DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Is there any medical reason to have a tummy tuck or liposuction? I understand that abdominal fat is unhealthy. I have lost 120 pounds, mostly from my face, abdomen and upper thighs. My doctor says that insurance will pay for a tummy tuck. Do I need it? I am a 43-year-old female. – M.C.

ANSWER: The medical name for a tummy tuck is abdominoplasty. It’s an operation where a long incision is made in the lowest part of the abdomen and fat is removed through the incision. Abdominal muscles are tightened during the operation.

Excess skin – the skin that would hang down after much fat has been removed – is also removed. It’s extensive surgery.

Liposuction is suction removal of fat through a tube inserted under the skin through small incisions. It’s not as extensive a surgical procedure as a tummy tuck.

Whether you need either is something only you can decide. Check with your insurer to be certain the procedure is covered. If you have a large flap of skin hanging down after losing all that weight, you might be able to get by with having only the redundant skin taken off.

Fat that causes health consequences is visceral fat – fat that lies deep within the abdomen and surrounds abdominal organs. Neither liposuction nor a tummy tuck gets rid of that kind of fat. You’ve done the job already by losing 120 pounds. Visceral fat makes a person insensitive to insulin and can lead to diabetes.

You might want a second opinion about having surgery.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Will you please tell me what causes warts on the hands, elbows and knees? What is the cure, if there is any? – S.P.

ANSWER: The papillomaviruses cause warts. It’s a large virus family with more than 100 different members.

Warts are most common between the ages of 5 and 20. Only about 15 percent of all wart cases are seen in people older than 35.

One wart cure is patience. Most warts disappear if people will wait them out.

A remedy, readily available in all drugstores, is salicylic acid, often in combination with lactic acid.

Follow directions on the label. Usually they go something along these lines. Soak the wart for 5 to 10 minutes in warm water.

Dry it and apply the salicylic acid. Cover with a bandage. Leave the bandage on for 24 hours and then repeat the entire procedure. It can take daily applications for two to three months before the wart goes away. Brand names of salicylic acid medicines are Compound W, Duofilm, Trans-Ver-Sal and Dr Scholl’s. There are others.

If the treatment is irritating the skin, stop using the medication.

Duct tape, the kind of tape sold in hardware stores, has been touted as a wart remover. Cover the wart with the tape and leave it on for six days. Remove the tape, soak the wart in water and then buff it with a pumice stone. Repeat until the wart leaves. Whether this treatment is effective all the time is questionable.

If home remedies aren’t accomplishing anything, a doctor can freeze them off, zap them with a laser or remove them in many other ways.

Genital warts are a different story.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I wrote to you a good while back but got no answer. I will try again.

I have six 5-gallon containers of water in a safe place in case of an emergency. How often should I change the water? – T.P.

ANSWER: You can store water safely for six months. It could probably last for a year, but six months gives you no cause to worry. Store the water in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.

You can purify water by boiling it for three minutes or by adding one-eighth to one-quarter teaspoon of 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite (bleach) to each gallon.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I would like your opinion on my granddaughter, a 15-year-old girl, a dancer, who has not yet had a period. – W.G.

ANSWER: The average age for a first period is 12.3. There’s a wide variation to that average. If a girl hasn’t menstruated by 16, then an investigation into what’s causing the delay is begun. Your granddaughter has some time before that investigation in undertaken.

Your granddaughter is a dancer. Is she quite thin? Female dancers and gymnasts prize being on the lean side. A girl has to have a certain amount of body fat to have periods. If your granddaughter is strictly watching her calories, she would be wise to liberalize her diet a bit. A calorie-deficient diet is often at the bottom of delayed menstruation.

If she’s not deliberately keeping herself thin, then she still has time to menstruate and be considered in the normal range of things. If, at 16, it turns out that she’s not producing enough estrogen to have periods, that’s something that has to be corrected. Estrogen production is needed not only for periods but also for strong bones.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com