Well I guess Santa heard that I was naughty this year because I woke up this morning and he had brought me a new bright shiny cold sore.
There’s a reason Santa and Satan have the same letters…
Bah Hum Bug!
So what do you guys do to help heal or prevent your cold sores?
Let’s share… 🙂
Damn! I had the biggest cold sore ever last week. Sorry, Sarah.
I started out dabbing it every hour or two with a bit of vanilla extract (I put some in a container to keep the medicinal portion separate from the edible), but I started wondering if the key to this home remedy was the alcohol rather than the vanilla.
So I switched to dabbing it with antibacterial mouthwash, and man, that really did speed it up. (We have the nasty, Listerine-flavored stuff in the house (cuz hubby is weird), but I would expect the other flavors to work.)
Don’t get me wrong — it was still really gross for about 3 days. But after using the mouthwash for a day, it had dried out/scabbed considerably. So I stopped the mouthwash applications and just tried to keep it slightly moisturized til the scab finally fell off.
Your lip will be pretty raw at that point, so keep it moisturized and be nice to it for a couple of days — fresh lemon and hot sauce will NOT make it happy.
Feel better!
Hey Sarah,
moisten a tea bag and place it on the cold sore…I’ve also had pretty good luck with Licorice Root and/or Lemon Balm tincture.
Krista
I suffered from oral herpes ever since toddlerhood, until I took Rosemary Gladstar’s advice to take licorice at the first twinge. Eat Panda licorice chews and/or drink licorice root tea; either one works. It prevents the blister from erupting, immediately–stops replication of the virus dead in its tracks.
I can’t say whether it’s effective for reducing an already-erupted blister, because ever since discovering licorice I’ve never had a blister erupt. If one did, I guess I’d daub licorice-root tea on it.
An herbalist friend tells me that she has had success treating already-erupted sores with a combination of lemon balm (melissa), pau d’arco bark, and St. John’s wort flowers, made up as an infused tea and daubed on.
Diet-wise, I’d advise you to drink licorice root tea and lots of Emergen-C and cabbbage juice.
–Phil
I don’t have anything to say about ulcers, but wanted to let you know that Santa brought me ‘How it all vegan’ this Christmas – hooray!
I woke up with one also! Ridiculous.
Anyway, Denavir cream (prescription, but worth every penny) will shrink it almost immediately. Also, if you use it when you feel tingling, the sore will never ‘pop out’.
I tried two or three other prescription remedies, but the Denavir is by far the best. I also tried a plethora of homeopathic remedies and some (e.g. l-lysine) help, but none made them go away.
as soon as you feel it go hard with the zinc. it’s a wonderful immune booster and relatively inexpensive. i don’t get cold sores but use it when i’m starting to feel a sniffle coming on and i only get sick about twice a year. i’ve also given it to cold sore prone people who have told me it helps so much. xoxox
I had the same kinda luck this year, with a nasty coldsore that is sure to show up on all our Christmas pictures. I do know that it is my punishment for eating too many sweets and letting off on the healthy food. Hmmm. The fresh fruit should do the trick. At least now there is Photoshop to edit the skin problems out of the X’mas memories… Good luck to you!
I take a Q-tip and every night before bed I dab on straight Hydrogen Peroxide. It fizzes up and burns a little but it also heals it up faster than anything else I’ve tried.
Perhaps if you weren’t so anti-santa he would put you on his nice list instead of inflicting cold sores on you….
Use Neo-sporin…a lot. Maybe use a drying cream during the day, like clean and clear, then follow up at night with Neosporin…and then voila! Should be gone soon!