Cold Sore Cures – Get Rid of Your Cold Sore Fast!

Cold sores, or oral herpes, are the most common form of the herpes simplex virus (HSV), with genital herpes being the second most common. So yes, if you’ve got or have ever had a cold sore, then you are permanently infected with the herpes virus, and as there are no actual known “cures” right now, you’re never going to be rid of it. This is because the virus remains dormant in the nerve cells near the initial site of infection, usually the face around the mouth and lips, until an active outbreak at which point it replicates enormous amounts of the virus, causing the sores, and then after the outbreak is over it retreats back into its dormant state. The average cold sore outbreak lasts about a week for most people, although it can be as little as 2 and as many as 21 days in length (any longer than that and you should see a doctor immediately).

Good News: A funny thing about herpes simplex

The odd thing is that contracting herpes causes an immune response called seroconversion from the body which releases antibodies to that specific strain of HSV which will thereby prevent an infection by that strain at any other site in the body–if you get oral herpes that means you are now immune to and cannot get herpes whitlow, herpes keratitis, or herpes encephalitis. It’s also been shown that exposure to the strain normally responsible for cold sores, HSV-1, seems to reduce the symptoms of a later HSV-2 infection (i.e. genital herpes), and most indications are that an HSV-2 infection will immunize that person against HSV-1, so if you get genital herpes odds are very good that you’re now immune to and cannot get oral herpes (cold sores).

Known Treatments for Cold Sores

Acyclovir: Like most anti-virals, this medicine will shorten the duration of the pain by up to 1 day, and can reduce the healing period required for your first (ever) outbreak of cold sores by 1 to 2 days.

Valacyclovir: Valacyclovir was designed specifically to reduce the duration and severity of cold sores in people who are 12 years of age or older, and it’s also been shown that Valacyclovir is absorbed much easier than other anti-viral medications such as Acyclovir.

Possible side effects include allergic reaction, headache, skin rash, insomnia, dizziness, and fatigue.

Famciclovir: This one is sometimes used to treat the type 1 strain of the virus that causes cold sores as well as the type 2 strain that causes genital herpes, and studies have proven that it will work just as well as Acyclovir for treating cold sores. Potential side-effects include fever, itching, fatigue, headache, nausea, and diarrhea. (Source for oral anti-viral info: http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/oral-antiviral-medications-for-prevention-and-treatment-of-cold-sores )

The two prescription-only creams available are Penciclovir and Acyclovir creams, which reduce the length of an outbreak by, possibly, 1 or 2 days. Over-the-counter creams such as Tetracaine cream (Viractin) and Lidocaine (Zilactin-L) are both supposed to reduce the pain and irritation of the cold sore only, they do not reduce the duration of the outbreak. An over-the-counter cream recently made available in the U.S. is Docosanol 10% (aka “Abreva”), and it’s the first and currently only non-prescription topical cream that has proved to shorten the duration of a cold sore outbreak.

For much more detailed information about cold sore cures I highly recommend you see my friend’s blog I just linked to where she posts data about various cold sore remedies that her and her friends have tried over the years, the results we’ve come up with, and the conclusions that we’ve reached about various prescription treatments, OTC (over-the-counter) medicines, and home remedies.

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