If you are among the unlucky 25% of population who has problems with repeating cold sores then I’m sure you are looking for some remedies. It is good to know that it is possible to cure cold sores and even there is still no miracle cure that will completely destroy them, there are many remedies that can help you extremely. Either you will have much cold sores much less often or if it already appears it will be gone much sooner, without pain and witch much lesser negative impact on your look.
What is cold sore? Cold sores are small (well sometimes not so small) blisters that develop on the lips or around them. 80% of adult population is infected with the virus herpes simplex (HSV-1) that causes them and 25% of population has cold sores repeatedly. Sometimes it can be even caused by virus HSV- 2 (genital herpes) then you got infected from oral sex.
Most likely you are infected with the virus since childhood and the moment you get infected is usually not noticeable. Virus then stays deep in facial nerves and it inactive. Virus is waiting and if you have “good” immunity you will not have problem with it ever again, but if you are in those 25% it is usual to have cold sore 2 times a year, but there are even persons who have cold sore 10 times year. Virus is simply waiting and when your immune system is not strong it strikes and causes the cold sores.
Cold sore starts with strange feeling in the place where it starts, it can be itching, burning sensation, tingling. Then it starts to grow which takes 1-2 days and then appears fluid filled sores. This is usually most painful part, especially when the blisters starts to break. After the blisters break crust forms over the area of resulting sores. Without any treatment this whole process takes about 10-14 days and is very unpleasant for the patient, both because it can be painful and also because lips are something you cannot hide and cold sores are really not looking good which is damaging social life also.
As I mentioned before, there are products now that has the ability to sometimes completely stop the cold sore from developing or at least help you a lot with pain, cover it and make the whole process much faster. Here are the 5 best cold sore remedies.
What is cold sore? Cold sores are small (well sometimes not so small) blisters that develop on the lips or around them. 80% of adult population is infected with the virus herpes simplex (HSV-1) that causes them and 25% of population has cold sores repeatedly. Sometimes it can be even caused by virus HSV- 2 (genital herpes) then you got infected from oral sex.
Most likely you are infected with the virus since childhood and the moment you get infected is usually not noticeable. Virus then stays deep in facial nerves and it inactive. Virus is waiting and if you have “good” immunity you will not have problem with it ever again, but if you are in those 25% it is usual to have cold sore 2 times a year, but there are even persons who have cold sore 10 times year. Virus is simply waiting and when your immune system is not strong it strikes and causes the cold sores.
Cold sore starts with strange feeling in the place where it starts, it can be itching, burning sensation, tingling. Then it starts to grow which takes 1-2 days and then appears fluid filled sores. This is usually most painful part, especially when the blisters starts to break. After the blisters break crust forms over the area of resulting sores. Without any treatment this whole process takes about 10-14 days and is very unpleasant for the patient, both because it can be painful and also because lips are something you cannot hide and cold sores are really not looking good which is damaging social life also.
As I mentioned before, there are products now that has the ability to sometimes completely stop the cold sore from developing or at least help you a lot with pain, cover it and make the whole process much faster. Here are the 5 best cold sore remedies.
1. Protect your lips with sunscreen
Many people does not know this, but sometimes the sun in the reason why cold sore develops. There are special sunscreen designed just for the lips. You need one that has protection factor higher than 15. Of course this does not work when cold sore already started to develop, but is great precaution if you think your cold sores might be caused by sun This is my favorite and very popular.
2. Propolis
Propolis (bee propolis) is product created by bees which has some really amazing abilites. Study shows that propolis works against HSV-1 herpes virus. It is believed that it is preventing the virus from entering cells and that it blocks the replication and spread of the HSV-1 virus. As every cold core remedy, the earlier you use it, the better. sometimes when you act really fast you can almost completely stop development of the cold sore.
3. Lemon Balm
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is herb that usually is used as anti-stress and anti-anxiety herb, but it has another great use. Lemon has antiviral properties and because HSV-1 is virus, it works on cold sores. There are few studies that shows that lemon balm is working on cold sores and that it is also good against HSV-2 that causes genital herpes. This is really awesome product with great reviews all over the web that contains lemon balm.
4. Zovirax (acyclovir)
This one is very well known and lot of people says it does not work. well, it does work, but it is important to use it really very very fast. Then it really helps to reduce HSV-1 in your lip and it either completely stops the cold sore from developing or it is much smaller. It contains 5% acyclovir oitment which prevents HSV-1 from reproducing itself. When your cold sore is developed, then it is quite useless I would say.
5. Lysine
Many people says that taking Lysine works as precaution so if you will take Lysine daily, you will not have problems with cold sores or you will have them much less often. how does it work? As we already know, herpes virus is normally inactive waiting in the facial nerve roots and only sometimes, when it has opportunity it becomes active. Usually whne your immunity is low, you are under some stress, your lips are damaged from radiation from sun or something similar. Then virus finds it way to the surface through the nerve fibers. This is the moment when you feel tingling, itching or burning in the area of future cold sore. When the virus is on the surface it enters the cells and forces them to produce copies of the virus. In the moment the cell is full of new virus, the controlling virus forces the cell to die and the cell this way spills huge amount of new virus. What we call a cold sore are actually millions of those death cells. Well, now you probably ask, what does this have to do with Lysine, right?
When the cell is in the process of building new virus, it uses Arginine, which is very common and very simple amino acid. Arginine is very important and every such cell has special “storage” where Arginin is. Now comes Lysine into play. Lysine is also amino acid and one very similar to Arginin and cells uses the same “storage” for them both. If there is more Lysine, there is less space for Arginin. Well, even Lysine is very similar to Arginin, it is not the same and cell just cannot use Lysine to build virus. This way one cell cannot create so much virus and this can stop or reduce cold sore from developing.
as you can see there two ways now. You can either eat less food that contains Arginin, those are nuts and chocolate, or you can eat more food with Lysine, which is in most vegetables, yoghurt, cheese, fish. If you have problems eating enough food with Lysine, you can always use supplements with Lysine. Usually 500-1000 milligrams a day should be enough.
When cold sore is already developed
Sometimes you are just not fast enough or little cold sore develops even when you use above remedies. Then you need something to speed up the healing process and something what will make the cold sore look better and help with the pain also. I have had problems with cold sores for so many years and always been looking only for something what will stop them from developing, but few days ago I have found something what helps a lot to speed up healing process, makes the cold sore look much less “ugly” and also gives you good feeling on your lip. It is probably not product that is available worldwide, but I know what ingredients it has.
It is lip regeneration ointment that contains camphor and chamomile so maybe you will find something with similar ingredients. To me it works just perfectly. Maybe something like this will work for you also.
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