If you have questions about cold sores, read this short article now. You will quickly see what cold sores are and what damage they can do to you.
WHAT IS A COLD SORE?
Cold sores come at the most inconvenient times. Painful and ugly, cold sores really hurt your social life.
Cold Sores are the exact same sore as fever blisters and oral herpes. They appear and reappear at the site of initial infection. The lip area is the most frequent infection site.
Herpes simplex virus, either type 1 or type 2, produces all cold sores. It is a very damaging virus, as you will see.
When this virus first infects you, it will choose a nerve set nearest its entry point. It will reside in that nerve for life. All cold sores caused by this virus family will be in the same location every time – on the end of that nerve.
WHAT CAUSES A COLD SORE?
Most of the time this herpes virus will sleep in the root cells of its home nerve. If it becomes active, it will wiggle to the surface through the nerve and drill into your surface nerve cells.
Herpes virus cannot reproduce on its own – like bacteria does. It is the host cells that create the new virus particles. The virus will enter your surface nerve cells and force them to build virus clones.
The cold sore area will swell up as the cells fill up with the new virus particles. Once full, the cells burst open to release tons of this fresh herpes virus.
When the herpes virus annihilates many cells, you end up with an open wound called a cold sore. Painful they are because you now have exposed nerve endings.
HOW CONTAGIOUS ARE COLD SORES?
The herpes virus is so tiny, many of them can hide in a single cell. This parasite virus enters your body by soft tissue contact like the lip or inside the nose. You are extremely contagious when the virus is actively creating a cold sore.
Kissing is the usual way to pass on this virus. Contaminated fingers are also a common culprit. Please use every means to protect yourself and others. Use alcohol soaked tissues to cleanse the sore. Wash your hands afterwards.
With contaminated fingers, you can spread cold sores to any place on your body. People get these sores on fingers, necks and cheeks if the virus can get through a crack or other sore. These are usually more painful.
Watch out for your eyes. People do get cold sores in the eyes and it can cause permanent damage.
The herpes simplex virus infects nearly 90% of the world population because it is so tough and contagious. You usually contract it in your youth. About 70% of those infected will get one or more outbreaks per year.
HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY COLD SORES?
The most common trigger activating the herpes simplex virus is stress. When you have stress, your body prepares to deal with it. This causes a change in hormones and a drop in your pH toward the acid side. Herpes loves an acid body.
Without your help, your body will heal all oral herpes cold sores. It is slow, however, and often takes three to four weeks or more. Slash this time in half with a proven cold sore treatment program.
Natural home cold sore treatment methods are still your best choice. They give much greater success than the prescription drugs and store-bought remedies and will save you money.
Garlic, lysine and the healing mineral zinc are three of several great cold sore treatment plans currently in use. Use all three topically, but lysine and zinc will do their best work if taken internally with supplements.
Any cold sore care plan should always include continuous cleansing using hydrogen peroxide, alcohol or wine soaked cotton balls or tissues.
Oral herpes cold sores definitely put your social and private life on hold. Hopefully, with the information above, you are now better able to cope with those cold sore attacks.
It takes a little trial and error to find the best cold sore treatment for your own needs. But when you do, you will enjoy beautiful cold sore freedom.
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