Cold Sores Symptoms

There are several natural remedies including Vitamin C, Witch Hazel, and Lysine

If you get cold sores on any type of a regular basis, you are all too familiar with the fact that they seem to not only reoccur frequently, but they seem to occur at almost the exact same spot every time.

They are not only unsightly and embarrassing; they are also very painful and can make any activity that you perform with your mouth very difficult, especially eating or drinking. To make matters worse, once you have become infected, you can never again be totally free of this vicious virus.

However, you certainly can reduce the attacks and in some cases, prevent a lot of the pain.

Cold sores, also referred to as fever blisters, are small blisters that attack your lips or anywhere around your mouth where it is moist. They cause the skin that surrounds them to become both very sore as well as swollen. They also often break open and produce a clear leaking fluid that results in a scab.

Depending on how severe they are, they will last from several days to several weeks in some cases.

These sores are not like a common viral infection that can be eliminated, but are instead caused by what is known as herpes simplex virus or HSV. There are two forms of HSV; type I and type II.

If you were to examine the two different types under a microscope, they would look almost exactly the same. However, it is the type I form that causes cold sores.

Both forms of HSV attack and infect your body’s mucosal surfaces and will generally affect either the lips or the area around the mouth, or the genitals; however, type I affects just the areas around your mouth. Once they affect any of these areas, this virus than establishes latency in the nervous system.

Latency is often referred to as a delay in the nervous system and this can be best illustrated by the fact that this virus can remain silent and then reoccur at any time, which is where the connection between cold sores symptoms and nutrients begins.

This virus reacts differently in people in that some people may have absolutely no cold sore symptoms or very mild symptoms, while other will constantly be attacked several times a year.

To compound this infection, it is extremely contagious and can very easily be spread by kissing someone that is infected, or by coming in contact with their saliva, another connecting point between cold sores symptoms and nutrients.

It can also be spread simply by close contact in what otherwise appears as very normal skin. When the cold sores symptoms are in the blistering stage they are at the peak of being contagious. The risk subsides once the blisters have begun to scab up, however, it can still be spread.

Triggering Points:

Once you become infected with this virus and develop cold sores symptoms, it enters into your nerve cells and immediately travels up the nerves until it find what is referred to as a ganglion which is a biological tissue mass.

It is there that it sits and waits in a dormant stage until it is triggered to attack. No one is exactly sure what actually triggers it, but once triggered it travels back down the nerve and attacks the lips or mouth area again, usually very near or in the same place as the original attack and will also replicate the original cold sore symptoms.

However, there are some conditions that seem to be commonly associated with cold sores. Fevers and colds can set them off, as well as the flu and this is the reason they are also referred to as fever blisters.

In some people, over exposure to ultraviolet light seems to trigger them. Stress and trauma to the skin, especially the areas around the mouth, also seem to be a common denominator.

However, perhaps the largest common cause that is associated with fever blisters or cold sores symptomsis is any change in your immune system, a weakening of the immune system, lack of certain nutrients, and hormonal changes such as menstruation.

However, there is one very large misconception; cold sores cannot be spread by towels or wash cloths.

Fighting and Prevention:

Once you have become infected with this virus, it is virtually impossible to get it out of your system. But that does not mean that you have no defense against cold sores symptoms. Vitamin C and the mineral zinc are extremely effective at not only fighting cold sores symptoms, but preventing them from reoccurring as often.

Both of these are your main objectives once you have this silent beast of a virus that is waiting to attack you.

However, Lysine, which is an essential amino acid, may provide the best results for your cold sore symptoms.

Vitamin C, when combined with bioflavonoids is extremely effective at fighting fever blisters, and while both of these nutrients are well known for battling colds and the flu, but they are also very potent in building your immune system.

Combined, they are even more effective as they inhibit the progression of this virus.

If you suffer from reoccurring cold sore symptoms, you can sense when they are starting to occur as you can feel them developing in or around your lips and mouth. They may not be visible just yet, but you know they are coming.

Taking Vitamin C and a bioflavonoid supplement daily are recommended once you have become infected, but when you feel them coming, you need to step up the dosage.

1000 mg. of Vitamin C as well as bioflavonoids is highly recommended for the first few days when you feel the tingling, and then you can cut back to 500 milligrams three times a day for another 3 to 4 days after the initial tingling on both supplements.

These two nutrients should inhibit the severity and the duration your cold sore symptoms, but you may still get mild forms of them. If you do, the mineral zinc in an ointment form can drastically speed up the drying process and as a result they will heal much quicker. Zinc can in most cases speed up the healing process by as much as 40 percent.

Witch hazel also provides a lot of relief from the developing pain as well as placing lemon balm extract on the area that is affected as it is extremely high in flavonoids.

Lysine, an essential amino acid, can be found abundantly in milk, potatoes, fish, beans and chicken, but it is also recommended as a supplement form along with Vitamin C as soon as the tingling starts.

This amino acid also suppresses the herpes simplex virus and the best defense is 500 milligrams daily once you fell the tingling until it has completely dissipated.

Once you have become infected with this wicked virus and develop cold sore symptoms, you can never get it out of your system and they will attack you in some form your entire life.

But you can certainly significantly reduce the pain and the duration, and in some cases, even stop it before it begins with Vitamin C, Lysine, and Zinc.

Summary:

But there is one other factor. The inverse of Lysine is called arginine, which is also an amino acid that is found in some foods. It is also believed to both trigger the attack and increase the severity.

If you suffer from cold sores symptoms, be very timid about beer, peanuts, raisins, and peas as they are all rich in this amino acid.

Natural Treatments for Cold Sores Symptoms

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