Early treatment can shorten healing time

The average suffer experiencing a healing time of 7-10 days from the first sign of cold sore symptoms appearing.

The first cold sore symptom to appear is often a tingling sensation in the area that the sore will appear. This is due to the virus becoming reactivated and moving towards the surface of the skin, and if treatment is started at this stage it can help shorten the time you have a cold sore.

Cold sore medicine: the challenge of finding effective treatments

Given that medical science has made a huge amount of progress in many areas and continues to do so, the lack of real progress in cold sore medicine toward finding a cure is a disappointment.

The remedies that are currently available are designed to tackle cold sore symptoms after they have occurred, rather than tackle the root cause of cold sores - herpes simplex virus.

And since these treatments can be disappointingly ineffective in many cases, it is clear that more research is required.

Cold sore home remedies

The widescale use of cold sore home remedies is due to the lack of efficacy of the medicines available as well as the fact that they can be expensive in comparison.

Some common remedies include lemon balm, applied either as a cream or as a solution made from a herbal infusion, as well as tea tree oil. You can read more about cold sore home remedies at the Cold Sore Treatment Guide.

How to find which cold sore remedies work

When it comes to cold sore remedies you may initially be surprised at how different the response can be by different people. This doesn't just apply to natural remedies either, and the average response to treatment by one of the products from the drug companies has been shown to be similar to that of some natural remedies.

Unfortunately there is no way to know in advance what will work for you as an individual. Therefore you'll need to select a treatment and see if it works. By testing several cold sore remedies like this you should eventually find something that works.

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.

How to get rid of a cold sore

While there are several drugs available designed to help heal cold sores, they have been shown to be limited in their efficacy and therefore many people have decided how to get rid of a cold sore using alternative or natural remedies.

Common alternative treatments include tea tree oil or lemon balm, These act on the virus, helping the body rid itself of the symptoms faster. If you want to find about these kinds of treatments and learn more about how to get rid of a cold sore see the Cold Sore Treatment Guide.

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.

The hows and whys of preventing cold sores

They always say prevention is better than a cure, but the problem with cold sores is that prevention really is the best option as there is no cure yet. Naturally it is better to avoid catching the virus that causes them, but if you do become infected it isn't the end of the world as you can take steps that help in preventing cold sores.

Looking after the immune system is vital in this, which may mean making some lifestyle changes. Take a long hard look at what you eat and drink to start with. A good balanced diet, low in fat and sugars and with plenty of fresh fruit and veg is ideal. And if you need to lose weight, do it, while taking regular exercise will help enormously in boosting your immune system and preventing cold sores from occurring so frequently or severely.

Do home remedies for cold sores work?

The range of home remedies for cold sores spans many different types of treatment and while the application of ice doesn't sound extreme, using clear nail varnish to treat cold sores doesn't distinctly bizarre. However, with lemon balm and tea tree oil being long connected to natural healing treatments, it is clear that the spectrum is wide.

Most people advise against using nail varnish as a cold sore treatment, although so many have claimed it works too. And it is true that the condition can be so uncomfortable that sufferers will resort to trying just about any of the various home remedies for cold sores mentioned.

Learning how to get rid of cold sores

While one approach to find how to get rid of cold sores is simply to try what the experts recommend, a better strategy may be to make a note of all the treatments you try and try and gauge the effectiveness of each. Obviously you can't try everything in one go, because if something works you won't know which specific treatment it was and so ideally you would try one treatment for each cold sore outbreak.

Ideally you should take a prolific notes, recording the times at which symptoms occurred and treatments started, as well as the overall time of the outbreak and any specific points you notice such as level of discomfort or any thing else at all. By collating the data carefully and analyzing it later you really can learn how to get rid of cold sores on your own.

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.

Early use of cold sore remedy minimizes healing time

Whenever you suffer the tingling sensation of a cold sore, you need to know that is the time to act. The choice for choosing a cold sore remedy is wide, with both conventional treatments such as Abreva, and alternative remedies. Abreva protects the cold sore while fighting the virus, minimizing healing time.

However, conventional medicines are not the only option. Simple natural remedies such as the application of lemon balm work well. A member of the mint family it has been used for centuries as a healing aid. And tea tree oil has also been found to be beneficial, while a diet high in lysine can also help.

This is just a small sample of ideas to treat cold sores and goes a little way to showing that while conventional medicine can help, it is not the only cold sore remedy available to sufferers.

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.

How your body can get rid of cold sores faster

It is an unfortunate fact that once infected with herpes simplex virus we remain infected for our entire life. However there are measures we can take to help heal the sores faster, as well as reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. The immune system is responsible for suppressing infections and so it is the case with cold sores; when the immune system is no longer strong enough to counter herpes simplex virus it begins to replicate and cause a new sore. That is why we often experience attacks when we get a cold or flu, or due to stress or tiredness.

It therefore makes sense that by doing all we can to look after our immune system can help us fight the cold sore virus, and that basically means looking after our health. Changing our diet to be more balanced, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and low fat and sugar; taking moderate regular exercise such as walking for 30 minutes per day; and ensuring we get adequate sleep and avoid stressful situations all help with this. By changing our habits we can help our bodies get rid of cold sores faster and reduce the number of attacks we have. Don't you want to benefit from that?