DIY Remedies to Get Rid of Ugly, Painful Cold Sores

Now this beauty doesn't need to hide.

At some stage in your life, you probably will come down with a cold sore.  Unlike a canker sore, this is a fever blister caused by the active herpes simplex virus 1 that appears outside of the mouth unlike the canker sore, which painfully appears inside the mouth with grayish or white sore wrapped in red inflammation.

The strange thing about the herpes simplex virus is that it can stay dormant inside the body for a long time before surfacing or it can be triggered in several different ways. 

An outbreak can occur due to internal causes.  For starters, take stress.  When you’re under a lot of stress, your body works against you, releasing chemicals like cortisol that can cause an outbreak.  

Missing sleep because of that stressful situation or trying to take on more than your body can handle also does the same thing in confusing your hormones and brain chemicals to react against you.

Something as harmless as staying in the sun too long can cause a cold sore to emerge.
The reason for this is because the sun’s rays can weaken your immune system.  

Of course, you can always blame your period.  Menstruation causes hormone chaos that can lead to cold sore outbreaks.  

Food allergies are another.  When your body reacts and spurs histamine into action, which causes wild disruption in your system, this can also account for cold sores.

If you happen to get one, then you know how painful and unsightly a cold sore can be.  Therefore, you need a plan of action to heal promptly. Here are several DIY remedies that can help with the pain and speeding up drying the cold sore.

What you might want to try is ice on the cold sore.  The extreme cold of the ice will do the trick to slow to down the herpes virus since it causes the skin’s metabolic rate to plummet. 

Another DIY trick is using a wet black or herbal tea bag.  The tannic acid can help slow down the reproduction cycle of the  herpes simplex virus.

Plain yoghurt can be useful to rescue your ailing mouth.  Apply a little of the yoghurt with a cotton ball to the sore will help alleviate some of the pain due to its probiotics.  At the same time, it is a good idea to eat about a cup a day.  It can help internally since it has lysine that can curb the effects of the arginine, the amino acid culprit behind the outbreak.

I hope that a cold sore will not happen to you, but it is always best to be prepared!

The Next Time That Your Beauty Gets Compromised by a Cold Sore, Try This Natural DIY Lemon Balm Treatment

Lemon Balm

Cold sores are not only painful, but ugly once those tiny blisters take over a mouth.  In my case, they always liked to appear when you have something important scheduled like a dentist appointment or a big date.  

Of course, you can’t control when cold sores pop up since they are caused by a virus, the herpes simplex virus to be exact, but you can take several steps in limiting how long it stays.

The herpes simplex virus has to have arginine for reproducing in your system.  This basic amino acid is found in most proteins.  However, you can try counteracting the arginine from multiplying by taking a lysine supplement only while you have the cold sore and if not on medication.  You might want to try a 1000mg. lysine tablet twice or as much as three times a day, but no more.  You may want to check with your doctor first.  

Another way is using lemon balm.  If you have a garden, this is an easy herb to grow that is quite useful for help healing cold sores.  What you can do is dry some leaves (about three teaspoons) to later brew a tea in one cup of boiling water, not to drink but to dab on the cold sore with cotton balls once it cools.  You don’t have to keep making fresh cups for each treatment, but keep using this same one that day.  

If you don’t have the fresh herb handy, you could always try lemon balm essential oil better known as pure melissa essential oil. Also, you need to use a carrier oil like grape seed or jojoba oil to safely dilute it.  Use one drop of the melissa essential oil to a teaspoon of your carrier oil.  Again, you might want to check with your doctor if you have any health condition or on medications to see if this is safe for you. 

Having cold sores is no fun.  Nonetheless, if it happens to you and those drugstore remedies aren’t doing much to end this misery, what I shared is worth trying because it did help me.  Take care and I promise that you’ll be smiling with a pretty mouth again in no time!