The Curse of the Cold Sore

Unfortunately, cold sores, or the herpes simplex virus is something that I was born with -- no one kissed me, I didn't share anything with someone who had a cold sore, but my mother had the virus and passed it onto me through birth.

To get this out of the way, I have to mention that I am not a doctor and you should take my advice with a grain of salt. I am someone that has been struggling with cold sores my whole life and get them as frequently as every 3 months. This is my personal experience with cold sores and how I "manage it" and there is currently no cure that I know of.

I will make this easy for you and give you a list of environmental factors that come into play when I get a cold sore:

1. Rapid weather changes

2. Too much sun or getting sun burnt

3. Eating sugar

4. Menstruation/lowered immune system

6. Low consumption of lysine rich foods and high consumption of arginine rich foods

7. Stress

8. Too much caffeine

9. Hygiene

Over the years I have learned to manage the severity and frequency of how much I get cold sores by doing the following:

1. I drink a lot of water. I try to drink at least 8 cups a day.

2. I take L-lysine to prevent spreading when I get a cold sore. Please see a doctor to ask more about this, or read the directions on the bottle. If you find yourself taking this on a regular basis, please please please stop and go see a doctor! You never know if something is doing more harm than good.

3. I manage my stress! I know you have heard it, but it helps, and from my experience, even though I don't do it enough, exercise, yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation are great things that can manage your stress.

4. I stay away from caffeine and sugar as much as you can. If you have a sweet tooth there are so many alternative sweeteners. My favourite is stevia. Coffee is a hard one to break, but I have been cutting back my habit to one cup a day and I switch to herbal teas at night.

5. I found a list of lysine vs. arginine foods. If you are someone that is not into taking supplements I believe the best way to combat most things is through the food we eat.

6. Pain management: I ice my cold sores when they get really bad and swollen, but take it away if the ice starts melting to much to prevent spreading.

7. Hygiene: I wash my hands as much as I can especially after eating and I clean my cold sore with hydrogen peroxide with a cotton swob. Soak your toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide after each use and throw it away after your cold sore is gone. I would recommend getting a compostable toothbrush like bamboo.

Things that have NOT worked for me:

1. Putting any type of ointment on my cold sores adds too much moisture and often makes them spread. So Abreva, Polysporin, even prescription ointments have never worked for me.

2. Taking L-lysine after a cold sore has formed will not get rid of the cold sore, but have prevented others from occurring in the past.

3. Do not believe that someone has come up with a cure for cold sores unless it is an actual doctor or scientist that has proof and research. There are plenty of scammers out there that are trying to make a dollar off of our misfortune.

I hope you can take something away from the lessons I've learned, and I'm sure I will learn new things in the future. The point is that we need to take a good look at our lifestyles and environments as they may be playing huge factors in our health.