How to get rid of cold sores

Using Lemon Balm to help heal cold sores

I hope you’re doing ok and finding this short course on cold sores useful. If you have any questions, please let me know by replying to this email and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can with an answer. If it’s a REALLY good question then maybe I’ll send the reply to everyone who is signed up for this list too.

Anyway, today I wanted to tell you about using lemon balm to treat cold sore outbreaks. According to German studies, lemon balm extract has the ability to diminish the symptoms of a cold sore as well as speed up recovery.

Lemon Balm’s Latin name is Melissa officinalis and is a perennial herb belonging to the mint family. It is found naturally in southern Europe and the Mediterranean and it gets its name from the scent of the leaves, which are slightly lemony scent, although it can also be grown easily in the United States too and it is used as a flavoring in ice cream.

As well as being an mosquito repellent when rubbed on the skin, lemon balm has been traditionally used as a herbal tea or an extract. It seems to possess antiviral and antibacterial properties, which make it ideal for treating cold sore lesions as not only does it fight the herpes simplex virus, it also helps prevent secondary bacterial infections. It is also used as a mild sedative, and one study found it seemed to be useful in relieving stress.

Anyway, lemon balm ointment is found easily in Europe and so common as a cold sore remedy over there, but less easy to find in the United States. However, you can find lemon balm tea relatively easily in stores and if not you can find them online.

The usual way to use a lemon balm tea bag to treat cold sores us to simply add boiling water, remove the tea bag and hold it to the surface of the skin when it is cool enough to be comfortable. However, I found out recently about a variation of this, which should work well - add the boiling water, allow the tea bag to cool and then freeze it!

Later, take the frozen tea bag and hold against the cold sore, so you get both the benefit of the lemon balm AND the benefit of the ice on the virus - if you remember I discussed ice and a cold sore treatment in one of my earlier emails.

A note about cold sore cures

In my last post I mentioned Grace Melgarejo’s book called Cold Sore Freedom in 3 Days, which is available by clicking here.

In it she discusses ways to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks using the combination of treatments she used to cure her chronic outbreaks, and I really recommend that you take a look at it - just check out some of the comments from satisfied customers on her website for proof.

Anyway, I think I mentioned previously that currently there is no cure for cold sores, which is why we have to go through this misery. While medical researchers are working on it, the truth is simply that the drug companies don’t regard it as a serious enough condition to invest in massively as they regard the payback to be small.

I’m sure that a real cure for cold sores will be discovered at some point in the future, but for now we have to concentrate on the two phases; preventative treatments and symptomatic remedies.

At least we can make the condition bearable during outbreaks using some of the remedies I’ve discussed, but I’ll be bringing you more ideas in my next email.

Here’s to your success in preventing cold sores.

Best cold sore treatments

Yesterday I discussed using ice to treat cold sores and that by applying it directly to the skin in the area where you get your cold sores it acts to slow down the development of the reawakened virus to the extent that cold sores are much reduced in severity or in some cases fail to appear at all.

Before I go on to talk about some other cold sore remedies that can be highly effective I’d like to say that the best in-depth advice for getting rid of cold sores is in an book called “Cold Sore Freedom in 3 Days” by Grace Melgarejo. Grace suffered acute cold sores for years without much relief and she developed her own treatment strategy using natural remedies. You can download by clicking this link.

Okay, so here we go… I was talking about taking lysine as a supplement to prevent cold sores a couple days ago, but it can also be used to help heal cold sores when they occur. Typically sufferers find that DOUBLING the does after an outbreak has started can reduce the overall healing time, which is obviously beneficial. Lysine is found naturally in red meat and dairy products and so eating foods that contain lysine naturally is obviously a good idea, but it is also true that AVOIDING foods with high quantities of arginine is also beneficial, so lay off nuts and chocolate, especially while you have a cold sore.

Another great tip for helping to reduce the swelling, relieve pain and fight the virus back into its dormant state is the use of tannin, or tannic acid, applied directly to the cold sore.

So what what’s tannin?

Tannin is a weak acid found in grape skins (and therefore red wine) that has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and germicidal properties and is also the compound in tea that stains your cups.

Using tannin to treat cold sores in the blister or lesion stage is simple, all you have to do is add boiling water to the tea bag as if you were making a cup of tea, and allow it to cool so you can hold it comfortably against the skin. The tannin will help reduce inflammation, act on the virus and its germicidal properties will help prevent a secondary bacterial infection from occurring and complicating the healing process.

Anyway, that’s two more really good cold sore remedies for you to try, I’ll be back tomorrow with more advice on getting rid of cold sores.

How to get rid of cold sores

Maybe you’ve followed all my advice in the previous post where I was discussing how to prevent cold sores from occurring in the first place, but still you suffer a cold sore outbreak. All that effort gone into prevention and you still got one!

Don’t worry, it will happen sometimes, but the main point is that you suffer fewer cold sore outbreaks.

When you do have an outbreak occur you should act as soon as you feel the tingling sensation in order to help heal the cold sore as fast as possible and minimize its impact on your life.

One of the ways to do this is by using an over the counter medicine such as Abreva or a prescription remedy, but I’m going to concentrate on natural remedies to help clear up your cold sores fast.

I know of at least one clinical study undertaken in recent years that found that natural remedies were as effective as cold sore medicines in healing the blisters and sores, which isn’t altogether surprising when you consider that the active ingredient of Abreva is a high concentration of something found naturally in many foods - it’s not magic.

The first thing I’m going to suggest has been found to be useful by many, many cold sore sufferers and while it is well known it bears repeating because it can make such an impact to cold sore outbreaks AND it is found in all houses.

What I’m talking about is the application of ICE to the area of the cold sore, which seems to slow down the development of the cold sore if applied while the virus is trying waking. It can’t replicate as it would normally due to the chilling action of the ice and the cold sore that occurs is much less severe and shorter lasting than it would be otherwise. Some people claim that the application of ice to a cold sore before it develops can actually prevent a cold sore from appearing altogether!

Simply take an ice cube and wrap it in a handkerchief or something similar and hold it directly against the skin where your cold sores appear - do it once for 15 minutes or half an hour.

Many people are put off trying this treatment because of its apparent simplicity, but because it is so simple it doesn’t do any harm at all to give it a try. If you can’t sit still for 15-30 minutes try listening to music or watching TV to take your mind off it, but the ice is in your freezer already so why not try it?

Well, I seem to have gone on a bit longer than I thought about using ice to treat cold sores, so I’ll break off now and bring you another natural cold sore remedy tomorrow.

Preventing cold sores

In my previous posts I was talking about what cold sores are and a little bit about herpes simplex, but maybe what I haven’t made clear yet is that once infected with the virus it will remain with you for life - there is no cure. Because of that you need to shift your attention from healing cold sores to preventing cold sores from occurring in the first place.

Put simply, cold sores occur when your body’s immune system can no longer suppress the herpes simplex virus enough to keep it in its dormant state. The immune system becomes weakened when you suffer from a viral infection such as cold or flu, which is why cold sores are commonly triggered by these illnesses, but there can be other factors which stress the immune system and mean it is unable to function at its best.

What I’m talking about are some common problems of the modern age, namely stress, poor diet and lack of exercise. Although you’ve almost certainly heard it before, now is the time to make lifestyle changes that will not only help you lose weight and make you feel better, but will also help your body fight herpes simplex virus with the result that you suffer fewer cold sore outbreaks…

Making lifestyle changes is never easy as they are usually the result habits of a lifetime, and maybe the way in which you were brought up. It is really difficult to suddenly change life that and by doing so you are also adding to your stress levels, so don’t try and change everything at once and if you sometimes fall back into old habits, don’t worry about it too much - as long as you don’t fall back each and every day!

The advice on diet is simple; eat a healthy, balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, avoid processed foods which have too much salt, sugar and preservatives and don’t eat too much read meat. While it’s simple to say it can be difficult to actually do, so try gradually to introduce the fruit and veg and eat junk food once a week as a treat to yourself to eating well the rest of the time. It can also be beneficial to take lysine supplements, an amino acid linked to preventing cold sores found in many foods that you’ll find in any good health store.

When it comes to exercise, don’t overdo it, especially if you’ve been a couch potato for a while. Try walking briskly for 30 minutes every day, with the aim of doubling your heart rate. This has huge benefits for your health and not only will you be helping your immune system but your heart will thank you too.

Finally you need to identify where you can reduce stress in your life and ensure you have adequate sleep. While stress but its very nature can be outside our control, work out what you can change to benefit you. While regular exercise will help you relax and deal with stress better, you may also like to tackle it by taking up meditation or yoga (great for mind and body by the way), but having a good network of friends where you can discuss things openly and honestly also helps massively.

Okay, that’s all for now, spend some time thinking about what I’ve said and see what you can do in your own life. As I said before, you can’t change everything at once - a bit at a time will be far more effective in changing any bad habits you have.

Herpes Simplex Explained

Yesterday I talked a bit about cold sores and what they are and mentioned that they’re caused by the herpes simplex virus. In fact they are usually caused by herpes simplex virus I (HSV-1), a close relation to HSV-2 which usually causes genital herpes.

I’ll explain a bit more about that later, but first of all a bit about the virus; once we’ve contracted HSV we are infected for life and as I said yesterday, a low estimate of the infected adult population puts it at 70 percent. Some experts even believe that 9 out of every 10 people are infected with HSV! That means that almost every person you know or meet is almost certain to be infected.

The thing about HSV though is that it doesn’t cause symptoms in everyone, although once again estimates vary quite a bit about the percentage of sufferers who go on to have regular cold sore outbreaks. I’ve seen figures vary from 25 percent to 40 percent, but even if you assume that all the lower figures are correct the number of people affected in the United States is colossal - 25 percent of 70 percent of the US population amounts to more than 50 million cold sore sufferers.

Most of the time, even people who actually develop full cold sore symptoms, the virus remains dormant in the body, where it remains in the nerve cells. HSV-1 prefers the nerve cells close to the ear, while HSV prefers the lower back, which is why HSV-1 usually causes cold sores and HSV-2 usually causes genital herpes, but the different strains of virus can be responsible for either condition.

That has an important implication, which is just because you have cold sores doesn’t mean you can’t spread it to someone else who has cold sores because they may not be caused by the same strain of the virus. Also remember that you can spread the virus to other locations of your body on both yourself and others.

So what causes HSV to come out of its dormant state and causes a new cold sore outbreak?

That depends on each of us as individuals, but common triggers are another viral infection such as cold or flu, stress or overtiredness, hormonal changes such as caused by menstruation or even exposure to sunlight.

It is important to monitor the situation before you suffer an outbreak if you do suffer attacks frequently to try and understand the conditions that were the trigger. By beginning to understand this you’ll be better equipped for what I’ll cover in my next email - how to prevent cold sore outbreaks from occurring.

What are cold sores?

Over the next few days I’ll be filling you in with info about cold sores and specifically what steps you can take to help prevent them and help them heal faster, but to start with I just want to take a high level overview before going into any detail.

As a fellow sufferer you’ll be familiar with the pain and emotional trauma caused by a new cold sore outbreak. In short, cold sores are a painful condition caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV), which causes skin cell destruction that results in those lovely fluid filled blisters around the mouth, followed by a painful open lesions that take 7-10 days to heal.

The condition is traumatic not only due to the pain, but also largely due to the anguish caused by the appearance of the cold sores; if you are one of the many sufferers who try and avoid all social contact while suffering an outbreak you’ll know what I’m talking about.

While you may feel like an outcast during outbreaks, the incredible fact is that most of the population is infected with HSV, it just doesn’t cause symptoms in everyone. Most of us pick it up in childhood and even low estimates by health experts estimate that 70 percent of the adult population is infected!

During an outbreak you need to be particularly careful about hygiene so as to avoid spreading it either to other people, or to other parts of your body. You should avoid touching the sore and whenever you - after applying a topical cream for instance - do make sure you wash your hands thoroughly.

Also remember that while cold sores are at their most infectious when in the blister or lesion stage, but they can be infectious while you appear to have no symptoms.

Well, that’s all for now, probably nothing you didn’t know already, but I want to cover the entire ground for anyone who doesn’t know - I’ll be back tomorrow with more.