Cold Sores

Cold Sores Home Remedies - A Simple At-Home 24-48 Hour Cure
By Andrew Kawaski

Basic Cold Sore and Herpes Information

As you probably already know, cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex type 1 virus (aka "HSV-1" or just "HSV" for Herpes Simplex Virus), they're just an external symptom of infection by the disease when it's in an active outbreak stage (in which it only spends a small portion of its time--most of the time it's dormant). When it's in remission and not showing any visible symptoms (cold sores), it's simply contained inside the sensory nerve cells near the site of the initial infection (usually the face or, more specifically, the lips and around the mouth).

Regrettably, there is no cure for herpes currently available, so once you've got it then you're infected with it for life and it never goes away, and therefore neither do the cold sores. Although, it's been shown that over time your body's immune system slowly adapts to the herpes virus that has infected your body and builds up an immunity to it, which results in less frequent cold sore outbreaks and the ones you do get will be less severe than when you were younger and had initially been infected (the first year of infection is usually the worst).

Cold Sore Stages

Herpes typically cycles between periods of active and dormant disease, with active outbreaks of cold sores lasting between 2 and 21 days, with a rough average for most people of about a week. One thing you should definitely know is that you're usually going to be contagious and capable of infecting others (such as family members and friends) up to a week before and after you get a cold sore, this is known as "asymptomatic shedding", and is often how people get infected because the infected person thinks that they're not contagious simply because there are no visible sores.

Thanks, Grandma...

The most common way that people are infected is by being kissed by a close relative who had a cold sore at the time when they were a small child. The second most common method of transmission is between sexual partners, where you would've kissed someone with a cold sore (why would you do that?!), but ofcourse they could have been suffering from asymptomatic shedding as mentioned above and not realized that they were contagious. But, yeah odds are you've got grandma or aunt phyllis to thank for your lifelong fate of cold sore suffering.

Cold Sore Vaccine

There are currently a couple of vaccines in the works that may, one day, lead to a vaccine for herpes simplex type 1 which would thereby prevent people from ever being infected in the first place and making you impervious to cold sores! The two promising vaccines are one for herpes zoster (shingles), and another called "Herpevac" which is still in phase III trials with the National Institute of Health that would be used to vaccinate women (only works in women for some reason) against herpes simplex type 2, thereby preventing genital herpes. The scientists working on it have stated that they believe that it could definitely be adapted to vaccinate against herpes simplex type 1, the type typically responsible for cold sores. (Source: National Institute of Health, go here to see the study and for more information: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/herpevac/)

Cold Sores Home Remedies

Alright, here's my personal 5-step home remedy for treating cold sores that I have honed over the years through much trial and error in seeing what works for me and what doesn't:

1. Keep the cold sore clean and dry by washing it with a damp washcloth and soap once every two hours. Also, it needs to be completely drained of all fluid, so sterilze a needle with some rubbing alcohol and then puncture, drain, and dab up the fluid from the cold sore with a Kleenex or some tissue paper. If you've ever done this with a pimple then you know what I'm talking about.

2. Ice. This is a simple but obvious one that can really help you out and make quite a difference. Not only does it reduce the swelling, itching, and irritation by numbing the area but it definitely reduces the severity of the outbreaks, I've noticed, by slowing down the replication of the virus. Ice the affected area once every 2 hours for about 10 minutes with an ice cube after you've drained and washed it.

3. Lysine: start taking it immediately, studies have proven beyond a doubt that lysine not only helps prevent cold sores but also reduces the duration and severity of an outbreak once you've already got one. Take 1000mg 3 times per day--you can pick it up (it's over-the-counter) in a drug store or GNC or other similar store. (See the study done by the Indiana University School of Medicine here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3115841)

4. Apply some benzyl alcohol (Zilactin), if you can get it and if not then isopropyl rubbing alcohol can substitute, to the cold sore with a q-tip once every 2 hours after it's been drained, washed, and iced. This is probably the most effective thing I've ever found.

5. Put some nail polish remover over it with a q-tip once you've finished--this will soak up any and all fluid that it might seep out over the next 2 hours before you go through this procedure with it again. Keeping the cold sore completely dry is really key here.

If you follow this procedure properly I've often found that the cold sore can actually be completely gone within 24-48 hours, so it's definitely worth the trouble to experiment, try it out, and see what works for you.

For much more detailed information I highly recommend you see my friend's blog 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: Cold Sores Home Remedies from Canada: What Works and What Doesn't.

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