How to Vanish a Cold Sore.

I can’t stand cold sores. They’re ugly, itchy, painful and just plain awful. Sometimes people will look at you like you have an alien growing out of your mouth, or like you’re contagious. I’ve been getting cold sores my entire life, since I was a kid. I’ve been kissing my husband with cold sores since I was 18 and he’s never gotten one. If you’re prone to getting them you’ll probably get them for the rest of your life. They just lie dormant until something triggers them, what that trigger is can be different for everyone. My triggers are stress and extreme changes in temperature. For some it’s lack of sleep, poor diet, weather changes, too much sun, not enough lip balm, and even hormonal changes. So what can you do about them?

I probably got at least 2 cold sores a year until I added coconut oil to my diet on a very regular basis. By that I mean on a daily basis. Coconut oil is my magic bullet, my secret potion that heals everything. It’s high in lauric acid, is an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and some people believe it can reverse disease and help prevent Alzheimer’s. The last cold sore I got was 2 years ago, and trust me, with a new born and living in Texas I was surely exposed to stress and crazy weather changes. It wasn’t until we moved from Texas in the middle of 80 degree temperatures, to Portland in 30 degree temperature that I finally got another cold sore. sigh. I hadn’t gotten one in so long that I wasn’t prepared for it. So of course I researched my little heart out and I’m happy to report it was gone in under a week, closer to 4-5 days, and it never turned brown and crusty which they usually do towards the healing stage.

This is about as bad as it got. The first day was accompanied by severely chapped lips thanks to the cold, dry weather that I wasn’t used to but to someone who is used to getting a cold sore that mutates into several cold sores I didn’t think this was so bad.

So what did I do? A few things.

Lysine tablets orally. I took Quantum Super Lysine  on an empty stomach, as directed on the bottle, I also took an extra 2 tabs on an empty stomach before bed on the days I remembered, maybe 2 or 3 nights. This particular brand has echinacea, garlic, and Vitamin C as well so it’s a great immune booster that you should probably take year round if you’re prone to fever blisters. It will be taking a permanent spot in my vitamin collection.

Lysine Cream. Apparently they have a clear gel but the one I got was snot colored so I only used it when I was at home but I lathered it on. I didn’t really find it to help with the tingling.

Coconut oil with tea trea oil and peppermint oil. I mixed about 1 tablespoon coconut oil with 7-10 drops tea tree oil and about 5 drops peppermint. Tea tree oil is a great antibacterial and peppermint works to numb the tingling and any pain you have with it. This is the concoction I used when I left the house and didn’t want the snot colored lysine cream on my lips. I also started to put it on under the lysine cream at home since the peppermint helped so much with the tingling.

Colloidal Silver spray. I sprayed this on after washing my face, so it was the first thing on the cold sore and I let it dry completely before putting anything else on it.

Garlic. I happen to do a lot of cooking with garlic so I figured why not put some garlic on the cold sore. I smashed some and put the garlic juice straight on the cold sore a few times, maybe once a day.

My best advice is to keep these things on hand if you get cold sores frequently because applying them at the first sign that you’re getting one is your best bet. Mine had already reared its ugly head by the time I started and I didn’t start the lysine pills until day 3, so it may have cleared  up even sooner.

Who has any other cold sore treatment tricks up their sleeves?