Cold Sores Home Remedies from Canada

A cold sore is an outward symptom of an outbreak of the Herpes Simplex Virus (usually Type 1, aka “HSV-1″, although HSV-2 can cause oral herpes) usually due to a decreased in immune function, a very common cause of which is exposure to cold weather hence the name “cold sore”. To the left you will see the culprit: that’s HSV-1 magnified 169,000 times by scanning electron microscope–growl at it or flip it the bird if it makes you feel better

The herpes virus remains dormant in the sensory nerve cells of your face until an outbreak, and no, sorry, there’s no cure: once you’ve been infected,

HSV-2 causing them have been documented, so it’s possible, although rare.  However, 1 in 6 cases of genital herpes are causes by HSV-1 (genital herpes is usually associated with HSV-2), so that’s somewhat more likely, although the old axiom that if it’s above the waist it’s HSV-1 and if it’s below the waist it’s HSV-2 does still generally hold true.

How Did I Originally Get Infected? Or: WHY GRANDMA WHY?!?!

Studies have shown that, the vast majority of the time, oral herpes is transmitted most commonly in someone’s youth when they are kissed by a relative who’s infected and suffering from an active cold sore outbreak–yeah, that sucks. This is especially likely if you started getting cold sores when you were a small child, which would mean that you were infected when

someone with a cold sore.

(Source: http://www.herpes.com/hsv1-2.html )

Cold Sore Treatments, Medications, and Remedies

There’s a great variety of treatments that myself and my friends have tried over the years: most of us originally went the prescription-combined-with-OTC (over-the-counter) route where we were prescribed something like Acyclovir or Valacyclovir and then used an OTC cream like Abreva.  Over the years we’ve found (myself included) that the best those can do is to shave 1 maybe 2 days off of an outbreak, and that’s about it.  We’ve found, through trial-and-error between us over the years, that there are more effective remedies you can put together in your kitchen.  Not only that, but there are preventative measures that you can take which will often prevent a cold sore outbreak altogether, from supplements like l-lysine and Vitamin B-12 to overarching diet changes like avoiding white flour because it contains gluten which is known to weaken your immune system.  To get more information on this, I highly recommend you have a look at this:

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?