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The Most Effective Treatments and Cures for Cold Sores (Herpes labialis)

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If you've ever had a cold sore, you know the feeling of dread that the first tingling on your lip brings. You know that it means that you are about to have another outbreak, and you dread the embarrassment and pain that will be coming soon.

Cold sores are lesions that appear on the lip and around the mouth. They start with a small tingling and burning sensation that turns into a grouping of tiny hard, fluid-filled blisters that are painful, and that eventually join together and burst as an open cold sore. This later forms a crust, then heals, and during the entire experienced you are in pain, you have an ugly lesion on your lip, and you are highly contagious.

These sores are a result of the Herpes Simplex virus, which affects millions of people of all ages every year. Eighty percent of the population has been exposed, but only about twenty percent of people who carry the virus ever know it. It's hard to say why some people remain in the latent stage for their entire lives, but for those who do present with occasional outbreaks, they are a misery.

Cold sores are often brought on by exposure to the sun, by stress, by illness or fatigue. Once an outbreak starts, the goal of treatment is to make it go away as quickly as possible, and to experience as little pain as possible.

Cold Sore Treatment At Home

Cold sore outbreaks occur about sixty million times per year worldwide, but despite that there are very few effective medical treatments, and no “medical” cure in sight.

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Antiviral drugs that have been released as a proposed effective cold sores treatment have been disappointing, and over the counter medications are limited to either numbing agents like benzocaine or pain relievers like Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen, none of which do anything to shorten the duration of stop the spread of the sores.

The good news is that whether you are old or young, there are treatments for cold sores on lips and around the mouth that you can use at home, without a trip to the doctor. Many home remedies for cold sores have been found to be effective, and there are alternative treatments that studies have shown to actually reduce the duration of the outbreak.

Cold Sore Treatment Fast

Studies have shown that one of the fastest ways to treat cold sores on lips is the use of lysine. Lysine is an amino acid, which is one of protein's essential building blocks. Lysine is found in many protein-rich foods that we eat, including fish, eggs, beans, chicken and beef. Although people generally get an adequate amount of nutritional lysine from food, if you are a cold sore sufferer you should supplement your intake with some sort of cold sore medicine like lysine to help prevent an outbreak.

If you actually feel a cold sore coming, then an increased intake of lysine for cold sores has been shown to shorten the duration of an outbreak, cutting it from the average fourteen day time period down to three days in forty percent of cases, and with up to eighty seven percent showing complete clearing in about six days. Lysine also helps prevent the virus from spreading to the areas surrounding the original outbreak.

Cold Sore Treatment For Kids

Most cold sore exposure actually happens to children, and though only twenty percent of kids actually have outbreaks, when they do they are painful. To help your child avoid cold sores altogether, there are lysine treatments that can be used preventively as well as after an outbreak appears.

There are lip balms for use in the sun or wind, which help prevent chapped lips and head off an outbreak at the same time, and there are also lysine-based drinks that are safe for children. Both of these items can be used prophylactically or after an outbreak announces itself - the key is to start taking it or using it as quickly as possible.

Herpes Simplex is highly contagious when it is in cold sore form, and because children are prone to pick at the sores and are not as careful with hand washing, hygiene, and resisting the urge to share glasses and utensils, the risk of them infecting others is of great concern. It's very important to administer a treatment that will minimize the length of time that they are contagious.

Cold Sores Treatment