Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Cold Sore Virus - Facts And Tips About Your Cold Sores

By Denny Bodoh

If you are curious about cold sores, this article should answer a lot of your questions. We have learned so much about cold sores in recent years. Read this article and arm yourself with the facts about these unsightly blisters.

COLD SORES - WHAT ARE THEY?

Cold sores come at the most inconvenient times. Painful and ugly, cold sores really hurt your social life.

Whether you call them cold sores, fever blisters or oral herpes, they are all the same infection. Cold sores can appear anywhere the virus can get through your skin. The lip area is usually the first infection site.

The herpes simplex virus is the parasite virus that causes cold sores. A cold sore is actually the side effect of the herpes replication process.

When the herpes virus first enters your body, it will claim a nearby nerve fiber as its lifetime home. All cold sores produced by this virus family will be at the surface end of that nerve fiber.

WHAT CAUSES COLD SORES?

Most of the time this herpes virus will sleep in the root cells of its home nerve. If it becomes active, it will wiggle to the surface through the nerve and drill into your surface nerve cells.

Unlike bacteria, the herpes virus can't reproduce its own kind. In parasite fashion, the herpes virus enters your nerve cells and forces them to become virus factories.

As the cells fill up they balloon causing visible swelling of the cold sore site. The control virus will destroy the cell when it is full or exhausted. This will spill out hoards of new herpes virus.

The destruction of many cells close together causes the open cold sore. These cold are quite painful to the touch because the nerve tips are exposed.

ARE COLD SORES VERY CONTAGIOUS?

The herpes virus is so tiny, many of them can hide in a single cell. This parasite virus enters your body by soft tissue contact like the lip or inside the nose. You are extremely contagious when the virus is actively creating a cold sore.

Kissing is the most common way to infect others. Contaminated fingers can cause new cold sore sites on you and others too. Please be very cautious. Sterilize the wound and your hands constantly.

You can spread the cold sore to any place on your body. You can get cold sores on your fingers, arm or cheek if the virus gets through a crack or other sore to the soft tissue. These can be more painful than common lip sores.

Watch out for your eyes. People do get cold sores in the eyes and it can cause permanent damage.

The herpes simplex virus infects nearly 90% of the world population because it is so tough and contagious. You usually contract it in your youth. About 70% of those infected will get one or more outbreaks per year.

HOW CAN I GET RID OF MY COLD SORES?

Stress is the most common reason that the herpes virus becomes active. Under stress, your hormones change, causing an acid pH balance. The herpes simplex virus does very well when your body is in an acid state.

Your body needs no help from you to heal oral herpes cold sores. But it is a slow process, often taking up to four weeks. You can cut this healing time in half with a good cold sore treatment.

Your best bet for effective cold sore treatment is still by using natural remedies. They usually work better than prescription and over-the-counter options.

Garlic, lysine and the healing mineral zinc are three of several great cold sore treatment plans currently in use. Use all three topically, but lysine and zinc will do their best work if taken internally with supplements.

Any cold sore care plan should always include continuous cleansing using hydrogen peroxide, alcohol or wine soaked cotton balls or tissues.

Oral herpes cold sores definitely put your social and private life on hold. Hopefully, with the information above, you are now better able to cope with those cold sore attacks.

It takes a little trial and error to find the best cold sore treatment for your own needs. But when you do, you will enjoy beautiful cold sore freedom. - 14018

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