Medical Questions » Mouth and Throat Questions » Question No. 1337
| Question: | I' m prone to cold sores. Are there any natural remedies that work? |
| Answer: | Cold sores are caused by the herpes virus, which feeds off an amino acid called arginine. If you supplement lysine, an amino acid that looks like arginine, you fool the virus and effectively starve it. I recommend supplementing 1,000mg of lysine every day, away from food, to keep the virus at bay. When you have an active infection, supplement 3,000mg of lysine a day and cut right back on foods rich in arginine, which include beans, lentils,nuts and chocolate. The more stressed you are, the weaker your immune system becomes, and this allows the virus to become active - which is why many people succumb to cold sores when they' re run down. A powerful immune-boosting combination is 3g of vitamin C every day; take it with your lysine.
Some people are now getting great results staving off cold sores with a special form of sulphur, MSM. This is an anti-viral and appears to strip away the protective coating of a virus. You can get MSM in supplement and cream form. Start by taking 3g a day, and work up until you find the dose that keeps your cold sores away; for some people this is 10g. |
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