The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Please Help (Fort Wayne, In) on 06/06/2012
So if I take 2-3 tablespoos of vinegar a day will this cure the hsv2 virus or do I have to add something else to it?
Acetone, Aloe Vera
Posted by Merrin (Perth, West Australia) on 05/30/2012
G'day! After suffering from unsightly coldsores due to stress a friend recommended Lysine, an amino acid. I take a 500mg tablet every day or two. If I feel the "tingle" I increase the dose and that seems to do the trick, stopping the nasty beast in its tracks.
Acetone
Posted by Anonymous Birthday Girl (Newark, Nj) on 05/29/2012
Hi everyone, I got a cold sore today without tingling, just kind of burning and a bit of itching, and then all of a sudden a bunch of small bumps on my mouth. I have been taking Lysine for over a year since my last outbreak, so I have a feeling it will not be as bad as it was in the past. BUT, my birthday is in 2 days and its a milestone age, so desperate for solutions, I found this site. I just bought the acetone nail polish remover... I'm skeptical about its use but willing to try anything! Just have one question, this may sound kinda dumb, but are you supposed to wash it off a few minutes after you use it, or just let it stay on your skin? If you eat or drink throughout the day, couldn't drops of it get in your mouth if the area gets wet? Thanks!
Acetone, Aloe Vera
Posted by Grace (London, Uk) on 05/28/2012
★★★★★
I get shingles or facial herpes on my cheeks and chin.
I do not get it on my lips but either next to my eyes or around my nose or below my lips. The doctors have never determined which form of herpes it is. Valtrex has not helped.
Two things have really helped me. I want to share them with people so they can hopefully really improve this painful and unpleasant condition keeping the suffering to a minimum and the scars to next to nothing. The aloe vera also works for boils so I am going to post there too.
I am so grateful for having found these amazing solutions.
Acetone for the early stages, if you feel a tingling and you manage to get it on soon enough, it can stop the sore(s) dead in its tracks. I find putting it on an ear-bud (Q-tip) and applying every hour or so, is the best. Then overnight put a glob of Abreva cream on the sore(s) and by morning it is gone or on its way out.
If the sore does develop I find Fresh Aloe Vera straight from the plant is the most amazing thing for drying it up. I often end up popping the blisters, as I find the swelling so painful. Once the sore(s) is gross and oozing you want to dry it up as fast as possible, avoid wetting the sore or taking long showers and baths.
You should apply fresh aloe vera- the juicy part- straight from the plant every half an hour or so until the sore turns into a scab and then keep on applying as often as you can. Only fresh aloe vera from the plant works, I have tried the bottled stuff and it just does not work the same. I always have an aloe vera plant in the house for these needs and have been known when travelling to bring parts of leaves with me in a ziplock bag!
The best thing is to slice a small amount off the plant and keep it in the bathroom and just keep on applying the juicy liquid as often as you can. Eventually you'll need a fresh piece as the juicy part will dry out.
I have found I can 'cure' a sore in 3 days if I am lucky, with only a minor red mark at the end that is easy to cover with concealer. Usually on the 3rd day of applying the aloe vera the scab is so tight and dry it easily falls off or peels off. I advise you: do NOT pull it off if it is still stuck on too tight or shows no signs of peeling off as you will have a scar and the sore may not be healed properly underneath yet. If this is the case just keep on applying aloe vera until the sore is completely dried out and has no bump underneath or swelling at all. The aloe vera really stops inflammation as well as drying out the sore.
If you are sure the sore is really dead and dried out and all scabbed up, another thing that helps the healing is to apply -only when you are 100% sure it is all dried up! Or else you will reactive it- some neosporin. This will help humidify the skin underneath so it heals nicely without leaving a big scar.
Aloe vera, straight from mother nature, from the fresh plant is heaven sent and I thank beautiful nature and mother earth for giving us this wonderful miracle!
I really advise you try this; I have tried everything over the course of 4 years of suffering from these sores now, baking soda, salt, vinegar, various creams, lotions, to dry out a sore but nothing works like fresh aloe vera.
I have not yet found a preventative measure yet despite trying nearly all the remedies suggested here but when I do I will post about it.
Acetone
Posted by Bright Eyed Girl (Oyster Bay, Ny, Usa) on 05/27/2012
★★★★★
Hi Everyone, Just wanted to pop in and comment as I usually don't give feedback, but I realize how important it is for people to see the success or failure of a certain recommendation. I know I have found earth clinic's posters to be informative and helpful so I figure I should add on to possibly be helpful to a new sufferer.
When I first read about Acetone, I thought, humm that's strange. Then I said oh well if I use it on my nails then it's seeping into my body anyhow. Maybe not the best attitude, but it always marvels me when I hear people say they can't use something on their skin, but they use it other ways.
Anyhow, I found this info after I had an attack and it pretty much resolved itself. I told myself I have to remember this Acetone method and use it the next time I have an episode. So pow, another episode on Thursday, about 3 days ago. I ran for the Acetone instead of the common brand I use and started to apply it. The particular brand I buy at my local pharmacy did work, but never quickly, never stopped the sore from becoming a sore and I would spend about $22.00 bucks for a small tube which I would use only until the sore was gone and then put it away. By the time I would get another flare-up the cream would have expired - URGH--and then off to spend another $22 bucks!!! So I decided, what the heck, let me try this while praying and see if it works. Well surprise, surprise, IT WORKED!!!!!!!
I was so amazed and excited! The first tingle was in the a.m. on Tursday so I used a Q-tip and kept applying the Acetone after the Acetone evaporated (using a new Q-tip each time of course). I did that for a bit. It got swollen and red, but that's it and yes it burned, but that was fine as long as it would work. Next morning I started again with the same process, but fewer applications because of schedule. By Saturday morning it was still a bit red, the swelling wnt down and a tiny bump remained. I didn't apply anymore and then today it scabbed over! Yup that was it. All gone now.
I couldn't believe my eyes! My friend was also amazed and said she's gonna try it when she has an outbreak. Thanks everyone for the suggestion. ACETONE WORKS!!!
Lemon Balm
Posted by Mmsg (Somewhere, Europe) on 05/24/2012
Angela, do you know if this would help for canker sores (inside the mouth) too?
Alcohol
Posted by Drmet (Orange, California, USA) on 05/20/2012
★★★★★
i have had herpes type 1 for over 30 years and yesturday i started to get a break out on my lip so i did what i have done for over 20 years.
warning!!! what i do is extreamly painfull, but it works!!!
1. when you feel you are breaking out wait about 8 to 12 hours for the sore to get 1/2 way to a head.
2. get a razor blade or sharp knife and scrape the outer skin from the sore.
(you will bleed a bit, this part hurts but continue)
3. get a tissue, cotton balls or a rag and dip it in rubbing alcohol.
4. place the alcohol swab on the open sore, do this 4 or 5 times.
(this hurts alot! but only for a few seconds then re apply when you are able)
as i stated above i allowed my cold sore to come to a small early head, then did my treatment and this morning my sore is not hurting, my glands did not become inflamed, do not have any pain from the sore!
i know this works for me, please remember if you choose to use my cure, it is painful for a very short time so i suggest if you start do it quick and get it over with.
doc
Lemon Balm
Posted by Irbgirl (Indian Rocks Beach, Fl USA) on 05/20/2012
Are you on any blood pressure med? There was a certain bp med my husband was on and it caused him to get cold sores. (I'm a nurse and that really doesn't make sense, but... ) He started taking Lysine to stop the cold sores and it worked. A few years went by and he got a new doctor who wanted him to use a newer, different bp med. My husband, being my husband, ran out of Lysine and never bothered to replace it. When I asked him about it, he told me he hadn't taken Lysine in a long time and really felt it was the old brand of bp med that had been causing the problem.
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.
Red Marine Algae
Posted by Sue M. (Worden, Il, Usa) on 05/18/2012
★★★★★
I was also starting to get frequent cold sores... Every couple of months and I felt terrible with them. So, I was doing some research and read on Dr. Mercola's website that if you take Red Marine Algae( with gigartina/dumontacea in the formula) that this will help prevent you from getting the cold sores. So far, so good. It's been a couple of months and no signs of an episode.
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.
Multiple Remedies
Posted by Susan (Manila, Philippines) on 05/07/2012
★★★★★
I have had herpes since about age 7 or 8, I had it both orally and genitally, I know Doctors will say it is not possible but I think being a child I played with the oral sores and transferred it to my penis when I had a pee, anyway all my life it has come and gone and now I'm 64 and I just discovered this website. Brilliant. My outbreaks have been rare over the past 30 or 40 years but 3 years I moved from my native New Zealand to the Philippines and after coming here I began having outbreak after outbreak. I have seldom needed any medication before and suddenly I found I needed it, but I hardly got over one OB and another would start. Then I began getting a rash above the hairline on the back of my head, and around the waist, under my arms, my butt crack, anywhere I sweated heavily. That generated me thinking why, what is different, and after a lot of thought, it is definitely diet triggered. I went from Potato as the staple to rice and also in NZ I always drank alkaline water, where I lived the water was naturally alkaline.
So I began the 1/4 teaspoon of BS in a glass of water twice a day on a empty stomach, stopped eating rice for breakfast and began eating raw fruits as my first food, I would consume this using the ACV as a dip and would consume 1 or 2 tablespoons of it.
My skin began to clear immediately, the itching stopped, and the herpes outbreaks seem to have come to halt. I have been doing this for a month, added benefit, I have lost weight and my BP is a steady 110/70. What more can I say. I love this site. Thank Earth Clinic and especially Ted from Thailand.
Dietary Recommendations
Posted by Anonymous (Bklyn, Ny, Usa) on 04/29/2012
Got a little time on my hands so I am posting today since I have not done so in a long time. I forgot to mention that I juice a lot primarily alkaline products. I juice celery, parsley, cucumber, few cloves of garlic, ginger, lemon and spinach. Every once in a while I change it, but a few of the items there are standard. I follow a chart and eat mostly alkaline foods and some raw. No rice, flour, oatmeal etc. Rice on a few ocassion if I am visiting somone which is rare. Mostly, ground foods, green salads and fruits. It can be frustrating at times, but after hearing that two people got cured, I am trying hard. No more fried foods etc. My meals r bland and boring, but I want result. I also test my urine. Powdered spirulina raises ph so I use it daily. Read my other posting. This is just an extension to what I forgot. Try to eat the foods that are very high in alkaline. I am no longer concerned about getting an OB. I am trying and praying hard. Read my blog to see what is working for me. I need to be patient. A lot of what I am using is updates that I get from my friend in Geogia who met this young man and told her what he did to be cured. I changed my diet recently, so I need to understand that it might take longer.
Acetone, Ice, Lysine
Posted by Maz (Philadelphia, Pa, Usa) on 04/26/2012
★★★★★
I woke up with COLD SORES on a Tuesday morning, and I was going to fly across the country to visit my boyfriend that Friday! No way was I going to see my boyfriend for the first time in a month and NOT be able to kiss him! I used ice AND lysine AND acetone. Here's how:
LYSINE: Took 3000 mg as soon as I got up, 2000 mg at lunch, and 2000 mg at bedtime. The second and third days, I took 2000 mg at each of the same times.
ICE: Iced ASAP for about 20 minutes. This stopped the tingling and pain for about half an hour after I was done. Iced again a few hours later for another 20 minutes.
ACETONE: After icing, I used a Q-tip to CAREFULLY soak each cold sore with acetone for about a minute. As soon as the tingling or pain came back, I soaked the sores with the acetone again. I did this for about an hour and a half, then rinsed my lips with lots of cold water. I soaked the sores with acetone again one time right before going to bed. The second day, I used the acetone one time in the morning and one time at night.
The sores were GONE by the end of the second day. My lips WERE red and puffy for another day or so in the places where I'd used the acetone -- so be aware that you might be replacing your cold sore with a chemical burn.
I have not tried using these three things separately, so I can't tell you which one is the best. But using all of them together worked for me!
Amaranth Grain
Posted by Lara (Bristol, Ct) on 04/21/2012
Can you give us your recipes, please?
Acetone
Posted by Yessssss (Ft Lauderdale, Fl) on 04/20/2012
★★★★★
So started getting a tingle on my chin and I immediately started applying cream it did nothing by the morning my whole chin was covered I read this post around noon it is now 4 and holy crap they're almost gone!!! Got a needle gently pricked each lump then got the nail polish remover soaked them for 5 min since every hr I have been applying a bit and it's almost gone awesome thanks guys
Ice
Posted by Barbara (Lakehead, Ca.) on 04/18/2012
★★★★★
I found that when I start to feel a tingling on my lip(slight itch) immediately I get an ice cube and place it on the affected area for 10 minutes until the itching goes away using a on and off approach..... Don't want to freeze the lip. Do this at least twice within a hour, usually once does it. This has always worked for me. If I'm out I stop at any fast food place to get the ice. If you let it go and wait until your home it will probably be too late. I haven't had a cold sore for several years using this method. TRY IT! Barbara
Honey
Posted by Kamran (Nyc, Ny Usa) on 04/12/2012
★★★★★
It's April and it is spring. The weather is fluctuating 15-20 degrees (cold at night - warm during the day)
On Monday night, I was feeling extremely tired and exhausted to the point that I went to sleep at 9PM (I usually sleep very late). I woke up Tuesday morning and started feel a little tingle on my upper right lip and at the same time felt a bit of "COLD" coming on. I wasn't concern about the cold ( continuous sneezing gives me an early warning that I am catching a cold which didn't happen), but I knew that I'd have cold sores on my lip and it would hurt. Tuesday went by with my upper lips giving tingle sensations. On Wednesday morning I GOT the BLISTERS popping out, my lips were irritated, and it hurt. I came to work and researched earth clinic that always I always do for a personal healing information/solution. At around 12 Noon, I started dipping dabs of honey (which I use with my green tea) on the spot. At first, after a minute or so my cold sore started to tingle then the area felt burning a bit ( not too high, but I felt it). I kept on dabbing honey at the spot the rest of the day. By evening, the area stopped hurting, but the tingle continued whenever I dabbed honey on the spot. Before I went to sleep, I dabbed a bit of honey on the spot and went to sleep.
Thursday morning (after sleeping only 4 hours), I woke up and went to bathroom mirror. My lip sore WASN'T SWOLLEN as yesterday, the dark scab was lighter (instead of darker and hard), and the top skin on the sore must have come out. The area feels a bit hard and I believe that by end of day, the swollen area will subside. THE PAIN AND IRRITATION IS GONE and IT DIDN"T COST ME ANYHTING EXTRA.
RESULT: After a cold sore outbreak, I applied HONEY, and it took 24 hours to stop and start reversing the virus.
HONEY has multitudes of benefits including ANTI-BACTERIAL power.
As for the cold, I started taking Tomato Tea just to be safe.
Multiple Remedies
Posted by Eva Maria (Bern) on 04/11/2012
Here I have something that helped me a lot my friends:
There is many creams against Lip Herpes but what really works is to take Lysine Capsules, Vitamin C 1gr retard or 2x 500mgr a day and avoid foods that have high levels of Arginine like chocolate, all nuts, and pulses. In addition eat a lot of curd (it contains Lysine). Also avoid direct sunlight upon your face and put a shawl against cold on your mouth.
Happy season change for all who suffer from Lip Herpes! Eva
Multiple Remedies
Posted by Sms27 (Princeton, Nj, Usa) on 04/07/2012
★★★★★
I've tried many remedies, but what best works for me is a combination of lysine taken first thing in the morning and then twice more during the day, and in the first day of the sore, dabbing it periodically with tea tree oil, holding the cutip for a minute or so, then putting vaseline on it. Taking vitain C and zinc supplements speeds up the healing process. The best part about the teatree oil is that is dries the sore and it doesn't really break-up, making it easy to conceal, especially if you catch it within a few hours of forming. If you catch it before it starts swelling, when you just have tingling and itching, then it is very lkely it won't even form.
Tea Tree Oil
Posted by Marathonlady (Denver, Co.) on 04/04/2012
★★★★★
I have had real good luck with keeping my herpes lesions from beginning full blown sores. When you begin to feel the tingling of an episode, or even if they are there but not leaking fluid, dab on tea tree oil with your fingers straight out of the bottle. This will reduce and totally eliminate the sore. Otherwise, the episode takes 2 to 3 weeks to get over. I have my sores on my butt cheeks, so don't know how the tea tree oil would act on tender genital tissues?
Acetone
Posted by Dongyue (Culver, Ca) on 04/02/2012
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Dietary Recommendations
Posted by Mark (Las Vegas, Nv) on 03/31/2012
Raw Chocolate and Raw Almonds are both very good for your health. The processed version not so much. The problem is not these foods but the virus.
Colloidal Silver, Coconut Oil
Posted by Mark (Las Vegas, Nv) on 03/31/2012
I have used Lauricidin brand of Monolaurin. I would NEVER reccomend it to anyone. I threw out $250 worth of tha stuff.
I never was able to take it without getting sick with a bad infection that would go into my lungs. Healthing Crisis B.S. The first rule is DO NO HARM. If something has to make you sick it's not worth using.
Coconut Oil however is good and I have had good experiences with it as well as Soverign Silver for any type of infection. I believe it will also help cold sores and herpes.
Blood Electrification and Colloidal Silver
Posted by Mark (Las Vegas, Nv) on 03/31/2012
I have silver pulser. I will not use it for making silver and I feel that's not safe. I prefer Soverign Silver. I do however zap pimples with the pulse and they go away in about 24 hours. I use it also to arrest cold sores when I get them.
Acetone
Posted by Mark (Las Vegas, Nv) on 03/31/2012
A canker sore is not the same thing as a cold sore. Nor does it have the same cause.
Acetone
Posted by Cg (Ny) on 03/27/2012
Hello, I have always suffered from cold sores since I am in my teens (now in my 30's). Research the process in "never an outbreak. " I practiced this system and since, my outbreaks went from 1-3 per year to I had one outbreak in the last 5 years! Check it out and good luck.
