Cold Sores—Ouch!!

I seemed to be cursed with the ability to receive cold sores on a regular basis. Sometimes they come and go quickly. Sometimes they linger until I just want to curl up and die……Like this week. I have 3 at the moment. They hurt something fierce. Salt water is my friend right now, but the stinking cold sores still linger. I have all I can do to eat. It’s that painful.

I know that cold sores are caused from the herpes virus. According to my doctor, once you get it the first time, the herpes virus stay dormant in you body, forever, (waaaaaa) and comes back from time to time in the form of cold sores,(inside the mouth) canker sores, (on the outside of the mouth) or a rash on the face and parts of your body. Zion had the rash on his face and hands last year. It was very odd. I had never seen it on the outside of the body before. But it does happen. Zion also gets cold sores in his mouth, about as often as I do. So apparently Zion and I are both carriers of the nasty herpes virus and there’s not a thing we can do about it.

So this morning, I was browsing around on-line to try to find some home remedies to help ease the pain or take them away totally…Here’s what I have found:

**Avoid acidic or salty foods and foods rich in arginine, like chocolate, peanuts and other nuts, grains, peas, seeds, oatmeal and whole-wheat products. Also, limit your coffee.**

SERIOUSLY??? I eat chocolate, peanuts, nuts and coffee on a regular basis. How can I just avoid them all together?? That’s crazy!!

Moving along….

Here’s a few remedies I found:

a. Ice:
Applying ice to the affected area will check further development of cold sores. (I can handle this…I am gonna try this and see if it works)

b. Tea bags:
An effective remedy is to apply tea bags to the affected area. This facilitates the tannic acid in the tea to act against the virus and prevent its further development. Another effective method is to press a warm tea bag on the cold sore. A five-day application will make the sores disappear.

c. Coconut oil concoction:
Coconut oil mixed with Dettol and Carbolic acid can be used topically to get rid of cold sores. This concoction can be bottled and kept for years. (Um…this sounds painful…don’t know if I want to even attempt that one)

d. Witch hazel:
The astringent contained in witch hazel is effective against cold sores. (yikes!! Same comment as above!!)

e. Common salt:
If powered common salt is applied to the affected area by a moistened index finger, it’ll make cold sores disappear in two to three days. (ok…so I use a salt water rinse…but applied straight salt to an already painful sore?? I dunno…)

g. Aloe vera:
Rubbing aloe juice or aloe gel on cold sores is effective in curing cold sores. (Inside my mouth?? Seriously?? hurmmm…)

h. Herbs:
Herbs like herbal sage, tea tree oil and the herbal sedative violet have been used as treatments for cold sores. Sage leaf tea with a small ginger root piece or ginger powder is effective against this condition.

i. Lemon balm extract:
This may reduce cold sore symptoms and speed up the healing.

So there you have it folks. I’ll let you know if any of these remedies work for me. At this point in time I am willing to try almost anything. In the meantime I’m gonna up my dose of acidophilus.