Cold Sores Home Remedies from Canada

Oral herpes (aka “cold sores”) is the most common form of herpes infection and is known as “herpes labialis”, which is the infection that occurs when the virus comes into contact with oral mucosa or abraded skin. Once you’ve contracted it you can never get rid of it–outbreaks decrease in frequency over time but once the outbreak is over the virus enters a remission period during which it “hibernates”, or remains dormant, inside the sensory nerve cells of your face (or whever the original site of infection is).

Oral Cold Sore Triggers

When an outbreak occurs it typically lasts between 2 and 21 days, depending on

how you externally treat it, and any prescription anti-virals you may be taking for it. Outbreaks can almost always be linked back to some change in conditions that weakened your immune system for a period of time thereby allowing the virus to come out of remission and attack: excessive exposure to UV (sunlight), sudden temperature changes (i.e. cold weather, hence the name “cold sores”), other illnesses, poor diet and lack of exercise, and, more than any other, stress.

Spreading Oral Herpes – Did Grandma Infect You?

You most likely got cold sores when you were a small child, and in this case the most likely way in which you received them was being kissed by a close relative who was infected with oral herpes and happened to be shedding the virus at the time (they may have had an active cold sore, but not necessarily as you can still shed the virus even while not displaying any symptoms of the disease). Oral herpes is most often transmitted when there are visible sores on the person’s face, however the period immediately before a cold sore emerges is a stage during which the person is asymptomatically shedding the virus and is therefore capable of infecting other people even though there are no outward signs of the disease.

Although many people infected with HSV (Herpes Simplex Virus) develop typical visible symptoms such as lesions and sores, the majority of those infected with HSV (both HSV-1 and HSV-2)  either go

neonatal herpes which can be very dangerous and is often lethal to the newborn.  (Source: Bio-Medicine.org)

Prescription and OTC Treatments for Oral Cold Sores

Prescription anti-viral medications for herpes work by interfering with viral replication, thereby slowing the replication rate of the virus and giving the immune system more of a chance to shut the virus down before it can cause problems. The three main prescription anti-virals are:

• Acyclovir (Zovirax): The most popular and usually first-prescribed cold sore anti-viral medication, this will shorten the duration of the pain by up to 1 day, and can reduce the healing time required for your first (ever) outbreak of herpes by 1 to 2 days.

• Famciclovir: This medication is occasionally used to treat the herpes virus that causes cold sores, as well as genital herpes (it acts on both the HSV-1 and HSV-2 strains), and studies have shown that it works as well as Acyclovir in the treatment of oral cold sore outbreaks. Possible side effects include itching, fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, or diarrhea.

• Valacyclovir: Valacyclovir was approved by the FDA solely for the purpose of reducing cold sore duration in people who are 12 years of age or older, and it’s also been noted that Valacyclovir is absorbed much easier than the other available anti-viral medications such as Acyclovir.  Possible side effects include allergic reaction, headache, skin rash, insomnia, dizziness, and fatigue.

(Source for oral anti-viral info: WebMD)

I’m sure many of you have heard of an OTC (over-the-counter) topical ointment drug called Abreva: Docosanol is an OTC topical anti-viral cream marketed by Avanir Pharmaceuticals under the brand name of Abreva–it was the first OTC anti-viral approved in

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?