Basic Information About Cold Sores and Herpes

Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus, usually the type 1 strain (although type 2, usually known for causing genital herpes, can also cause them), and because it’s a virus you can’t treat it with anti-biotics, although there are anti-viral medications such as acyclovir that will reduce the duration of an out break by a day or two. Also, Visit online
buy Bpc-157 for more details , herpes is currently incurable and there is no vaccine for cold sores, although many say that we’re getting very close to having one since they’ve just recently developed a vaccine for herpes type 2 to prevent gential herpes infection in women, called Herpevac, and the researchers who worked on that vaccine say that it could very well be adapted to the type 1 strain.

Herpes cycles between periods of active disease that last 2-21 days when there are blisters on the skin containing the infectious virus, followed by a remission, or dormant, period–this is the state the virus is in the great majority of the time. During remission the virus resides only in the sensory nerve cells in its latent form where it will remain for the rest of the infected individual’s life. Over time the frequency of active outbreaks lessens.

What Is Lysine?

There are many home remedies that are recommended for cold sores, and I’ve tried most of them myself over the years, and one of the ones you hear about most frequently is something called l-lysine, or just lysine for short. Lysine is an essential amino acid that humans are not capable of making on their own, which means that it must be gotten from dietary sources. Lysine itself is contained in almost all grains and legumes, however significant amounts of it must be obtained by taking a supplement.

Lysine and Cold Sores

Lysine works by inhibiting the replication of the herpes virus while it is in its active stage and prevents outbreaks from occurring while the virus is in its dormant stage. The current recommended dosage of lysine for cold sore sufferers is 500mg once per day for prevention purposes, and then 1000mg 3 times per day if you start to develop an acitve outbreak (I would recommend starting that higher dosage as soon as you feel the tingle of an oncoming cold sore). From a scientific study conduced by the Indiana University School of Medicine:

“A double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of oral L-lysine monohydrochloride for the prevention and treatment of recurrent herpes simplex (HSV) infection was conducted. The treatment group was given L-Lysine monohydrochloride tablets (1,000 mg L-lysine per dose) 3 times a day for 6 months. A total of 27 (6 male and 21 female) subjects on L-lysine and 25 (6 male and 19 female) subjects on placebo completed the trial. The L-lysine treatment group had an average of 2.4 (p less than 0.05) less HSV infections, symptoms were significantly (p less than 0.05) diminished in severity and healing time was significantly reduced (p less than 0.05). L-Lysine appears to be an effective agent for reduction of occurrence, severity and healing time for recurrent HSV infection.”