Top Natural Remedies for Cold Sores (Fever Blisters)

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Toni (Netherlands) on 05/12/2015
★★★★★

ACV it is! Applied a soaked in Apple Cider Vinegar cotton ball on my sore and put a bandade over it and just left it there, reapplying the Apple Cider Vinegar every hour and within 2 hours the sore was dry....but kept the bandade on after that I applied aloe vera to keep it moist constantly to prevent a scap from forming bye bye sore! So happy with this! It took me 1 day!

Tissues with Lotion

Posted by Tracy (Ohio, US) on 12/31/2014
★★★★★

WARNING!

While it could very well be herpes, mrsa, staph or some other virus... it could also be from your tissues! It took me months to figure out what was causing my nose sores - TISSUES WITH LOTION. I don't know what they are putting in those tissues with lotion, but they were causing my nose to break out inside every other day with crusty, cracky, weepy, hurty, open sores. As soon as I stopped using tissues with lotion, they cleared up.

Acetone

Posted by Sabrina (Toronto, Canada) on 11/26/2014
★★★★★

OMG!!! God bless the founder of this miracle. I AM ABSOLUTELY GRATEFUL IT WORKS. I woke up yesterday to the most disturbing painful sore on my lip. I used a warm green tea bag every 3 hours and pressed it against the cold sore for about 20 minutes. Later in the evening using a cotton swab I applied 100% pure Tea Tree Oil. (Please dilute with equal drops of water if you have sensitive skin) I searched the web for another home remedy and stumbled across this blog. To my surprise using the acetone for 5 minutes every 30 minutes dried up the remainder of the sore almost immediately. I felt the burning sensation but it was worth it. Thank you for this magical remedy.

Acetone

Posted by Mia (Formerly Of Lyons, Now Syracuse) on 12/17/2013
★★★★★

I have been using Retin-A for wrinkles. Problem is that everytime I use it, I break out in a cold sore. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I am sick of it and was driven to try the nail polish thing again so I bought some today because taking L-Lysine wasn't touching this one. My lip was so swollen it wasn't funny. Then, another started to pop out in a different after I started to use the nail polish.

I had to use it more than a couple times. I have been putting it on with a cotton bud every hour or so by dabbing it until the cotton ball dries out . I haven't just let it sit there for five minutes because I don't really want to breathe the fumes in. So I dab it, breathe, dab it, etcetera until it dries out and then I do it again a bit later when the thing tries to moisten back up.

It is working because I am diligently attacking it.

The thing is already crusting over after one day and normally it would take five days to get this stage. I will definitely keep putting the acetone on until it is all dried up and gone.

I am also taking L-Lysine, which wasn't really working that well, along with Vitamin C. I am planning to continue to do both as a daily preventative.

Acetone

Posted by Lisa H. (Santa Barbara, Ca) on 11/18/2013
★★★★★

Thank you - Earth Clinic folks. The acetone works miracles! I awoke with that dreaded tingling feeling and tried using an 11 month old tube zovirax to no effect for the first half a day the cold sore just kept growing - and getting redder and itchier.

Then I jumped on earth clinic - and remembered the acetone trick. Thank goodness, the tingling stopped, it dried out and started to recede within 48 hours. It is taking a while to heal but is continuing to get smaller and smaller.

Chocolate is my #1 cold sore trigger. Each outbreak I have had in the past few years can be traced back to the effect of an overindulgence. Well THIS time I have learnt my lesson for sure.

Gluten-Free Diet, L-Lysine

Posted by Searching For Health (North Of The Border) on 08/06/2013
★★★★★

I have gotten cold sores for approximately 7 years. They started spreading all over my lips - but the ones that were new were not tingling like they originally did and came without warning. I was taking so much aciclovir and valciver. Then... I got exceedingly itchy blisters on my fingers, followed by unbelievable swelling in that finger. The pain is intense and the itchiness – OMG! (Apple cider vinegar helped alleviate these side effects - Thanks to you on Earth Clinic) I had a bout of this on my fingers for 4 months. I could not use my hands. I thought it was herpes whitlow. What cleared it up was when I was on a diet of only rice with fried vegetables – no flavorings or soy sauce added. The problem cleared up in about 5 days! Both my fingers and lips. Simultaneously, I had a brain fog clear up and anxiety that had been thwarting me for about 2 years. I then found out I am completely unable to eat Gluten. I guess the rash thing is a form of Dermatitis Herpetiformis (NOT HERPES! ) which is a consequence of not being able to tolerate gluten. (I still got the original and authentic Herpes cold sore that tingles - but it comes much less often as I take Lysine daily and it seems to come less often now that my body is not fighting the "poison" that I was eating previously). Before I had that authentic cold sore almost every 2 weeks. I am also unable to have most additives to food, and food that is GMO or treated with pesticides. For the last 3 months I have been strictly eating only at and home and it has stayed clear. I eat 100% organic, gluten free and no longer eat packaged food.

Licorice and Peppermint Root Extract

Posted by Jazzz (Delta Junction, Alaska, Usa) on 03/19/2013
★★★★☆

While I have yet to find any success curing my cold sores, I have found one particular thing which prevents them.

It seems that certain remedies work well for one type of person but not the other, in the past I have tried Lysine, over the counter meds (they worked for a while), ice cubes, finger nail polish remover.... Ummm just about everything. Non of those worked well for me, for the past three years I have been using a licorice/peppermint root extract in gelled form. When I feel a cold sore coming on and I use this (I apply it every several hours at the onset) it never comes, I use this if I know I might get a cold sore (I'm sick or something), and I use this on my son. Unfortunetly, he doesn't know when a cold sore is coming on so it is usually already surfaced by the time I see it. However, when I put it on him the cold sore goes away very quickly and stops growing. I have noticed that over the years my cold sores are getting farther apart. I use to get them about 8 times a year and now its about 3-4.

If nothing else has worked for you, this might be the one- because nothing ever worked for me!

Acetone

Posted by Lilli (Kenmore, Wa) on 03/15/2013
★★★★★

My thanks for another wonderful and effective remedy from the Earth Clinic forum.

Every time I have a cold I get a runny nose. From all the wiping and irritation I develop a cold sore... In my nose!!! They are always painful and last a long time. I tried all the OTC products, they only cover up the sore and keep it moist; the exact opposite of what I should have been doing.

A few days ago, I took a q-tip and swabbed all the small blisters in my nose with acetone. I did this once an hour for 3-4 hours. The first thing I noticed was that the throbbing pain went away. I continued to apply the acetone throughout the day. Before bedtime, most blisters had dried up. I applied it once more before I went to bed. Then next day there were no more blisters.

Three days later, the skin is a bit red and needs to heal. I am using a combination of 100% aloe covered with antibiotic salve because I still have the cold and want to protect the area.

Thanks again for the great advice!

Ketogenic Diet

Posted by Cedar (Boston, Massachusetts) on 03/06/2013
★★★★★

I am a female who used to get herpes outbreaks one after another for two years. I was very frustrated, I tried everything from Chinese Herbs, Ayurvedic Herbs, Urotherapy, ACV, De-worming, acetone. I was following a vegetarian diet and jogged regularly. Nothing worked for me, and I would get outbreaks every two weeks, which each took two weeks to heal, so, "continuously" one after another.. I would get fever-ish, weak, depressed, get nerve pains up and down my legs that felt like shingles.. It was awful!

I decided to stop all cardio for a month and do resistance training (Jamie Eason's LiveFit trainer to be exact.. Free online program), and follow a ketogenic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb), and all of a sudden, no outbreaks or pains for 6 months.

General Feedback

Posted by Gerrit (Abbotsford, Bc, Canada) on 01/08/2013

Gina I want you to know that I take 35 drops of Lugol's 5% in divided doses daily.

I been taking all kinds of Iodine for the last couple of years started slowly with very little.

The info I can find is, if you overdose water starts dripping from your nose and like too much vit C you just pee it out. I'm 83 and still around. I take it for Hypothyroid and still can't get my basil temp over 97. 5 and if I paint it on in the AM it is gone by nightfall.

The same with magnesium oil I have to take lot's of it spray it right in my mouth wish I could find a refillable deoderent applyer so I could roll it on also, I have to take it otherwise I would get foot and leg cramps during the night.

As always do your own DD this is just one man's opinion.

May the Lord continue to bless THIS EC site and its supporters and Angels like Lisa etc.

Acetone

Posted by Artemisia (London, UK) on 12/02/2012

Gracie, that sounds more like shingles, a different type of herpes virus. It travels down the trigeminal nerve down the nose and across the cheek. It responds to Lysine and as you say, cheese, chocolate, nuts and red wine trigger and feed the virus. Counter this with Lysine (buy the powder from iHerb in Ca who ship to the UK for $6 per order). The ONLY way to dry them out (better even than acetone, is CAMPHOR SPIRITS OR in French l'alcool camphre). You used to be able to buy it in the UK, but now I have to get mine from the US yet again. You dab it on as soon as you get the tingle. Believe me, you will start keeping some in the larder. I use it now only once in a while as I know the signal tingle and start taking Lysine in juice. I was once told by a chief Medic in the Homeopathic Hospital, Tunbridge Wells "the herpes virus is a bitch". My friend in the US who gets shingles when run down, has had the vaccine and I believe you can now get it here.... It is with you for life I understand and I can locate exactly where mine resides; under the arachnoid around the skull on the left side which is where the blisters first appeared on my nose and cheek.... My nose is scarred but the cheeks are more resilient. Spirits of camphor.... As we know these cheap remedies are not endorsed by big pharma - too cheap and no profit margin for shareholders. We have to do the research for ourselves and take action.

Artemisia (purely coincidental that this is the latin for Wormwood! It was the name of an old horse of miine)

Alcohol

Posted by Lisa H. (Santa Barbara, Ca) on 11/18/2013

When I was in Nepal earlier this year I got a cold sore and I was staying a top a mountain, a three hour return trip to a pharmacy. I had failed to pack any zovirax, which has been successful in the past, so my friend and I went digging through our first aid kits and came up with alcohol swabs! Ah huh!!

After the first swipe, the burning started, but it was that good burning like you can feel the virus shrinking away from it as fast as it can kind of burning. It took about three days of day with the alcohol wipes every couple of hours to turn it completely around and kill it.

I have subsequently found acetone to work faster and be more effective, but if you are working with what you have available in a first aid kit - I can 400% recommend the alcohol swabs!

Aloe Vera

Posted by D M (Orlando, Fl) on 10/14/2012
★★★★★

Apply ice and aloe vera. Keep the skin cool as soon as tingling starts. Works like a charm.

Cell Food

Posted by Nathan (Lexington, Ky) on 10/05/2012
★★★★★

Cell Food topically- This is my story. Scroll to the bottom if you're only interested in what worked for me.

Hey all, I've been following earth clinic for sometime now - and love it! I discovered apple cider vinegar on here and it did wonders for my quality of life as I used to have insanely dry scalp in the winter and acne. Acv did the trick for both.

Okay, onto my cold sore treatment: Abreva has worked pretty well for me the past couple of years. I'd keep it on me and when I'd feel the "tingle" use it and I hadn't had a major outbreak since I started using it - until Monday morning. I felt the tingle on Sunday night, put some Abreva in that spot and went to sleep. Woke up with a full blown cold sore... Yikes! Of course, this Saturday (tomorrow) I have a number of guests coming in town for what is annually one of the biggest social events of the year for me. Instead of panicking I came here and discovered the acetone treatment and hydrogen peroxide as well. I had hope!

So for the following 36 hours I diligently treated the monstrosity on my lip with acetone and hp. Only problem was by Tuesday night I had not one sore but three! It was the worst outbreak of my life. The acetone seemed to aggravate the infection, not to mention it smelled terrible and the hp didn't seem to go deep enough. I believe those treatments work for many of you - they just didn't for me. The nail polish remover I was using I later noticed included gelatin in the ingredients and I read elsewhere that gelatin can aggravate an outbreak -maybe that was it.

Anyway I woke up Wednesday desperate, ready to call off plans for Saturday. While obsessing over what I could do, I remembered reading that Cell Food helped cuts and burns heal fast, so I googled it to see what I could find out about it's effect on cold sores. I didn't find much, just one testimonial but it was positive. What did I have to lose? So I gave it a shot. Went to the bathroom grabbed some cellfood and put a couple of drops on my lip and it burned like hell (way worse than acetone or hp). I thought "this could be really good or really bad". 30 minutes later my lip was drying out and the swelling was going down so I put another drop on my lip. By Wednesday night the "tingle" was completely gone and all of the sores were drying up. I continued to use cell food every 3 hrs (I would also put some drops in my juice and water) and yesterday my sores started to scab over.

This is the amazing part: last night the healthy parts of my lips were starting to grow like a new fresh layer of skin I think from the cell food. Today the two smaller sores are 90% healed and the big sore I think will be 90% by morning. My lips are chapped from being so dried out, but after the sores are nearly completely gone I'll use chap stick.

I said to a friend earlier this week that it would take a miracle for my lips to heal by Saturday and I actually think they will be fine by tomorrow. I started on Cell Food Wednesday with 3 throbbing sores!

This is the first time I've shared on earth clinic. I hope this works for you as good as it did for me! Oh, yeah: I must say Thank God! Because I prayed a lot too! He answered my prayers :)

Acetone

Posted by Mk (Ky) on 06/10/2015
★★★★★

Straight Acetone is the best, and at night I use calamine lotion to aid in the drying, makes you look funny, but it works! Two to three days and gone! Completely!

L-Lysine

Posted by Robyn (Melbourne, Australia) on 08/02/2012

Becky, I suffer too. Viral, manic, bad fibro, whacko immune sysem. What about garlic, lemon, BHT, olive leaf extract - these help. wheat grass sprouts as someone suggested to me. Dont think you can OD on lysine.

Vitamin C

Posted by Joe (Roseburg, Tx.) on 05/19/2012
★★★★★

Dear sirs, regarding herpes, I found a site, and it said to place the vit c directly on opened blister, and warned that it would burn like fire, so I bit down on a peice of leather {joke} and yes it did burn alot, plus I bled just a wee, but I have not had a problem since.

Thats been 2 years now, it was very unpleasant for about 1 to 2 wks while I healed, but Im very thankful it worked.

Lemon Balm

Posted by Angela (Brisbane, Qld, Australia) on 05/17/2012
★★★★★

I have tried a number of remedies for cold sores with no success: ice, apple cider vinegar, lysine (was ok), crystal salt deoderant (only helped the blister dry up). I get cold sores every couple of months so was very keen to find a good cure. I recently attended a medicinal herb workshop and was told to try lemon balm. I happen to grow it in my garden so I made a tea of it and have been drinking it 3 times per day. I found that within a day the cold sore I had went down and all pain subsided. It is now healing well. Additionally I have put some goldenseal ointment onto the healing sore and that is also clearing up a lot faster than normal. The teacher at the herb workshop said her husband use to get regular cold sores and he now drinks lemon balm tea often. He has not had a cold sore in years.

Tea Tree Oil

Posted by Gina (Leeds, West Yorkshire) on 05/08/2012
★★★★★

Cleaning with diluted tea tree oil and regular dabbing of the affected area. Drys it right up.. The cold sore should be gone within about 4 days.

Acetone

Posted by Victorsfriend (Northeast, Florida, Us) on 07/20/2012

I've had breakouts for about 10 years, and I've never found anything that really helps. Whatever I do or don't do, nothing seems to make a difference, and, when I get a cold sore, it lasts for about 10-14 days. I've tried almost everything I've heard of, and I was on Valtrex for awhile, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so I stopped that. No matter what, I still get a nasty breakout every so often (used to be about every 2 months, now about 2 times a year). The only thing that "helped" was being pregnant, where I didn't have one during the whole pregnancy, but that's not exactly a medication I want to take again. LOL.

When I got a breakout around January, it was BAD, and I had to go to work and have everyone make a big deal out of it, and I have a professional job where it just doesn't look good. I read about the acetone nail polish remover about 5 days into it, and it helped, but it didn't really shorten the time it lasted. Plus, my boyfriend thought I was crazy. He doesn't get cold sores, and I don't want him to start, nor does my son who is almost 2. So it really freaks me out when I get one.

Yesterday afternoon, I get home from work, start chatting with the boyfriend, and I feel it come on out of nowhere. Sure enough, I look in the mirror, and there's a huge blistery bump in the crease of my mouth. I can tell it's gonna be bad. I immediately grab the nail polish remover, figuring that I'll try it again in this early stage to see if it shortens the length any. I did a Q-tip for about 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes about 30 minutes later, then another 5 about 2 hours later.

The first thing I did when I was half awake this morning was open my mouth to see how sore I was... And I felt nothing. It actually made me hop out of bed and look in the bathroom mirror. This HUGE cluster of blisters was practically gone. It was just a little red mark, not even a little sore. I Q-tipped with acetone three times throughout the day, and I predict it will be 100% healed by tomorrow morning.

I know it's probably not the best thing for me, and maybe it's a little dangerous, and there are probably ways I can change my diet (I've tried, but I haven't found anything that kept breakouts away completely) but I'm in sales, and, if I can help it, I need to not have this on my face. If nothing else, I need to at least not be in horrific pain when I open my mouth to talk. I feel like this is a miracle solution, and I had to share.

Ice

Posted by Mundaring Merrin (Perth, Western Australia) on 01/18/2013
★★★★★

THANK YOU! There I was on a camping holiday in the great Aussie Outdoors, a tingling sensation heralding the cold sore. Same spot as usual. I'd forgotten lysine supplement for a couple of weeks and was somewhat stressed due to a handful of late nights. Recalled the ice remedy & decided to try it. Thank God, it worked! Slight redness but no other evidence.

Acetone

Posted by Suem (Worden, Il) on 03/24/2012

I frequently get cold sores... Hate them. I've tried absolutely everything, including acetone and it did nothing for me. My cold sores swell terribly and I generally have flu like symptoms. I have been researching essential oils and making my own formulas and came across what oils are good for cold sores. I started out with tea tree oil, but found that it was not knocking the cold sore like I had hoped. So, I switched to Bergamont and applied it 3 to 4 times a day. It was wonderful. The cold sore did not disappear overnight, but the duration time and severity of the sore was diminished drastically. This will be the only remedy I use from now on. If you try it, I hope it helps you, too.

Amaranth Grain

Posted by Dbkh (Y, Usa) on 03/02/2012
★★★★★

Amaranth Grain is a complete protein grain that is high in Lysine. Lysine tablets, even when kept under lip, never worked for me; But Amaranth Grain, ground into flour with a coffee grinder and used in recipes, really does help. And is VERY healthy to boot.

Acetone

Posted by Hb (Santa Fe, New Mexico Usa) on 12/31/2011
★★★★★

This past week I had been stressed out. Yesterday I noticed some itching at the edge of my bottom lip. Oh great! A cold sore is coming. I get these all the time, recently not so much, but ever since I was a yonug child (I'm in high school now). It's horrible! People make fun of you, it's so embarrasing. I kept searching on the internet of ways to make the damn thing go away. All of them said: you can prevent them, but once you have them you have to wait 7-10 days for it to go away. I kept searching on yahoo answers, and found something that didn't involve me going out to buy abreva or any other expensive products that only shorten healing time.

You take a sterilized needle and poke into the sore. You will see clear liquid ooze out of the sore now. Immediately take a cotton ball with acetone and press onto the sore, but after about 5 minutes change the cotton ball and do it again, because if you take it off and put it back on again an infection may form. It worked perfectly! It was gone instantly. I put [again] a new cotton ball with acetone on, and kept it on for an hour and a half. Please try this! But be careful because sensitive skin may have a chemical reaction from the acetone.

Avoid Arginine

Posted by beverly (usa) on 10/29/2023
★★★★★

I may have solved my own mystery.............I rarely get fever blisters but have changed my diet to Keto due to my husband being diagnosed with Parkinsons. One of the things I started doing was getting high fat yogurt, cream, buttermilk and keifer from a nearby dairy. The past month I have been constantly plagued with fever blisters at the corners of my mouth and nostrils.

Certain Foods

Consuming arginine-rich foods – such as beans, meat, chocolate and dairy – can trigger or worsen a cold sore. This is because arginine is required for the virus to replicate. Acidic foods and beverages can also trigger a cold sore outbreak. This includes citrus fruits, tomatoes, orange juice and even soda.

Source