Cold Sore Treatment Advice
Herpes Simplex Virus I (HSV-1) is the cause of cold sores but while once infected you can never get rid of the virus the good news for many is that they don’t ever show symptoms.
Some estimates put the level of HSV-1 infection in the general population as 70 to 80 percent, with the majority of these probably picked up in childhood from contact with infected adults. The virus is only infectious when it is at the blister or sore stage, and contact should be avoided with both the fluid and the sore until it has healed.
The virus is often transmitted by being kissed by an infected person – to prevent getting infected be careful to to kiss anyone who is showning cold sore symtoms and if you do have a cold sore you should avoid the risk of passing it on. Something else to note is that you can spread the virus to other parts of your body – especially avoid contact with the eyes, where it can cause blindness.
HSV-1 can only become active in the body when the immune system is compromised, such as caused by a cold or flu, and most of the time lives in the nerve cells. It also happens commonly because of prolonged periods of stress or lack of sleep and a good diet and regular exercise can help maintain your body’s defenses.
As they say, prevention is better thab cure, so you should try and prevent new attacks from occuring. However, it is inevitable that they will reoccur at some point at which the focus changes to treating the cold sore symptoms.
Cold sore treatment options fall into two camps; the first is using anti-virus treatments to help prevent the virus from replicating to its full extent and therefore lessening the severity and duration of the attack. The other option is to follow natural cold sore remedies, which include treating the infected area with ice as soon as the tingling sensation that precedes an attack takes place.
While many people swear by various cold sore treatments, they do seem to work better on some people than on others. Before deciding the best option you should try a few cold sore treaments.
