Natural Remedies for Actinic Keratosis: Effective Home Treatments

The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by J.s.c. (Florida, US) on 06/23/2014
★☆☆☆☆

I gave ACV an good 8 weeks, applying 2 to 3 times a day, on a keratosis on my face. It was on the side of my nose, right under my left eye, right where the pads for your glasses would sit. It was the size of the pads of glasses, too.

It didn't work for this keratosis. I had had it biopsied, since I didn't know what it was, at first. Having those two puncture marks in it, I believe made it more difficult to treat, because it wasn't in one piece anymore, and had little grooves and difficult to get at areas.

So, I gave in and let my doctor freeze it with the liquid nitrogen. It was quick, and much less painful than the ACV treatments were. I am still waiting for the freezing to heal, and will let you know how it goes, but I think it does look much better than what I was doing with the ACV.

If I had another one to deal with, and didn't get the biopsy, I might try ACV again. I think that I had let this one go on too long, as it had been there for a couple of years. So, I'm not down on using ACV, but would def use it much sooner, if I ever had to....and hope I never, never need to deal with it again.


Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Kgd (Saint Louis, Mo) on 04/30/2013
★☆☆☆☆

I treated 10 actinic keratosis lesions that were in a 3"X4" area on top of my head using apple cider vinegar. I slept every night with a stocking cap over duct tape holding a cloth soaked with ACV against the affected area. There was a very strong reaction. I felt a mild burning sensation every night, they turned red, repeatedly formed scabs, and gradually seemed to fade. The skin became smooth but the outlines of the lesions were still there.

As the first batch of AK's faded, about 20 more AK's of various sizes appeared within the same area, so I continued the treatment. ACV gently removes the outer layers of skin, and I otherwise wouldn't have known that I had so many AK's because they were hidden underneath the skin.

I continued the treatment every night for many weeks because I wanted to give it a chance to succeed. During that entire time the change was so gradual that I was never really sure if it was helping or not.

After 3 months the affected area looked so bad that I started wearing hats in public. At that point I decided to try something else. Within 48 hours of stopping the ACV treatment the smooth AK lesions became rough again indicating that ACV had no effect other than exposing AK's that were previously hidden underneath the skin.



Advertisement