Lysine and cold sores are enemies. Read this article now. You will finally know what works and what does not when using lysine for cold sores.
Lysine for cold sores is much talked about these days. The truth is - lab and empirical data strongly support the use of lysine for cold sores.
How does cold sore lysine fix and prevent oral herpes cold sore outbreaks? What is the correct way to use it?
Great questions.
But before we look at the use of lysine for cold sores, we should first understand the actual cause of a cold sore.
Herpes simplex virus is the root cause of all oral herpes outbreaks. Some call them cold sores or fever blisters but they are both identical oral herpes events.
An extremely contagious virus, it currently infects about 89% of humans around the world. The majority of these people catch the herpes simplex virus before 12 years of age.
For most of your life, the herpes virus is hiding in the nerve roots. For facial sores, the virus resides behind the ear, in the nerve ganglia. If the virus stays latent, you will never experience a cold sore.
If the herpes simplex virus senses a weakening of your immune system, it may become active - wanting to create new virus. Stress, both physical and mental, is usually what triggers this chain of events.
Herpes virus moves to the surface through the set of nerve fibers that it has chosen to occupy. At the surface, each virus particle picks out a nerve cell to enter.
The cold sore virus then makes the cell create new virus copies. Once the cell is filled to capacity, it bursts open and the new virus gushes out, looking for a home.
The cold sore is a large ulcerated wound caused the disintegration of a huge group of surface nerve cells.
Arginine is an amino acid (protein) that is the main protein needed to create the herpes simplex virus. Chocolate and nuts are particularly rich in arginine, and it is found in lesser amounts in many other foods.
Your cells have a special area to store proteins, such as arginine, inside the cell.
Lysine is another essential amino acid - commonly found in fish and most dairy products. This is one protein that cannot be used to construct new herpes viruses. In fact, it is like putting water on a fire.
Lysine is stored in the same area as arginine in your cells. And, the more lysine your cells put away, the less room it has for arginine.
You can easily lower the cell’s arginine supply by raising lysine intake. This is a tactic many people use to stop the progression of a cold sore and prevent future oral herpes outbreaks. You are, in affect, starving out the virus.
You can increase your lysine levels with a diet rich in vegetables, fish and dairy products. Also, not eating high arginine foods, such as chocolate and nuts, will help reduce your arginine levels.
Adjusting your eating habits to control oral herpes, cold sore or fever blister attacks is not usually much fun. Most folks prefer lysine in capsules for the bulk of their treatment. This amino acid is inexpensive and you can find it anywhere.
Lysine supplements are usually 500-milligram capsules. They allow you to adjust the amount you get each day based on what works best for you. And when you want to eat some chocolate, you can take extra lysine.
Lysine is very safe. Commonly people take 1000 to 4000 milligrams per day during a cold sore and 500 to 1000 milligrams daily as a preventative measure. Again, you can adjust this depending on how often you get them.
But, this is where you need to be careful.
Lysine for cold sores is awesome when taken as an internal remedy. But it has not been very effective when put directly on the sore.
I mention this because you will find cold sore remedies at the store that contain lysine. These are designed to put directly on the sore. The lysine does not absorb and get into the cells this way. Save your money.
Lysine for cold sores is one of the better cold sore remedies for you, if used as outlined above.
There is much more I could share about lysine for cold sores and several other good cold sore remedies that honestly work. Unfortunately there is not enough room here.
Whether you want to shorten the duration or to prevent future outbreaks, lysine is powerful medicine. But, keep this in mind. There are several other excellent cold sore remedies for you to try - that may work even better for you than lysine for cold sores.
