Cold Sore Home Remedy

Seven Cold Sore Home Remedy Tips

Cold Sore Home Remedy Overview

Cold sores or fever blisters are nasty uninvited guests that start with one or two painful, fluid-filled blisters on the lips or surrounding area.

These pesky blisters tend to cluster together causing a sore the size of Rhode Island. To make matters worse, everyone within twenty paces immediately notices the blemish.

It never fails. Murphy’s law states that a fever blister will always appear just before an important event, such as a presentation, a blind date, or that long awaited class reunion…

Before getting into the home remedy details, we should first understand the nature of the beast:

The herpes simplex type I (or sometimes type II) virus is responsible for a cold sore on lip, nose, chin and sometimes the eyes.
Most people contract the type I virus during childhood.
It’s incurable.
It lurks in the nearest nerve cluster (ganglion), where it lies in ambush, just waiting for your immune system to let down its guard.

Are Cold Sores Contagious?

You bet! In fact, you can even catch one from yourself if you pick at the sore.

The result? Perhaps a nasty, very painful herpes whitlow on your finger; or an outbreak down there if you happen to use the bathroom before washing your hands.

Worst case scenario?

If you touch your eyelid with an infected finger, it could result in Herpes Keratitis. And that could make you lose your eyesight.

In rare cases, it could even infect the brain.

First lesson:

Don’t touch that cold sore! And if you do, wash your hands thoroughly with an anti-bacterial soap. In fact, you should become a compulsive hand washer during a cold sore outbreak.

Avoid skin-to-skin contact with other people, and that includes kissing and shaking hands.

Cold Sore Symptoms:

Many people experience an unpleasant tingling or itching sensation at the site of an imminent outbreak. This "prodrome" can occur a couple of days or even hours before redness or that first tiny blister appears.

If you experience a prodrome don’t complain, rejoice!

Why? Because you can start your cold sore home remedy immediately and take steps to speed up the healing process… or even stop that sucker before it gets out of hand.

Home Remedy Steps:

Topical ointments such as acyclovir (Zovirax) and valacyclovir (Valtrex) are effective, but they only work after the blisters have burst open.

The problem is, they will only reduce the outbreak by a couple of days. Since cold sores usually last from 7 to 10 days – and these medications are expensive, many people think they are hardly worth the effort.

It’s your call.

So how do we speed up the process?

Initial steps:

At the very first sign of a prodrome or redness in the usual cold sore area, take 3000 mg of an L Lysine supplement (obtainable from health food store). Follow up with 1,000 mg taken three times a day.
Swallow a good multi-vitamin containing Zinc. Follow up with a vitamin B12 capsule. Repeat daily.
Hold an ice cube against the suspect area until it melts. Repeat several times during the first day.

These cold sore home remedy steps will often stop the infection in its tracks. However, if blisters form and then burst open, stop applying ice and switch to warm tea bags.

Getting Rid of Cold Sores Quickly:

Keep them clean. Wash the area with warm water 3 or 4 times a day.
Using a q-tip, swab sores with hydrogen peroxide immediately after washing.
Cover the sores with a thin layer of petroleum jelly. Do not attempt to disguise with make-up. The chemicals in lipsticks and make-up could aggravate the sores.
Change your toothbrush after the blisters pop. Discard the toothbrush after the scabs fall away.
Avoid direct sunlight and wind.
Relax. Stressful situations will exacerbate the infection.
Continue with the vitamins and suck a few zinc lozenges daily. This will boost your immune system.

Ian R Kelly draws his ideas both from research and from life’s experiences. He has traveled extensively and gained valuable insights through working his way around the world.

The subject of Natural Home Remedies fascinates him. Because of this, he gets a huge kick out of doing in-depth research, and then writing about his findings.

He is a prolific writer and webmaster, currently in the process of designing and developing his own information website:
http://www.home-remedy-site.com/

He also builds historic man-o-war tall ship models for fun and profit. You can view his latest project at:
http://modelshipbuilder.blogspot.com/

Author: Ian R Kelly

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_R_Kelly

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