosis?
As Seborrheic Keratosis is a skin growth disease, it is expected that the growths appear on top of the skin on our body. It can be rather unsightly and annoying to contract the disease because they are not flesh colored like warts, and they can be somewhat painful.
All the known symptoms of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, as reported by people who had it, are given as follows:
- Itching is one of the major symptoms of having the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, because the wart-like bumps take time to develop their texture.
- Bleeding from the bumps that appear on the skin is another symptom of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis.
- Feeling pain or irritation from the friction of the bumps on your skin rubbing against your clothes or any surface is also a symptom of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis.
How does Seborrheic Keratosis look?
As Seborrheic Keratosis is a skin growth disease, it appears on the skin in the form of a group of bumps. Seborrheic Keratosis typically appears on the face, scalp, chest, shoulders, abdomen or the back of one’s body, but it can also appear on other parts of one’s body, excluding the mucous membranes of one’s body.
Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths are described to be scaly or waxy bumps raised above the skin. Even if the overgrowth bumps are flat, like ingrown pimples, you can still feel them with your finger.
The bumps that are raised above the skin are generally roundish or oval shaped rough patches on the skin. The flattened or slightly raised bumps on the skin are told to have a scaly surface, and they look like they are plastered onto the skin.
Their sizes vary as they can be very small, which is barely noticeable, or they can be almost 1 inch/ 2.5 centimeters in size. They are usually known to be brown in color, but they can also be black or light tan and in rarely seen cases, they can be yellow, pink or white. It has also been reported that as time goes by, the color of the bumps becomes darker and darker.
Seborrheic Keratosis bumps are a small collection of the fibrous protein that our fingernails are made of called keratin, which gathers on top of the skin and forms the bumps. Because the bumps are an excessive gathering of keratin on top of the skin, it is textured and can sometimes look like cysts or small bubbles with some sort of liquid in them.
They can also look like the ridges or fissures that we see in pictures of a brain, which is rather peculiar. But most of the time, they look like other skin growth diseases like warts or scabs, which are also diseases that cause overgrowth bumps.
Who is more Prone to getting Seborrheic Keratosis?
As we have mentioned before, age and family genetics are significant causes behind the contraction of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis. Both of those causes make people most prone to getting the skin growth disease at any given time.
Firstly, it has been medically proven that middle aged people, i.e., people in their 30s or 40s, are more prone to contracting the skin growth disease Seborrheic Keratosis. The chances of contracting the skin disease become higher and higher as one’s age progresses.
As reported by the study of the British Association of Dermatologists, the rate of contracting the disease is 30% gets the skin growth disease Seborrheic Keratosis by the age of 40, and about 75% of people contract the skin growth disease by the age of 70. Secondly, it has been reported that the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis seems to run in between families as a genetic infection of sorts.
The skin disease seems to be a genetic issue because it frequently appears in between family members, and in this case, age doesn’t really matter. The risk of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, being genetically inherited increased with the number of infected biological relatives in the family.
How Seborrheic Keratosis can be treated
While the skin growth disease Seborrheic Keratosis is unharmful and doesn’t cause any health complications, they can look rather unsightly. For this reason, a lot of people opt to get their Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths removed, and they seek medical treatment.
There are quite a few different types of medical treatment procedures that are available for getting rid of Seborrheic Keratosis. Some of the most common and effective medical treatment procedures for Seborrheic Keratosis are given as follows:
1. Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy or Cryosurgery is the process of using extremely cold liquid like liquid nitrogen to freeze abnormal tissue like skin disease growths on the body in order to destroy them. For Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowth removal, your healthcare provider will perform this process on your bumps, and then it will cause the bumps to fall off within as little as a few days or as extended as a few weeks.
2. Electrodessication
Electrodessication is the process of scraping off abnormal tissue from the skin using a tool called the curette and then using targeted waves of electric current with a device called an electric needle to destroy any remaining cells of the tissue. Using the curette tool in the scraping process is another medical treatment called curettage, which can also be done individually to remove Seborrheic Keratosis. The electrodessication process is fairly instantaneous, but the only downside is that it requires some wound aftercare, and some time is needed to heal.
3. Shave Excision
Shave Excision is the process of using a surgical scalpel or knife to shave off the skin growths on one’s body. This process effectively removes the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowth by shaving it off and leaving behind a flat surface. This process is similar to curettage, except here, the bumps are shaved off, and the clinic saves them for further analysis.
4. Laser Therapy
Laser Therapy is the process of using laser rays to burn the bumps on the skin. This procedure is an alternative to surgery because this process burns off the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths, sterilizes the wounds and seals the skin tissue underneath all at once. It leaves behind a sore wound that takes a brief amount of time to heal, but it is well worth it.
5. Prescribed Hydrogen Peroxide
Using prescribed hydrogen peroxide on Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths is an easy and effective though lengthy process. Hydrogen peroxide gets rid of Seborrheic Keratosis by causing the abnormal skin cells to die.
The hydrogen peroxide can be used in two different forms: topical solution or over the counter solution. The FDA has approved a 40% hydrogen peroxide topical solution for the use of Seborrheic Keratosis removal in adults. Over the counter hydrogen peroxide is available in a 3% solution for topical use, but that isn’t entirely safe.
The topical hydrogen peroxide solution comes in an applicator pen which is used for dabbing the liquid onto the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths. Your healthcare provider will apply this liquid onto your bumps in a few periodical visits, which will eventually get rid of the bumps over time.
And these are the 5 most common medical treatment procedures available for the removal of the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis. While these are effective medical procedures, all of them have the same side effects that you can expect, and they are hyperpigmentation and discoloration on the previous Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths.
Banana for Seborrheic Keratosis
According to the study of Oxford Academic by Jiwan Sidhu and Tasleem Zafar, it should be common knowledge that bananas are a very bioactive fruit because of their chemical components and nutritional value. Because of its content of active compounds like flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, phenolic compounds, glycosides, carotenoids, triterpenes, sterols, catecholamines etc., a banana peel is very bioactive, which in turn makes it an antioxidant.
Banana peels are naturally loaded with polysaccharides and potassium, which are known to help break down swelling and inflammation. Bananas are rich in amino acids alongside vitamins A, B, C and E, which have major antioxidant activities.
They also have lectin, zinc and salicylic acid in their chemical components, which have antibacterial activity. This breakdown of the chemical components of a banana peel shows us exactly why a banana peel can remove warts.
Seborrheic Keratosis is a skin growth disease that is a noncancerous rough lumpy type of growth on the human body that is caused by age, family genetics inheritance or sun exposure. They are also known as senile warts, wisdom warts or basal cell papilloma, and the virus causes an excess amount of keratin, which is a type of hard and fibrous protein which is what our fingernails are made of, to develop in clusters on the top layer of the skin.
Most Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths clear up in no time and are cured by themselves without any treatment, but some of the pesky overgrowth bumps can choose to linger. In that case, cryotherapy, curettage, shave excision, laser therapy or using prescription based hydrogen peroxide is the only way to get rid of them.
This is where banana peels come in handy because, after all, they are known as an antioxidant component that is loaded with salicylic acid alongside other chemical elements which can be used for the treatment of warts. There is no scientific reasoning or evidence that banana peels can completely remove Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths, but it is a harmless at home treatment process that has had proven results, according to the general public’s consensus.
But research done in 2016 by The Journal of Health Design has shown that the removal rates of a wart or other similar skin growth diseases like Seborrheic Keratosis using cryotherapy and banana for Seborrheic Keratosis is quite the same! Hence, because of having active antioxidant and antimicrobial chemical components, including salicylic acid, a banana peel removes Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths at the same pace as freezing the overgrowths using liquid nitrogen in the cryotherapy process does.
Does using Banana for Seborrheic Keratosis work?
A question that has been asked by everyone that has encountered the idea or treatment process of using bananas for removing Seborrheic Keratosis is, does using banana for Seborrheic Keratosis work? It is a very normal thing to be hesitant about such at home treatment processes because the internet is filled with false ideas and remedies that do not work at all and instead cause more harm.
But to answer your question in one simple word, Yes! Indeed, a whole banana can be used to remove Seborrheic Keratosis over time if you have enough patience to see the process through to the end. It is a lengthy process, but it sure is worth it because it’s an effective and easy at home treatment process.
When you use a whole banana for the skin growth disease, Seborrheic Keratosis, it might take around 3 weeks to an entire month to completely remove them. You have to follow the process regularly and religiously for the best results within that time frame!
How to use Banana for Seborrheic Keratosis
As easy as the at home treatment sounds, the answer to the question, which is, how to use banana for Seborrheic Keratosis? has not been answered in this article yet. But don’t you worry because here we are, and it is indeed as easy as it sounds; the steps you need to follow to use banana peel for Seborrheic Keratosis are given as follows:
Step 1: Take a raw green or slightly yellow, i.e., on the first stage of being ripe banana and separate the peel from the flesh of the banana. Preserve the flesh of the banana for later and move on to the next step.
Step 2: Take the peel of the banana and cut it up into small pieces. Make sure it is large enough to cover the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths on your skin.
Step 3: Make sure your skin is dry and place a piece of the peel of the banana with its fleshy inside facing the or over the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths surface on your skin.
Step 4: Take some skin safe tape and tape the peel of the banana in its place to secure it. Tape it in such a way that any sort of movement does not make it come loose.
Step 5: Leave it on overnight for the banana peel to remove the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths properly, and remove it gently after waking up in the morning.
Step 6: Repeat the steps every night for a few weeks straight without any fail to completely remove the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths.
And those are the 6 steps on how to use banana for Seborrheic Keratosis, which is a very easy and effective at home treatment process. Make sure to follow them in the correct order and as instructed for the best results within a month that will remove your Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths.
How long does it take
As mentioned earlier on in this article, using banana for Seborrheic Keratosis as a removal at home treatment is a lengthy process. You have to use a banana peel on your Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths every night without fail to achieve the best results.
Generally, using banana for Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowth removal takes around 3 weeks to an entire month, based on the condition of your overgrowth bumps and how many there are. For some people, it might also take only 2 weeks, or it might take even longer, like 2 to 3 months.
It is all based on the type of overgrowth bumps you’re dealing with and how the condition of the overgrowth bumps on your body is overall. But don’t you worry, because even though it may take a lot of time, it is well worth it because the Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths will eventually be removed in the end.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is Seborrheic Keratosis?
What is the root cause of Seborrheic Keratosis?
At what age do you get Seborrheic Keratosis?
How can I remove Seborrheic Keratosis at home?
Is Seborrheic Keratosis contagious?
Conclusion
While there is no existing scientific evidence or proof to support the fact that using banana for Seborrheic Keratosis is a safe and effective treatment, it is still a widely used treatment process. All the active chemical components of a banana peel truly make it the perfect at home treatment process to remove Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowth effortlessly.
All the research and thesis conclude that the process of using banana peel on Seborrheic Keratosis overgrowths is effective because of a banana’s antioxidant and antimicrobial properties alongside the high success rate of removal as reported by the general public. The entire removal process might be lengthy, but it is well worth it because the work is minimal and takes little to no effort.
So, please read up on our article about banana for Seborrheic Keratosis, including the other treatments available for the skin growth disease, for all the necessary information needed. All the answers to your questions have been answered above, so take our advice and use banana for Seborrheic Keratosis today for the most effective at home treatment process.
Anmita Das
Blogger and Web Developer
Anmita Das is an EEE graduate from CUET and a dedicated web developer. Alongside her professional work, she has a passion for blogging and enjoys writing on a wide range of topics. Anmita believes in spreading real, reliable information through her blogs, helping readers gain knowledge and insights on various subjects.
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