Saturday, March 21, 2009

How To Prevent and Treat Cold Sores The Natural Way!

How To Prevent and Treat Cold Sores The Natural Way!

By Tom Mulligan

It probably won't make you feel any better if you have one yourself, but cold sores are a very common problem. They're unsightly and most definitely uncomfortable. However, you can reduce the length of time a cold sore stays there with some simple steps and you can also prevent them from showing up at all.

On its own, it usually takes eight to ten days for a cold sore to heal without any intervention from you. That's longer than most people want to wait, especially because cold sores have bad timing - it seems you always get one right before a major event! To reduce the healing time, there are a few tips and tricks you can use. However, one of the biggest helps is understanding how a cold sore works.

You can't cure cold sores per se, since they are a viral (herpes simplex) infection. The infection can't be treated with antibiotics; but you can treat the symptoms and make your cold sores go away faster, even prevent them.

While you can't cure the viral infection, you can help to prevent outbreaks by taking some simple steps. You can also heal outbreaks in as little as 24 hours in many cases. This is why we started this website in the first place ? we know how inconvenient cold sores can be and want to help everyone fight off these annoyances.

About 40 million people have an outbreak of cold sores every year. These sores appear on or around the mouth; while there are several things which can contribute to an outbreak, it basically comes down to a weakened immune system. If you have stress, fatigue, poor diet or a cold; this can increase your odds of having a breakout.

An outbreak is often preceded by a tingling sensation or itching. This is followed by swelling and redness and then the sore itself emerges. There will be a brief period of oozing after which the sore will scab over. Try not to scratch the scab as this will slow down the healing process.

Most of us would rather not use costly prescription medications to treat our cold sores. Besides, these medications don't work any better than home remedies in a lot of cases and you'll have to go to your doctor to get them. You can use home remedies to get rid of your cold sores quickly.

Vitamin C can boost your immune system, and topical creams like aloe vera, lip balm, and salve can reduce the chance that your cold sore will dry out and split painfully. If it does, try an analgesic. To make your cold sore go away faster, consider taking L-Lysine. This substance promotes the healing of tissue and occurs naturally in the body.

You can also prevent cold sores by eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of sleep and generally staying in good health. Cold sores will tend to come up when you're tired, sick or stressed out. If you treat yourself well, you can prevent many cold sores.

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