Cold Sores Home Remedies from Canada

So you’ve got a cold sore on your lip, eh? Well, that sucks.  Sorry, I know that wasn’t helpful, but I’m used to it enough at this point such that that’s precisely what I think when I look in the mirror in the morning and see that I’ve got one developing: “well, that sucks…”

Ok, but now I really am going to help you, here’s a list of the top 5 methods I’ve found to treat cold sores over the years.  This is compiled between my own experience, that of my friends, and other cold sore sufferers whose knowledge and cures I have solicited online and in person.


1. Oral Anti-Virals – These are only somewhat effective, although they’re a favorite of doctors because they’re prescription only which means you have to pay for a doctor’s visit to get them.  They’ve only been shown to, at best, reduce the length of a cold sore outbreak by a few hours to 1 or maybe 2 days at most, AND they only do any good if you take them as soon as you first feel the tingling of an impending outbreak, they don’t do anything if the cold sore has already started to develop.  The 3 main prescription oral anti-viral medications are Acyclovir (pictured on left), Famciclovir, and Valacyclovir.  Go here and scroll down to “Cold Sore Blister Treatment” for more detailed information on these types of treatments: Cold Sore Blister: What is it, and How To Treat It?.

2. Topical Creams (prescription and non-prescription) – These are even worse (it gets better in a bit, I promise), the effectiveness of these various topical ointments are actually still in dispute by the scientific literature available on them, but it seems that the best you can hope for is a reduction in the length of the outbreak by a few hours to a day or so.  The upside of these creams is that they can be applied and still be effective even once the cold sore is fully developed, unlike with the previously mentioned oral anti-virals that must be taken at the first sign of an impending outbreak. The two prescription-only creams that I know of are Penciclovir and Acyclovir cream, which claim to reduce

OTC cream made available in the U.S. is Docosanol 10% (aka Abreva), and is the first and currently only non-prescription topical medication that has proven to potentially shorten the duration of a cold sore outbreak.

3. Ice (yes, ice). This is the first of my best three home remedies I’m going to mention here. Simply applying ice as soon as you feel the tingling of an impending cold sore directly to the spot where it feels like it’s going to emerge can significanly reduce the severity and duration of the outbreak–it might not stop it altogether, but on a cold sore “Richter Scale” of 1 to 10 it can take what would’ve been a 7 or 8 and stop it from ever going past a 3 or a 4 in severity.

4. Cold Milk (Moooooo!): Take a cotton ball, soak it in cold milk, and apply it directly to the site of the impending cold sore once every two hours for 5 minutes at a time, it will help relieve pain and shorten the duration of the cold sore.

5. Benzyl Alcohol: Take some Benzyl Alcohol and soak a Q-tip with it, apply once every two hours to the site where you feel the tingling of a cold sore that’s about to emerge (experienced cold sore sufferers know what this is and can generally tell when they’re about to get one before it happens), this can actually prevent the cold sore from ever emerging in the first place (this is a real life-saver when it works), which is pretty awesome, huh?  I know I’ve covered several home remedies here and which one you should use is just dependent on which one works best for you, I can’t predict that, and it simply requires that you experiment with several different ones until you find one that you like.  Next, I highly recommend you have a look at this, it’s the best cold sore treatment that I have personally ever tried:

Something My Friend Concocted…

My best experience with home remedies is with something concocted by Grace, a close friend of mine, and I must say that this cold sore treatment has worked every single time for me (often inside of 24 hours), and even more impressive is I’ve seen it work on about 25 other people she’s tried it on, with very good consistency. She was so enthusiastic about her discovery that she has decided to turn it into an e-book, so I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t try to help her out a bit on my blog. One of the first women that we “experimented” on (she’s our close friend and was glad to give it a go), was Gretchen, who occasionally crosses the border from Wisconsin to come visit us, look at what she said:

“Grace,

I wanted to get a note to you to thank you for the information in your ebook. I must admit I was very skeptical when I read your instructions, but you were right on the money. My double bout with cold sores was gone after only 6 days. The best part of this entire program has been that to this point (3 months later), the cold sores have not returned. I can hardly believe it – thanks so much!”

Gretchen Rhodes, 47
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Please go have a look at my friend Grace’s solution for the matter here: Cold Sore Freedom: Cold Sores Cured in 3 Days–I’ve personally tried this and it is currently my favorite method of handling my cold sores, and it’s not because it’s necessarily the fastest (I’ve found that if I drain, wash, and apply nail polish remover to a cold sore several times a day while keeping an ice cube on it the WHOLE day, about 50% of the time it’ll be gone in about 2 days, but it’s unreliable at best and you can’t do ANYTHING else that day but attend to your cold sore). It’s because it works EVERY TIME, often within the first 24 hours–3 days is more like the unlikely maximum, you’re much more likely to see it gone within 24 hours or so–and it only requires a few minutes of your time every day, so I highly recommend you give it a chance and if it doesn’t work then just get your money back, no harm no foul we’re all still friends, ok?