Cold Sores Home Remedies from Canada

There is currently no known cure for cold sores (although there may be one soon, see the Time Magazine article at the bottom of this post), and once you’ve got it the herpes simplex virus stays in your body for the rest of your life, hiding out in the nerve cells in your face (check this for more detailed information about the virus and how it causes cold sores: What Is A Cold Sore? Basics of What A Cold Sore Is).  Having personally suffered for years and tried every possible prescription, OTC (over-the-counter), and home remedy kitchen concoction known to man, I’ve discovered what

is precisely what they do, in my experience), and possibly reduce the pain and discomfort by a small amount.  Prescription creams do the same thing, essentially, only not as well (yup, pretty much).  Abreva is ok, I will say that it does definitely help with the pain and discomfort, sort of a numbing sensation, but actually (and I know this sounds stupidly obvious) I’ve personally found that ice, of all things, works better at this: ice the cold sore once every two hours and that will go further to reduce the pain and inflammation than anything else I’ve tried (just melt an ice cube on it over about a ten minute period).

I know people will tend to be searching for treatment information for cold sores once they’ve already got one, but I’d like to go over a couple really effective preventative measures that will keep you from having to deal with an active outbreak 90% of the time when you would’ve otherwise had one.  Take lysine, not only during an outbreak but prior to one too: 1000mg 3 times a day during an outbreak, and 500mg daily as a preventative measure (go here for more information on l-lysine: Lysine: Cold Sores Treatment? Dosage and How-To…), also Vitamin C can help (not only with cold sores, but keeping you healthy in general as you probably already know) because it boosts your immune system and it’s been shown that cold sore outbreaks almost always occur when the immune system gets temporarily depressed for some reason (this is why illnesses like the flu or strep will often trigger an outbreak).  Also, once you feel

it has a chance to emerge (some people say that benzyl alcohol works better, but good luck finding some, it’s not prescription just kinda obscure).  For more detailed information on home remedies I highly recommend you see: Cold Sores Remedies – Personal Experiences with 20 Different Remedies.

It seems that researchers are closing in on the HSV-1 virus (the virus that typically causes cold sores, although the other strain, HSV-2, can cause oral infections):

Until now, research has generally concentrated on keeping HSV1 inactive — and preventing cold sores from ever showing up. But the Duke researchers took the opposite tack: figuring out precisely how to switch the virus from latency to its active stage. That’s important, says lead author Dr. Bryan Cullen, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke, “because unless you activate the virus, you can’t kill it.”

Go here to read the full Time article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1819739,00.html

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?