Cold Sores - Important Facts About Your Cold Sore
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 ARE COLD SORES?
Cold sores really interfere with our lives. Painful and unsightly, cold sores greatly affect your personal and social life.
These herpes infections have several names - cold sores, fever blisters, or oral herpes - but they are all the same. They occur and reoccur where the virus first entered the body. The lip is the most common infection point.
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 COLD SORES?
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.
The herpes virus is not able to create new virus by itself. It needs your nerve cells to do the work. When a herpes virus particle enters a cell, it forces the cell to create new virus - as a true parasite.
Swelling of the area occurs as the cells fill up with the virus particles they are creating. When the cell is full to capacity, the controlling virus destroys it dumping out millions of new viruses.
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.
IS THE COLD SORE VIRUS CONTAGIOUS?
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.
It is possible to get cold sores anywhere on your body where the virus can get through to the soft tissue. Finger sores, arm sores and cheek sores do occur - mostly by carelessness with contaminated fingers and a crack in the skin.
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.
IS THERE A GOOD WAY TO GET RID OF 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.
Your body knows how to heal cold sores and oral herpes without a bit of help from you. But it can take three to four weeks. A good, natural cold sore treatment plan can cut the duration time by 70%.
Your best bet for effective cold sore treatment is still by using natural remedies. They usually work better than prescription and over-the-counter options.
Lysine, garlic oil and zinc are three of the top choices in cold sore treatment today. Lysine and zinc are best taken as supplements, but all three can benefit you if put directly on the cold sore too.
Constant cleansing of the cold sore area using alcohol or hydrogen peroxide is critical care too.
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.
You need to try different cold sore treatment methods to discover the best one for you. Then you too can be cold sore free for the rest of your life.
