Your Health Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Cold Sores’

When someone suffers from a cold sore, the first thought that could arise is whether you can catch the same infection from that person.The cold sores can spread easily from one to the other in more than one way. You can infect others easily through your cold sore. It is spread through a virus, which is easily spreadable. A person does not have an active cold sore but posses the virus herpes simplex virus.

As it is commonly, said HSV-1 virus that causes cold sore generally affects at the age five. It will show its ill effects in form of cold sore after puberty. This virus can lie in an inactive form for a longer time and transfers in to a disease named cold sore.

Cold sore is a highly contagious disease. You have to avoid kissing, coughing, sneezing and through a common touch of the infected person. Other people get easily affected. These viruses are easily transferable. A child can get cold sore through touch of infected parent in a daily routine. It is sensitive disease and spread by common touch.

One of the most common ways that HSV-1 spread is through a used thing of an infected person, could be a toothbrush or tube of lip balm. There is a strong risk of infection to the next person if particles of the HSV-1 virus transferred to an object and someone else uses it. Thus the contamination of disease occurs.

People are most possible to become infected with this virus by coming into contact to someone with a cold sore. Here chances of getting the infection are very high.Cold sore developes in many stages or steps before it goes away. The tingle stage is the first where the virus gets out of sleep. At this point, the cold sore has not yet formed, but the virus get reactivated.

The next stage is weeping stage. In the weeping stage of cold sore, the risk of spreading the virus increases and becomes high risky. At this stage, the sore burst opens and expels a clear liquid. The risk of infection is greater than normal in the crusting stage when the sore scabbed over. These are the stages and possibilities of being infected by cold sore. In every stage, they are contagious.

You have to make sure that the other person will not be in danger because of you. Avoid close contact by any way to the other person if you have cold core. You will never think that are core cores contagious. Take care of your hygiene.

It cannot be stressed enough that HVS-1 virus not only easily spread able among people but also flexible to transfer within different parts of body. The infected person may harm himself by affecting various parts of body.People must be sure to wash their hands systematically when they have a cold sore to avoid the spread of HSV-1.

Just avoid contact to the infected person and save yourself from cold sore infection.

There are several things that can help in the prevention of cold sores. These include the substances derived from or occurring in plants and animals. One of them is the amino acid lysine.

What Is Lysine?

Lysine is an amino acid which is present in the normal human body. Our body derives it from the diet that we consume. It cannot be synthesized in the body and therefore it has to be taken only externally.

Intake of supplements of lysine can be very useful during the cold sores. If the patients take high dosage of lysine, it aids in restricting the cold sores. However it is useful only when it is taken in the form of high doses.

It actually retards the growth of the herpes virus through replication and therefore the cold sores slow down. Due to this property it reduces the frequency of the occurrence and outbreak of cold sores.

Other Vitamins To Consider

In addition to the above mentioned properties if it is taken along with supplements such as zinc, vitamin c with bioflavonoids, etc, then its effectiveness increases and it works faster.

The herpes virus that is responsible for the producing the cold sores requires an amino acid Arginine, from the human body, for its growth. However when the patient takes lysine supplements, the lysine suppresses the metabolism of Arginine. Without Arginine the herpes virus becomes inactive and it cannot replicate.

Foods Containing Lysine

You can consume the foods that contain lysine naturally or you can also take the supplements providing lysine. As the lysine is an important amino acid and is required for the protein synthesis in the human body, people should ideally, consume foods that are rich in the lysine contents. These foods are the vegetables, fish, chicken, cheese, milk, brewers yeast, beans etc. You can also use these, during the time of infection. However during the infection remember to avoid food items that contain Arginine. For example you should avoid nuts chocolate, whole wheat, coconut, oats, caffeine etc. Only then supplementing the body with lysine can be useful.

However it is better to use the artificial dosage of the lysine during the infection. This is because the lysine is required in more amounts for it being effective. Therefore you should always consume a dosage each day, containing more than 1250 mg of lysine. Therefore, you should take two tablets of lysine per day containing 625mg lysine each.

Use Lysine Supplements For Cold Sores

It is better to use the lysine supplements instead of using the antiviral drugs for the prevention of the cold sores. This is because as this occurs frequently, the use of these drugs again and again can cause harm to the body on the other hand, the use of the lysine is safer because it is an amino acid that is useful to the body. However it should not be consumed in excess at a single time. In addition to this the other advantage is that they are cheap. Any person can use them with out any problems as allergies, etc.

Cold sores are also known as fever blisters. Those small wounds come on your lips and the mouth. Cold sores can be both painful and embarrassing as they appear at random. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) causes cold sores.

Most people think that herpes and cold sores are same. But they are quite different from each other. There are two types of herpes simplex virus, HSV-1 and HSV-2. HSV-1 usually causes cold sores. This is found in many people.

Kissing, sneezing, coughing or touching a cold sore will lead to the transmission of the HSV-1 in a person. This virus can be through a common touch also. A child can get this virus through a parental contact.

You will not suffer more than ten days with cold sores. It will go away on its own after a week or ten days. They will not reappear again for many years. Cold sore opens after few days and leaves a clear fluid before drying up. It will disappear that.

Some people need treatment for the cold sores. Otherwise, they will feel embarrassing with the cold sore. OTC and prescription medicines will speed up the process of healing. They are some painful. You cannot prevent cold sores, but you can get rid of cold sores easily. You can use that ways.

Cold Sores Are Contagious

Cold sores are highly contagious. There are ample of ways to through these cold sores out of your body.

For faster healing and protecting from further infection, you can cover cold sores with a protective petroleum based product.

Help

If you want to reduce the pain caused by the cold sores then you can take painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen.

Salty and acidic food will irritate cold sores. It will increase your pain. So please avoid them and make your pain less.

Protect your lips from getting sun-induced cold sores. Apply sun scream to your lips.

Do not give cold sores as gift to others as it is very contagious. So avoid kissing, sharing towels and washing your hands frequently. You should be careful about this.

Give a visit to a doctor if you have frequently suffering from the cold sores.

Warm drinks like tea or coffee will work well for old sores. Orange juice will make you feel better as it will reduce your pain

Apply ice to cold sores. It will make a better solution. It will help in not reaching to other people.

You can place a teabag within the patients reach. The tannic acid will make the healing process faster.

Apply a fresh aloe Vera on the cold sore. Bring a fresh aloe Vera from the plant.

Get lots of vitamin B and B-12 to get rid of cold sores. It is a natural way to heal.

Most people believe that the fastest way to get rid of cold sores is with hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer helps to kill germs and bacteria instantly. You can make use of this.

Hope these tips will help you to get rid from cold sores.