Cold Sore Remedies That Work Fast: Natural Treatments & Prevention

Good luck!!!

However, the MOST important thing you can do to PREVENT cold sores is to NEVER consume ANY artificial sweeteners, which all contain aspartame, including almost any type of gum these days, diet sodas, diet drinks of ANY form, etc, as the aspartame WAKES the virus and activates cold sores. I have not had a cold sore in many years as a result of avoiding aspartame. Hope this helps someone.

I'm 42 and I've gotten cold sores my whole life. Like all of you, I too have tried everything I could get my hands on including Dr. prescribed meds. Nothing. Ice seems to chill them out for a bit - but they always came back with a vengeance. I found that acetone works 100% of the time. 100%. I honestly don't care what any naysayer says. It's really that good. If you catch it at the tingle stage, then it stops there. If you catch it at the blister stage, the blisters immediately go down and your at the scab stage. Even that goes quicker. This is the closest thing to a medical miracle that I've experienced. The folks who suffer from this virus would understand that statement. I keep a little bottle of acetone in my home, my car, at work and in my luggage.

A nasty cold sore arose on my bottom lip. After 2 days of it annoying me I decided to put a drop of Lugol's iodine on it. Yes, it burned for a few minutes, but, I think it killed it outright. I put another drop on later in the day just to be sure. The next day I noticed it had flattened out quite a lot, then, in a few days a scab peeled off in two very thin layers and my lip looked completely normal. I could not believe it!

I cannot overemphasize how much this works; I currently have a very big very sore collection of cold sores & I tried nail varnish remover (as I read it somewhere else) & I could not believe how much it helped within an hour! It sounds drastic & it does sting a lot but the pain is over quickly & cold sore is drastically improved after 1 go!

I've tried everything in the past; taking lysine (cold sores still appeared), zovirax on first tingle (actually think moistening it made it come out not disappear), dabbing with alcohol (helps a v small bit), doing a lot of different stress management techniques to avoid triggers (sleep, exercise, eating well) all to no avail; the nail varnish remover is the only thing where I've actually seen a difference.

One thing I will say about prevention that works is not to let your lips get chapped; most of the times I get a cold sore its after my lips are v dry and chapped; they crack & then out pops a cold score.

I hope it helps someone else.

I put the acetone on it once every hour of the day. Hold it for 20 seconds, IT WILL BURN! But it works. The next morning, my cold sore was almost gone. It wasn't even noticeable! I continued the process of applying acetone every hour of the day until it was gone.

It also helps to take the vitamin L-lysine. I also drink plenty of milk when I have cold sores, because milk also contains lysine.

I hope this was helpful!

Miracle of miracles, the acetone worked! Several times of the day, I would press a q-tip dipped in 100% acetone onto the area until it stung and then removed it. The cold sore never even got to the tingle phase. By day two my lip was slightly swollen but only about a third of what it normally would have been. By day three it was 10% swollen with a simple scab that could be covered with lipstick. No blisters even. Unbelievable. A week later, the small scab is still there, but the sore is clearly receding to nothing.

Where has this been my whole life?! The acetone must just kill the virus! Thank you all for sharing your experience with this amazing remedy! So helpful.

I think acetone must be used at the first signs and would be very effective but not once the skin has broken.

The second outbreak didn't even happen. It sort of bubbled under the surface then didnt bother coming up. Haven't had one since.

I have had this virus since I was 5 or 6, maybe younger for all I know, but I just remember first finding out I had a cold sore. I honestly thought it was a type of cold, and I never knew there was a stigma behind them until I was about 22. Once I figured out people have the audacity to look down on people with this virus (even though they likely have it too), I became very stressed whenever I would have an outbreak. I never knew you could stop one until I researched it. Learning about garlic on this Earth Clinic website, I had to try it, especially since I usually buy too much and have it lying around for about 3 months at a time.

I hear people talking about a garlic supplement not working, but I am talking about FRESH garlic. I personally cannot chance an outbreak by using a garlic pill when I have the real deal fresh garlic. You can buy a couple of bulbs of garlic and it will last for quite some time (I've had my garlic for almost two months, and even though it may not be as pretty as new garlic, once you cut it, that fresh garlic juice is there). I just cut a small sliver (just take a knife and take a flat slice from biggest part of the garlic so it will cover a larger area, which can help kill the virus on AND around the offending area) from a clove and hold the little sliver against my lip. I do this if I feel a tingle, if I bite too much dry skin off my lip (bad habit), if I feel discomfort of any sort around my lips/mouth, or even question an upcoming outbreak, I go on and press that fresh sliver against my lip, and that is EXACTLY what you should do in those cases too.

The nice thing about garlic is that you can even use it IN the mouth, whereas many other things (i.e. alcohol, nail polish remover) cannot be used for blisters inside the mouth.

Even if you have a blister when you wake up, ice it for as long as you can to calm down the swelling and numb the lip, then immediately grab your garlic clove, cut a sliver off (save the remainder of the clove, this way, as you need more, you can keep cutting slivers off throughout the day, thus releasing more fresh juice every time you use it. ) The Garlic will send the active virus to hell where it belongs and you should notice your blister rapidly receding, as the garlic will not only obliterate the active virus, but don't lick your lips after applying the garlic, because the garlic should help dry that sucker out.

(When you get to the last possible piece of your garlic, it may be dry because there is not more garlic to cut off to release the juice. If this is the case, just gently squeeze the last piece to release the juice, and it will be good to go! )

Anytime you think, know, doubt, assume, wonder, or question rather or not a cold sore is coming, USE THE FRESH GARLIC. I recommend using it every couple of hours to ensure you won't get a breakout during times you need it, however, I've used it once on red swollen skin (the stage RIGHT BEFORE impending blister) and feel asleep, and next morning, nothing. If you fall asleep, just use more garlic next day.

WARNING: You will have to man/woman up for this, as the garlic MAY cause an extreme burning sensation as you press it on the offending area. Sometimes it barely burns, especially if my lips are not cracked or damaged, and sometimes my mouth, eyes, and nose water because it hurts so bad. But I deal with it, because it is less painful than walking around feeling like you have a black eye on your lip. Embarrassing.

Summary & Tips:

• Buy FRESH GARLIC and just keep it around. The juice inside the garlic will be there a very long time, so even old looking garlic can be cut to release juice with that power garlic "medicine."
• You only need to cut a sliver off of the garlic each time you need some garlic, as each flat sliver has the "miracle" garlic juice on it.
• If in doubt and if you have an outbreak, still use the garlic. It may even possibly kill the virus on the skin (the shedding) to help protect others or spreading to other parts of your body (please still use ALL the safety precautions that you would use if you had giant oozing blister on your mouth.)
• Carry a clove of garlic in your car, backpack, purse, etc. It may not be legal to carry a knife (especially if minors and/or anyone at an educational institute), so carry something that can help you release the juice from the garlic. Plastic knife, spoon, even a sanitized filer on nail clippers.
• Don't forget to brush your teeth! You don't know how many people admit they forgot to brush their teeth the day/night before an outbreak. The virus loves moist and unclean. Also, avoid toothpastes with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (sls), as it is believed to cause outbreaks.
• You may want to gargle with peroxide to kill the viruses that may be throwing a party in your mouth. I also take a piece of cotton, paper towel, or even toilet paper (anything disposable) and put some peroxide on it, and clean my lips and mouth area to also help remove any shedding I may not be aware of.
• In between outbreaks, always keep lips moist with something that helps prevent outbreaks. Something with lysine, an antiviral essential or even some balm that if for cold sores. Just use something to help keep these at bay.

Thanks to everyone who sticks around to read this long post.

Good look and be happy!

It worked for me. I haven't had a breakout in 20 years.

As I understand it, hospitals use Lecithin based baby formulas on new born babies born to women with genital herpes.

Lecithin 2500 mg a day for a month

Such a brilliant remedy, so cheap and SO much more effective than any expensive cream or Valtrex.

For me there is one prescription (blue pill) that always worked best but the sore is still extremely painful for 2-3 days and then I have a scorched area of skin that turns scaly and then stays red for weeks afterword. Anyway, I have been trying to find a natural way to control or eliminate my cold sores and I came across Oil of Oregano so I thought I would give it a shot. (I am also taking 2 billion live cultures of acidopholis per day to strengthen my immune system.) And I am so so thankful that I did.

I started taking the OoO twice a day by putting 3-4 drops under my tongue and holding it for about 1-2 minutes and washing it down with 8-10 oz water. Before bed I also rub several drops on the base of my spine (where the virus lives) because OoO is supposed to penetrate the skin to directly combat the virus. (I have read that you might get a bad outbreak as the OoO clears the virus from your system so I was prepared for that.) Anyway, I have taken it for several weeks and I hadn't gotten a cold sore until I forgot to take it two days ago. Yesterday morning I felt the tingle of a cold sore coming on and immediately took a ____ and put Oil of Oregano on it and reapplied it 3-4x throughout the day. I noticed that the sore stayed very small and the Oil of Oregano reduced the usually unbearable burning pain and itching to almost nothing. I did get some blisters, but the sore was about 25% to 35% of the normal size of a cold sore for me with almost zero swelling, burning pain, or itching. It has now been around 36 hours since the first tingle and it is almost completely healed...and it was easily covered with a little powder when I was out shopping yesterday so no one else even knew. This stuff is AMAZING!!!! I also took a couple extra drops orally throughout the day so I was taking it orally and applying it to the sore directly.

Usually within 5-10 hours of the first tingle I have MAJOR burning and itching and there is always a lot of swelling the next morning when I wake up even if I take my prescription the second I feel the first tingle and another before bed. The sore usually lasts a couple of days and then I am left with the burned skin from the blisters which turns into a scab and then red skin for a couple of weeks afterward. With the Oil of Oregano I was able to keep the sore very small and nearly painless and it is almost healed within 36 hours. I am thrilled!! Every time I started to feel a bit of burning pain and itching I would gently reapply 1 drop of oil to the sore and it would immediately help a lot. The second day of a cold sore for me has always been full of serious burning pain, lots of swelling, and finally it is very very itchy as the virus starts to retreat. With Oil of Oregano I experienced almost nothing except a bit of redness and a warm sensation over my lip where the sore was. I can't say enough good things about Oil of Oregano and cold sores. I understand that I have only been using this product for about two weeks and this is my first cold sore that I have treated with it, but I can't tell you just how different this cold sore looked and felt from any other in the past 20 years. My husband couldn't believe it either. This is so much better than my prescription alone. Hopefully it will be a long time before I get another one since I'm taking the OoO to prevent them, but if/when I get the next one I will try OoO without my prescription at all. Hopefully I will have the same results as I really think it was the OoO alone that made the amazing difference in the pain and duration of this sore. I am going to check into how long I can take it daily. I don't want to do any damage to my liver or anything else by taking it for too long, but for now I am going to keep taking it for several months to try to eliminate my cold sores completely. If anyone has information on how long you can take it I would love to hear about it. I asked my pharmacist yesterday and he said that there has been no long-term research on daily usage of OoO, but he personally thinks this is much safer than almost anything else people use for cold sores.

If you suffer from cold sores, I hope this helps you as much as it has me!

In addition to the cold sores, I have used it to stop a sore throat within minutes, relieve my husband's migraine that his medication wouldn't touch, relieve my friend's bronchitis within 24-48 hours after two weeks on antibiotics weren't helping, clear an under the skin acne problem I wasn't even aware I had (experienced a bad breakout for a couple of days) and now my skin looks healthier than it ever has, shrink a cyst that my dermatologist wouldn't remove because it was too deep (within 2 weeks it has shrunk to half the size and is now flat), stop the pain and redness overnight from a hangnail that was really sore...and this is only after using this stuff for only a few weeks. I can't say enough amazing things about Oil of Oregano!! It is like a cure all for everything and that is just crazy!! Had I only know about this 20 years ago I could have saved myself thousands of dollars and years of pain and humiliation!!

Art