Looking for a few helpful ways to treat cold sores? Try some of these tips! Cold sores pop up when you least expect them and may put a damper on your day. Here are a few tips for treating cold sores to ease discomfort and speed up your recovery!
1. Reduce stress
Sometimes cold sores are activated by stress and anxiety. And one of the best ways to prevent cold sores from appearing is to stay relatively stress-free. Cold sores can pop up because of lack of sleep, or when you are stressed and tired. No matter how stressful and busy your life is, make sure you get a full night’s sleep and relax in order to be healthy.
2. Avoid foods high in arginine
Avoid foods high in arginine, since cold sores need arginine to successfully replicate. The amino acid lysine can prevent cold-sore outbreaks, so try to eat foods high in lysine to help speed up healing time and to prevent cold sores from appearing.
3. Avoid spreading the virus to others
If you are experiencing cold sores, you should keep your personal items like eating utensils, straws, makeup, lip balm, drinks and food to yourself. Wash your hands frequently and don’t touch the blister! This will help you to avoid spreading the virus to other people.
4. Protect your lips from the sun
Sometimes cold sores can be caused by sun exposure, so use a lipstick or lip balm with SPF 15 or higher. Make sure you reapply it while you are out in the sun. Protecting your lips from the sun is one of the easiest ways to prevent cold sores.
5. Use lemon balm cream
When you get cold sores, try to apply a lemon balm cream to the affected areas to speed up healing process. I also drink a lemon balm tea that has anti-viral properties, or apply lemon balm tea to cold sores three or four times a day.
6. Apply a whole milk
Applying a whole milk to the affected areas is another simple way to treat a cold sore. If you have a cold sore or feel one coming on, just soak a cotton ball in a whole milk and apply it to the affected area and you can start the healing process before a cold sore even appears!
7. Strengthen your immune system
The herpes virus likes an acidic environment and when you are stressed out, have a cold or flu your body may become acidic. So take supplements and a multi-vitamin that will help to improve your immune system, like reishi, echinacea and astragalus to maintain a strong immune system.
8. Change your toothbrush
Finally, if you get cold sores, be sure to change your toothbrush after the cold sores form and after they have cleared up. The thing is that your toothbrush can harbor the herpes virus for more than 7 days and if you don’t change your toothbrush, you might get even more cold sores. It may be a hassle, of course, but it worth it, right?
There are a lot of ways to treat and prevent the cold sores! Hope, these tips will help you! If you get cold sores frequently, talk to your doctor, because sometimes medication may be the best way to go. Do you have any of your own tips for cold sores? Share your tips with us, please.