Everything About Cold Sores and How to Treat Them Effectively

Compilation of Top Post From www.YourColdSoreRemedies.com

Contents
The Stages of a Cold Sore.............................................................................................................................. 2 How To Prevent Cold Sores........................................................................................................................... 4 Best Cold Sore Treatment: 14 Cold Sore Cures............................................................................................. 7 Stupid Cold Sore Remedies You Really Should Not Try ................................................................................ 9

The Stages of a Cold Sore

Knowing the Stages of a Cold Sore Helps You Overcome Them What are the stages of a cold sore? Knowing this is incredibly helpful for you if youre a victim of herpes cold sores. Once you understand that the earlier you attack the virus during its next outbreak and you take action, you are on the road to quick healing.

Stages of a Cold Sore Herpes cold sores are called just that because its the herpes cold sore virus that is the culprit of this health issue. Like other microbes that cause disease, there are certain stages associated with the life cycle of the herpes virus. In a nutshell, there are different stages of a cold sore, depending on what you are focusing on. For example, if youre a scientist, youll say that the stages of a cold sore are: Virus enters skin Virus sets up residence in the body Virus is reactivated and causes symptoms But if youre a herpes cold sore victim, youre more interested in the stages of a cold sore from a perspective of what it looks like and what to do about it. In this case, the stages of a cold sore are: Prodrome: tingling, burning and itching around the area of your lips Swelling and reddening

 Blisters break out Blisters weep Scab forms Area on skin heals Lets Explain These Stages of A Cold Sore In Detail At the very instant that the virus enters your skin on your lip, it heads for your sensory nerves. Every microbe will head for a different location of the body. Some prefer your stomach, others like the nervous system, and still others like to cause trouble right at the place where they enter the body. Yet others will find the weakest part of your body and do damage there. The herpes cold sores virus heads for your nervous system and attacks the sensory nerves. These are the nerves that give you feeling on your head, face and neck. Theres a collection of nerve cell bodies in your head called the trigeminal ganglia where the herpes virus ends up, and its here that it sets up a permanent home in your body.

Reactivation of the Virus is Like Waking It Up When you are under a lot of stress or are out in the sunshine too long, then the virus is woken up and travels back to the original site of infection, on your lip. This is when youll start feeling the tingling and burning sensations. The herpes cold sores virus is activating the nerve that goes to your lip, and thats why you feel the tingling and burning. Signs of Herpes When you look at the signs of herpes, you wont find any signs that the virus has entered your lip. But when the virus is reactivated in your lip via the nerves, the signs of herpes start. Your first signs of herpes are the tingling and burning. The next signs of herpes occur about 6 to 12 hours later. Youll start to see a swelling and redness on your lip. This then progresses to the formation of small painful blisters. These blisters, known as herpes cold sores will break open and begin weeping a fluid for a few days. Out of all the stages of a cold sore, this is the stage that you can easily transmit the virus to someone else. So please, no sharing cups or glasses with anyone else, and no kissing anyone, including babies and small children even on the cheek! You dont want to be known as the person who spread herpes cold sores to everyone in the neighborhood!

The next stages of a cold sore are the healing stages. After the herpes cold sores have wept, they get to the point where they cant cry anymore and the healing begins. It takes a few days for this to occur. Then scabs form and all thats left to heal is the total healing of the skin so that a scar doesnt form. Now that you know the stages of a cold sore and the signs of herpes, its time to find your cold sore remedies that will make a big difference in your life and bring you relief.

How To Prevent Cold Sores

To learn how to prevent cold sores, you have to understand a little about the microbe that causes it. You also should know what to do to strengthen the immune system from further attacks by this microbe. This is very easily learned, and the result is that you can go years without having another cold sore again.

The Bad Things About Cold Sores And why not learn it? Cold sores are a scourage of a happy social life and whats worse is that they are communicable to others. One of the worst things you can hear from a friend is that you caused them to have cold sores! Unfortunately, it happens all the time. Some experts estimate that about 80% of the population carries the microorganism that causes cold sores. This means that if youre a mother, kissing your baby when you have a cold sore is an easy way to give your baby a cold sore, especially if the baby has an unseen cut or tear in the skin on his lip. And if you have cold sores on your lip, you can forget about your lover kissing you for at least a few days after he or she sees that the cold sore is gone. Whats interesting and what some people dont seem to understand is that cold sores on the lip can actually become genital herpes if you perform oral sex on your partner when you have a cold sore on your lip. This is not good! These lesions interfere with intimacy no matter which way you look at it!

6 Ways to Stop the Transmission of Cold Sores Thus, your first ways to prevent cold sores include: 1. No kissing others when you have them, and up to a week afterwards just for good measure. 2. No oral sex when you feel the first tingling on your lip or when you have an active lesion.

A few more ways to prevent the ugly sores are listed below: 3. Dont share your toothbrush with anyone when you have a cold sore, as the microbe can live in the mouth. 4. Throw out your toothbrush and replace it with a new one in the first day of a cold sore, and to be even more cautious, replace it again after the sore is gone. Studies show that viruses can live and breed on toothbrushes. 5. Replace any kitchen sponges or launder bathtub washcloths after the sore appears and after the sore is gone. 6. Dont wear lipstick when you have a cold sore outbreak. Dont chance re-infecting yourself.

Preventing any disease that is caused by a microbe always starts with good hygiene and sanitary protocols.

What is a Cold Sore? Cold sores are a visible sore on the mouth and/or lips that are caused by a virus called Herpes simplex. Cold sores are a sign of an infection that is raging in the body. This Herpes virus is one of many different Herpes viruses that can plague mankind. No Medical Cure for Cold Sores Modern medicine has cures for bacterial infections and several different fungal infections, but the bad news is that they have no effective cures for viral infections. Even though you may be given an antibiotic when you have a cold sore, the antibiotic will do nothing for that cold sore. Even some medical anti-viral agents dont seem to be too effective, and the worst thing is that if you get some sort of immediate relief, its short-lasting because it will do nothing to prevent cold sores in the future. The Big Solution for Cold Sores The key is to attack the virus BEFORE it gets established in the body at all, and do this by boosting your immune system. Any microbes, including viruses, can get established in the tissues when the following conditions occur: when you are not eating enough protein when you are deficient in the nutrients that are responsible for the maintenance of your immune system when you are under stress and have either of the above conditions

Cold sores wont suddenly appear just because you are under stress. But it will appear when you are under stress, are not eating enough protein to keep your body healthy, are deficient in immunity boosting nutrients and have had an outbreak in the past.

8 Nutrients That Your Immune System Craves to Beat Cold Sores The big secret is to eliminate those deficiencies. Here is a little list of the nutrients that are important for your immune system:

vitamin C, especially effective against viruses vitamin A, great for strengthening your body against bacteria and fungi vitamin D3, more important for immunity than we ever realized before zinc, essential for good immune system functions molybdenum, an important detoxifier of all sorts of chemicals and toxins that damage the immune system selenium, another important detoxifier of the body and one that prevents cancer. It is thought by some experts that cancer may occur from viruses. vitamin E, essential for strengthening the cell wall, which guards against the virus from entering the cell in the first place omega 3 fats, which work just like vitamin E does These are the primary nutrients that you MUST have in order to prevent the virus from taking hold in the body.

The Best Way to Prevent Cold Sores Now do you want to know the quickest way to prevent cold sores and address these nutrients? Its to take a vitamin and mineral supplement that has all of these nutrients in it. Read the labels! You want at least 100% of the required amount of these nutrients in that supplement. And you must take it religiously. By doing this, your body activates its own army to go after the Herpes virus and give it a gravestone.

Between supporting your immune system so the virus cant attack and preventing the transmission by good hygiene standards, you can prevent cold sores.

Best Cold Sore Treatment: 14 Cold Sore Cures

The best cold sore treatment is the one that works for you. If youre looking for cold sore relief, then heres a list of cold sore cures that have been used by many people over the years. Many people swear by the good results they get when they use these remedies. When Do You Say The Cold Sore Treatment is Successful? Success in cold sore treatments means that you experience cold sore relief. When the number of days that you have the cold sore(s) is cut down in half, you have made progress. Your ultimate goal for finding your cold sore cures is that once you feel the prodrome stage happening this is the tingling and burning sensations in the lip before the cold sore appears you use a remedy and it prevents the cold sore from appearing at all. This would be the epitome of the best cold sore treatment.

Cold Sore Cures that Have Created Cold Sore Relief For Many With that in mind, look at how these cold sore cures are creating cold sore relief and how they are used to get results. 1. Honey A little dab of honey right on the cold sore is whats required, and its repeated several times each day. Why do you do it? Honey has known antiviral properties and herpes is a virus that causes cold sores. Youll need raw honey to make this cold sore treatment work. 2. Hydrogen peroxide With a q-tip soaked in hydrogen peroxide from the drug store, apply it to the cold sore that has already emerged. Throw out the q-tip after use. Repeat with fresh q-tips during the day. 3. Garlic Fresh garlic has antiviral properties, just like honey does. The way to use it is to eat it raw along with other foods. Your body will take care of it from there. Eat as much garlic as you can in the first 3 days of your cold sore. 4. Tea tree oil A little dab of tea tree oil on the cold sore releases its antiviral properties and has been found in the research to kill 98% of the viruses on contact. Put the dab onto a qtip and then dab away. Discard q-tip and use fresh ones a few more times a day.

5. L-lysine Get a bottle of 500 mg L-lysine and take one capsule every 2 hours. Keep it up for at least 4 days. The lysine inhibits the virus. 6. Toothpaste Out of all the cold sore cures, this one seems the craziest of all. Take a dab of toothpaste which contains hundreds of chemicals itself and dab it onto the cold sore. Repeat a few times during the day. Whatever you do, dont put the tube of toothpaste right up to the cold sore youll get the virus growing on the rest of the toothpaste. 7. Acyclovir This is the medical version of the cold sore cures. Now it can be obtained by your medical doctor in single doses. The doctors say this is best because one dose in the beginning can essentially wipe out all the virus. 8. Ice cubes Get an ice cube out of the freezer or the ice cube maker and place it in a plastic bag. Apply directly to the cold sore. Freeze the sucker! 9. Peppermint tea Have a nice cup of pleasant peppermint tea three or four times a day. Peppermint has known antiviral properties. 10. Lemon balm tea Have a nice cup of pleasant and soothing lemon balm tea three or four times a day. Lemon balm, like peppermint tea, has antiviral properties and thats why many people consider it in their list of cold sore cures. 11. Cats claw herb This is an herb from the Amazon rainforest known to boost the immune system. It has specific antiviral activities against the cold sore virus. Take 500 mg capsules every 2 hours. Dont worry about getting up at night to take them; during the day is enough. 12. Peppermint essential oil You already know that the peppermint tea was effective. You can also use the essential oil of peppermint as one of your cold sore cures. Just add a few drops onto a q-tip and then dab onto the cold sore. Repeat with fresh q-tip during the day. 13. Camphor cream You can find camphor creams at the drug store on the shelves. Camphor has anti-viral properties. Apply a little dab onto a q-tip first, then apply to the cold sore. Repeat during the day. 14. Tea bag

Drink a cup of Earl Grey or regular black tea. Save the tea bag and apply to the cold sore for about 5 minutes. Drink a few more cups during the day and apply the tea bags again. Isnt it time for you to have cold sore relief? Arent you tired of messing around with cold sores? Make a list of the cold sore cures you can try today and proceed ahead to finding the best cold sore treatment, the one that works for you.

Stupid Cold Sore Remedies You Really Should Not Try

If youre one of the millions of people who suffer from cold sores, you know that once that tingly sensation in your lip shows up, its time to do something. But what cold sore treatment will you decide on? And how will you decide?

Your decision process will determine whether or not your cold sores last for two or even three weeks, or 2 or 3 days. And if you chose a smart cold sore treatment, your social life just might be back on track before the weekend. The best way to be smart about your cold sore treatment is to evaluate really stupid cold sore remedies and why they truly are so stupid! And after combing the internet, it really wasnt difficult to find cold sore remedies that fell into the category of not so smart moves of what to do about that little group of sores on the lip. Are you ready? Here we go: Stupid Cold Sore Remedies 1. Bleach. At least the instructions for this were somewhat smart. They could have said Apply it with a sponge on your whole mouth area. Instead, the instructions were to apply the bleach to the cold sores with a Q-tip. Dah! Now havent these people heard of the Environmental Working Group yet? This is a nonprofit organization on the internet that is similar to a Ralph Nader for consumer products, beauty products, and chemicals put into baby bottles like bis-phenol. Bleach containing products would never get a thumbs up from the EWG! Bleach has been linked with heart disease and other major health problems that arent too pleasant. For example, some types of cancer may be a result of exposure from bleaches. So why would you want to use bleach as a cold sore treatment when the average cold sores sufferer has reoccurrences of the herpes virus sometimes as often as once a month? Think about it.

2. Freeze It. Salt It. And Brush Its Teeth. How people create cold sore remedies is just plain crazy. Listen to the instructions on this one. Take an ice cube. Wrap it in saran wrap. Hold it on the cold sores for 20 minutes. Then mix salt and toothpaste together and apply the mixture to the cold sore. Leave on for 1 hour. Repeat as often as possible. Well, first of all lets evaluate the ice cube part of this cold sore remedy. The proper way to ice a body part is to use towel layers in between the ice and the body part so that the damage done to the skin isnt permanent. There is something called frostbite which can occur when cold or ice directly impacts living tissue. Twenty minutes of ice cube directly on the skin may freeze the little cold sore cluster, but it can also damage the skin cells. Next, after you insulted the skin cells near and on the cold sores, now come in with a basic substance salt, which is corrosive. Add it to toothpaste? A few years ago, I was on a survival excursion, which is where a bona fide survival expert takes a group out into the mountain and teaches them how to survive. He stressed the importance of brushing ones teeth out in the wild, with some specific plants. You shouldnt be using toxic toothpaste anyway! Who here is still using commercial toothpastes? Stop it today! he warned. And the Environmental Working Group (EWG) couldnt agree with him more. There are dozens of toxic chemicals in toothpaste. And now someone is going to mix these toxic chemicals with salt and apply it to already distressed skin from an ice cube! Another stupid one of the cold sore remedies! Please do seek another smarter, safer cold sore treatment! Please remember that every time you insult your body with chemicals, your body records it. Sooner or later, the damage will catch up to you and present itself in a disease you really dont want. Be loving and caring to your body! There are safe cold sore remedies out there! Safe Cold Sore Remedies When you evaluate cold sore remedies for their safety, there are a few things to remember: 1. Cold sores are caused by a virus. Thus, you need a solution that attacks the virus itself. 2. Cold sores are activated by stress and decreased immune system functions in the body. 3. Viruses act by penetrating the cell walls of your bodys normal cells. Once they get in, they begin reproducing like crazy. Lets consider these facts. If cold sores are caused by a virus, you need a substance that is antiviral. In nature, there are plants with very strong anti-viral activity. Peppermint and lemon balm

are two of them. Cats claw is another. These plants are safe to consume. Regularly incorporating a few cups of tea each week can go a long way in preventing cold sores. You can take herb capsules if you dont want to drink the tea. The normal dosage for prevention is 2 capsules a day, and 2 capsules up to three times a day. With the peppermint, youll find other surprising benefits. For example, your digestive system will feel more relaxed and you will feel relaxed with peppermint. Youll have less gas, too. With lemon balm, youll feel very relaxed and possibly sleep better at night. With cats claw, you will have increased immunity against infections, and if you have an ulcer, it may heal. Within 2 hours of taking cats claw, there is an increase in not only the activity of the white blood cells in your body, but also the activity of those white blood cells. They become like a recruited army to eliminate any microbes, including herpes that causes cold sores. All three of these herbs can go directly after the herpes virus in your body. Cats claw, also called Uncaria tomentosa, has specific research studies on it that show it is effective for herpes. It also works with warts. Now what we find here is that these plants are effective against the herpes virus, and this is something that drugs have never been able to accomplish. How often have you heard the doctor say, If its a virus, it has to run its course. What the doctor is saying is that the medical profession doesnt have a solution for what to do about viruses like cold sores. They dont have a solution for the common cold, for the Asian flu, for the regular flu, or dozens of other viruses. But you do have a cold sore treatment that can be taken from the plant kingdom with these herbs. Lets say you get a cold sore outbreak tomorrow. Go to your bottle of cats claw capsules and start taking 2 capsules every 2-3 hours. You could even make a cup of peppermint tea or lemon balm tea to calm you down a little once you see the cold sore. Using this as your cold sore treatment, you can time how long it takes for it to go away. Step away from stupid cold sore remedies and start experimenting with a cold sore treatment that works.