It's not a pretty subject but it's something that a friend of ours is suffering from, so we thought we'd discuss it.
She said it was the worst cold sore she ever had and nothing from the pharmacy seems to be helping.
No surprise there, you don’t need the ointments and creams from the pharmacy, they rarely work anyway.
If you experience frequent cold sores, it's likely you have a weak immune system, so that's an important part of your life to look at.
With cold sores a person may feel flu like symptoms for 4 or 5 days because the virus can affect your whole body. You may develop a fever and become a bit sick or not enjoy eating.
So, if you suffer, have suffered or in case you ever do suffer from cold sores then let's talk.
Let's get the disclaimer out of the way, we aren't doctors, but we do practice self healing and everything we told our friend about the nasty cold sore was based on our experience.
So, we aren't prescribing anything, simply explaining what has worked for many people.
No one knows exactly what wakes up the virus to cause the blisters but it seems they are aggravated by stress, sun, alcohol, sugar, some other viral infection, or by fatigue.
There is no effective medicine that will cure cold sores, but there some very safe and effective natural remedies.
The amino acid L-lysine, is very effective in preventing recurrence.
It appears that lysine suppress herpes activity, while another amino acid, arginine, encourages it.
There are studies that show lysine treatment can be very helpful to cold sore sufferers.
The best way for lysine to prevent cold sores is to take an everyday
dosage as a preventive and then increase this dosage if you experience an outbreak of the infection.
Since the cold sore virus responds to the imbalance of the amino acids arginine and lysine, it might be smart to avoid arginine rich foods. These foods include chocolate, peanuts and other nuts, seeds, and cereal grains.
Healers tell us to take L-lysine: 3,000 mg. daily during the worst of it.
1,000 mg. with each meal at the first sign of a cold sore outbreak.
After the symptoms decrease, reduce intake to 500 mg. a day.
But you break out at the 500 mg. dosage, increase your dosage to 1000 mg. everyday to prevent recurrence.
If you’ve got the virus there's always a chance you may experience an outbreak, the virus isn't going away, but there other natural remedies that will help reduce the severity and speed up the healing process.
The first thing and this is important, as soon as you feel that first tingling discomfort break out the Tea Tree Oil.
Tea Tree Oil is antibacterial, antifungal and helps dry out the cold sore.
During the first stages of a cold sore, at that first sign and before it dries out and ‘scabs over’ apply Tea Tree Oil undiluted directly to the affected area using a cotton swab three or four times a day.
Doing this can reduce the first stage of a cold sore from three days to less than 24 hours.
Next, after the sores start drying, we suggest Coconut Oil because of it’s anti-viral properties.
Coconut Oil does encourage the healing process, reducing the severity and duration of the cold sore.
There are numerous cures for cold sores and maybe they all work, who knows?
But we like to keep things natural and simple.
