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How to Stop Coldsores

The cause of cold sores is the type one herpes simplex virus. Once the virus is contracted, it will stay in your nervous system forever. Most of the time it is dormant, but once in a while it will break out leaving you with cold sores on your face.



With a little care and thought to your daily life you can help stop breakouts. Maintaining good health and learning to avoid your cold sore triggers is one way to put an end to breakouts of cold sores.

Things You'll Need

  • Epsom salts
  • Cotton balls
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Instructions

  1. Preventive Treatment

    • 1

      Learn what triggers your outbreaks. Is it stress, bad weather, salty or acidic foods? Once you learn what act as triggers, you need to avoid them. Learn to tell when a breakout is coming. The faster you can get rid of it the more you will learn.

    • 2

      Eat foods with high amounts of lysine on a regular basis. The virus replicates itself by using a chemical in your body called L-arginine. L-lysine helps lower your levels of L-arginine reducing the viruses ability to replicate.

      High L-lysine foods are red meat, cheese, poultry, eggs, fish and potatoes. Foods you need to cut down on include chocolate, peanuts, almonds, seeds and wheat. Any type of processed gelatin should also be avoided.

    • 3

      Reduce stress. Take time out of your day to relax. Along with high blood pressure and stroke, stress makes the body more acidic. An unbalanced acidic body from stress feeds cold sores.

    Reactive Treatment

    • 4

      Stop touching the area as soon as you notice a cold sore. Touching it will spread it.

    • 5

      Wash your hands thoroughly. With a clean damp cloth gently clean the area around the cold sore. Do not wash the actual cold sore.

    • 6

      Mix 2 tsp. of Epsom salts in half a cup of warm water. Dip a cotton ball in the solution and squeeze the excess off with your fingers. Place the moistened cotton ball over the cold sore and hold for a minute. Do not move the ball around to avoid spreading the sore. Discard the cotton ball and repeat the process a few times with a fresh cotton ball.

      Epsom salts draw out infection. Magnesium in Epsom salts is an anti-inflammatory agent.

    • 7

      Use a lysine base cream as directed on the cold sore. Then leave it alone until next treatment.

    • 8

      Increase your preventative treatment steps during this time to help starve the cold sore.

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