Helping your body get rid of cold sores

The immune system is perfectly capable of getting rid of a cold sore without any outside help, but to do so takes 10 days or so. Luckily there are some steps we can take to aid our natural defenses.

Applying a topical remedy is strongly advised, whether a medicinal product such as Abreva, or another treatment such as tea tree oil. These help keep the sore covered and moist, which prevents the additional pain that comes from cracking or splitting.

How to treat cold sores: long term solutions

If you suffer cold sores you'll already know how unpleasant they are, but if you are lucky enough not to then one look at a sufferer while in the middle of an outbreak will prbably tell you all you need to know. As it is both painful and disfiguring demand is high for the knowledge of how to treat cold sores and help them heal fast.

Most cold sore treatments are designed to clear up the symptoms of an outbreak. This is simply because once infected with the virus it cannot be cured. Most of the time it lies dormant within the body, only becoming active when the immune system can no longer suppress it due to illness, or simply stress. Part of learning how to treat cold sores effectively is understanding what triggers outbreaks and making choices that can lessen the chances of one occurring.

Simple but effective treatment for cold sores

The drug companies have been busy for years trying to find a really effective treatment for cold sores, but remain frustrated by their attempts to date. Because of this many people have turned to natural remedies, and one of the more popular is lysine rich foods or supplements.

However there is another essential amino acid that appears to encourage cold sore outbreaks; many people find that by reducing the amount of arginine in their diets, or by adjusting the balance between lysine and arginine in their body they suffer fewer and less severe attacks, showing that effective results can be achieved with what appear to be quite minor adjustments. Read more about treatment for cold sores.

Preventative cold sore treatment

For most sufferers, cold sore treatment only occurs when the first symptoms start to appear, often at the tingle or blister stage. Of course it is natural to want to rid ourselves of the sore, but there is more we can do in the treatment of cold sores.

However, it pays to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If we can boost our immune system so that cold sore outbreaks are less frequent we change the emphasis of treatment. While this may require some big lifestyle changes, long term cold sore treatment means we are likely to suffer few attacks and less severe.

What conventional treatment of cold sores can't achieve

Conventional treatment of cold sores completely focuses on getting rid of the symptoms of an attack, rather than tackling the root cause. Medicines are designed to aid healing of the blister and lesion, rather than preventing them from occurring and to be fair, alternative and home remedies also focus on this.

The bad news is that currently there is no treatment to get rid of the virus - once infected always infected. However, by stepping back from the immediate symptoms of cold sores and evaluating our lifestyles we can make a difference. Ask yourself what you are doing to add stress to your body. Are you eating right? Getting enough exercise? Taking the opportunity to really relax? If the answer to these is "no" then you should make some changes towards the better - holistic treatment of cold sores rather than remedial treatment.

Why cold sore treatments are limited

With people being affected by cold sores since the Roman times, it should be no surprise that there are so many cold sore treatments available, ranging from remedies that must have been discovered by those same Romans to the latest drugs. Whichever treatment you choose, there is one problem with the condition that you can't overcome - the fact is that cold sores are incurable.

There is some good news though - cold sores aren't serious, although they often
feel that they are. They feel awful, they make you feel awful, but they don't create a problem for you unless the virus spreads to your eye. This is easy to avoid though, so don't touch your sores unless completely necessary and always wash you hands after applying cold sore treatments.

Getting rid of cold sores: keep your mind open

Learning how your body responds to different remedies is one of the keys to successfully getting rid of cold sores. One treatment may work wonders for one person, but be completely useless in another. Therefore it is vital to keep open minded about treatments for cold sores and watch out for when new ideas come available.

For instance there is a new product based on intra-red light that claims to aid healing of cold sores, which while it sounds bizarre, might actually work for some people; and if one of those people is you then you life will be improved. Remember that many people suffer from the condition and so there are probably people who have tried things you've never heard of in their quest for getting rid of cold sores; listen to them and keep you mind open.

Cold Sore Medication

The effectiveness of cold sore medication can vary from person to person, with some responding well to treatment, while others show no improvement at all. Research gas been ongoing for years, with the medical community disappointed at the lack of real progress in this area and natural remedies have been shown to be just as effective is shortening the healing time.

Among the popular medications is Abreva, which uses a concentrated doe of docosanol as its active ingredient. Docosanol is found naturally in some foods, but in much lower does and one of the big advantages of Abreva is that it doesn't require a prescription. Among the most popular prescription only medicines for cold sores is Zovirix, whose active ingredient is an anti-viral agent known as acycloviris.

If you suffer from chronic cold sore outbreaks then it is worth giving these products a go to learn which cold sore medication is effective for you. However, you may also like to use natural remedies toom which can be just as good.

Home remedy for cold sores

The application of ice is one very simple home remedy for cold sores that has proved to be effective.

Application of an ice pack in the latter stages of an attack help to sooth the sore and ease swelling, but it works better still if applied as soon as the tingling sensation is noticed, when it can make a massive difference in slowing the development of the virus.

By chilling the virus as it becomes active we seem to reduce its capability to replicate, minimizing the effects of the outbreak. Since ice is available in all homes it is ideal for rapid action, making it the perfect home remedy for cold sores.

Cold sore symptoms

For most people a tingling sensation is the first symptom of a new cold sore attack, signifying that the immune system can no longer overcome the virus. HSV-1, awoken from its dormant state in the nerve cells, moves to the surface of the skin, replicating as it does so. There it wreaks its damage by destroying skin cells, thereby causing small blisters that merge to create a larger one.

Once the blister bursts, weeping the contagious fluid, an open sore is left; this is both painful to experience and unpleasant to look at and is the biggest problem for many sufferers, who actively avoid social interaction while having an attack. However, after a few days, the sore heals and no scar is left. While it is an unpleasant condition it is not serious, but by starting treatment as soon as cold sore symptoms are noticed the overall healing time can be reduced.

Treatment for cold sores

Standard treatment for cold sores generally uses expensive antiviral drugs like Zovirax, Famvir or Valtrex, which are designed to reduce pain and help faster healing.

These drugs are normally taken by mouth or as a cream, but may also be injected in rare cases. Treatment should begin as soon as symptoms first appear to be most effective, but certainly within 24 hours.

There are also natural remedies that can also have similar healing effects to these drugs. Treatments such as tea tree oil have been demonstrated to help ease symptoms, while applying an ice pack or tea bag can also offer comfort to sufferers or even prevent the virus progressing to the blister stage.

Whether you choose drugs or natural remedies, you won't respond equally to a particular treatment as another individual and so may find one treatment for cold sores better than another.

Preventing cold sores

Preventing cold sores is a question of looking after our body to allow the immune system to work at full capacity. The virus that causes cold sores is usually dormant, only waking when the immune system is weak. Therefore we can help prevent new attacks by eating well, exercising and avoiding stress and other immune system stressors, such as lack of sleep or stress. By preventing cold sores from occurring we need not deal with the nasty symptoms - the ugly scab that seems to take forever to heal and a general feeling of wretchedness.

Home remedies for cold sores

With the virus dating back to Roman times perhaps, it is no wonder that there are so many home remedies for cold sores available. Simply applying ice to the area affected cab have a dramatic effect for some people, with it reducing the healing time to a matter of days, or in the case of some lucky people, preventing the sore from appearing at all.

Another popular remedy is to use a warm tea bag against the sore. The tannic acid helps fight the virus, sooth the wound and reduce swelling, making you feel much more comfortable, and other simple home remedies for cold sores include making a tea of lemon balm, a plant from the mint family which possesses strong anti-viral properties.

Get Rid of Cold Sores

You feel that tingling sensation again? In that case you know you've got another cold sore outbreak on its way, and your thoughts should be drawn towards how to get rid of cold sores fast.

The big problem is that there is no cure for the condition, which means that once infected with the virus responsible, always infected. Most of the time it lies dormant, but when it strikes, you know the result; painful sores, scabs around your mouth - in other words misery for the 7-10 days they take to heal.

However, there are steps you can take to get rid of cold sores faster than would happen otherwise. In this blog I'll discuss a few of the options available to you.