Apple Cider Vinegar

     Vinegar is made in a two-step process. The first step exposes crushed apples (or apple cider) to yeast, which ferment the sugars and turn them into alcohol. In the second step, bacteria are added to the alcohol solution, which further ferment the alcohol and turn it into acetic acid, the main active compound in vinegar. 
     For centuries, vinegar has been used for various household and cooking purposes and there are some medical benefits from taking apple cider vinegar which seems to be safe as there are no known side effects associated with normal consumption. 
     The best way to incorporate it into your diet is to use it in cooking, salad dressings, etc., but it also has many other uses. 
     One thing I have successfully used it for is to remove a wart. It worked better than any commercial product!! Warts are the second most common dermatological complaint after acne so it's nice to have an inexpensive natural home remedy for such a common problem. 
     Warts are benign skin tumors that can occur alone or in large packs on just about any part of the body. They are caused by a virus, the human papilloma virus (HPV), which enters the body through tiny cuts and breaks in the skin. 
     Removing a wart with apple cider vinegar is very simple: you need the vinegar of course, cotton balls (or the end of a Q-tip) and a Band-aid. That's it. 
    Each night soak a small piece of the cotton ball in apple cider vinegar, apply it to the wart and then hold it in place with a band-aid and leave it on all night. In the morning change the cotton and Band-aid. The wart should disappear in a week or less. 
     Just a couple of warnings though. First, don't soak the surrounding skin, just the wart! Also, be aware that the wart will swell and may throb as it reacts with the vinegar. Not everyone experiences pain and it can last just a few hours, or it can last longer. It can be mild pain or worse. It just depends on you tolerance level, I guess. For me the pain was a relatively short burning sensation. 
     As a folk remedy, apple cider vinegar has been credited with curing everything from the flu to helping with weight loss. Many of its supposed are unproven though! Some people also like to dilute it in water and drink it as a beverage, usually 1-2 teaspoons  to 1-2 tablespoons per day, but NEVER go above that, because excess consumption may have harmful effects.
     It is claimed to lead to all sorts of beneficial effects… some of which are actually supported by science. Here are some health benefits that have some basis in fact determined by scientific research.
     Vinegar has been used as a food preservative, and studies show that it inhibits bacteria (like E. coli) from growing in the food and spoiling it. 
        For diabetics with type 2 diabetes apple cider vinegar helps lower blood sugar. Carol Johnston, PhD, directs Arizona State University’s nutrition program and has been studying apple cider vinegar for more than 10 years and believes its effects on blood sugar are similar to certain medications. The vinegar blocks some of the digestion of starch. “It doesn’t block the starch 100%, but it definitely prevents at least some of that starch from being digested and raising your blood sugar,” Johnston says. 
     Elevated blood sugar can also be a problem in people who don’t have diabetes… it is believed to be a major cause of aging and various chronic diseases. So, pretty much everyone should benefit from keeping their blood sugar levels stable. The most effective way to do that is to avoid refined carbs and sugar, but apple cider vinegar can help. 
     Using apple cider vinegar for weight loss does not appear to be factual. Dietitian Debbie Davis, RD said, “It may have some benefits in terms of weight loss and weight management, but it is definitely not a quick fix." Given that vinegar lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, it makes sense that it could help you lose weight, but in one study done with people in Japan, 175 obese but healthy people took vinegar daily for 12 weeks and on average lost only 1-2 pounds over the 3-month period. 

     Heart disease and stroke are currently the world’s biggest cause of death and some risk factors have been shown to be improved by taking vinegar consumption, but all of the studies were done in rats. What works on rats may not work on humans. There is a lot of hype about the anti-cancer effects of apple cider vinegar as some studies have shown that vinegar can kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. But, again, all of the studies on this were done in isolated cells in test tubes and rats. 

15 Reasons to Use Apple Cider Vinegar Everyday 
repel fleas on your pets, room freshener, soothe sunburn, etc.  
26 Genius Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar 
7 Surprising Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar by Dr. Oz