Cold Sore Relief: Top Natural Remedies

I had not had a cold sore outbreak for it seems like years, but yesterday I chewed 1 stick of sugarfree gum and I have the biggest outbreak happening now....about 12 to 18 hours after exposure. I will definitely be more careful in the future.

Colloidal silver is the only thing I have found which a real and quick effect on cold sores. I apply it frequently when I get a flare-up.
I am not prone to cold sores, and the vast majority of the ones I have had can be traced to unwittingly ingesting the poison that is aspartame.
Thankfully, the silver goes a long way to countering it. If I'm quick enough, it can stop an outbreak entirely.

I do this as well. In fact I started feeling the tingle around 2 this morning. Dabbed a cotton swab with bleach before I went to bed and held it on the very tip of each blister (there were 3 starting) for about 30 seconds each. Did it again around noon (when I woke up) and now it is just after 6pm and all that's left is a tiny mark from the slightly bigger blister and the other 2 are completely gone.

I just make sure I'm SUPER careful about allowing the tip of the swab to touch ONLY the blister so the skin around it doesn't burn.

My go to for outbreaks is honey. Its antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, and conditioning benefits work great at all stages of these buggers. So soothing and I rarely have the long scab stage anymore. I tried melaleuca homey this time and don't think it's any better than the organic I usually have. Take a tbls internally too!

I have struggled with cold sores for 23 years now and have tried many things to ease the pain and make them go away quicker. I have also been an Earth Clinic follower for over 10 years and have never posted a comment because nothing has ever worked for me. Until today! I am still really stunned and cannot quite believe that it has worked so well. I keep checking my lip, but no, there is definitely no coldsore there. This morning I was at an appointment and I felt my lip start to swell and get really hot and sore. I was gutted because I am going away tomorrow for a few days and did not want to have to worry about a cold sore. When my appointment finished I quickly came home and felt I needed to apply ice to it. I did not know ice could help coldsores, it was not a remedy I had ever come across. I just knew I needed to ice it. So I got an ice pack and held it to my lip for at least 10-15 minutes, then when I took the pack off there was no more swelling or heat and the lump had disappeared completely. I could not believe it. I am still surprised! I keep thinking it might come back so I keep checking. I took two Lysine tablets and applied some cream I always put on just to be sure. Nothing there. No heat, no mark, no swelling. Usually by the end of day one I would have a full on throbbing, very painful blistering sore. I wish I had known about this remedy years ago. I know some remedies work for some and not others, but I highly recommend trying ice. It may just work for you like it did for me. And so easy. I only applied it once.

Lemon balm tincture worked for me. I'm 51, female and have had a recurring cold sore for about 10 years on my bottom lip.Sometimes I would get it maybe once or twice a year, and other times I would get it nearly every month.

I could only find the tincture, not the oil on a Friday night after watching on youtube about cold sore remedies. So I applied it by q tip on the newly and quickly developing cold sore for about a minute. Then I dropped a couple of mls or so into my green tea and drank it. I did this a few times over the weekend. The cold sore didn't develop any more and was totally gone in 3 days. I've tried heaps of remedies over the 10 years and this was the first time I've succeeded in getting instant results. I've had 2 recurrences since then and applied the lemon balm with immediate results again. Lemon balm oil would probably work too but I couldn't find it at the time. I've since realised that it's called by it's latin name Melissa officinalis on the essential oil bottle at my local organics shop.

I hope this helps someone else.

Ice on a cold sore--absolutely works. Hold it on until it aches. It will diminish the sore, or make it go away altogether. If the cold sore flares up again, ice it again.

I suffered from cold sores all my life. The slightest stress or too much sun & my lips would be covered with the painful blisters. I spent a small fortune on aciclovir & medicated cold sore plasters to manage the outbreaks & noticed my lips had developed mild scarring.

I suddenly stopped getting them, after I started using a new organic lipbalm. Very rarely I might get one above or below my lipline, but never on the lips. The ingredients of the lipbalm are: organic beeswax, organic jojoba oil, lanolin, organic mungongo oil, organic lemongrass oil, organic peppermint oil, organic rosemary oil & vitamin E.

I googled the ingredients to try to identify which was the key anti-cold sore factor and found a 2003 Japanese study on the inhibitory effects of lemongrass oil on the herpes virus, effective even at very low concentrations. Eureka!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14584615

I'm going to attempt to make my own version of lemongrass oil lipbalm as it's such a relief not to have to deal with cold sore outbreaks anymore. Hope this helps someone else too.

I just experience an amazing recovery from a recurring cold sore. In the past I have used garlic and tried acetone topically, but I noticed that moisture always exacerbated the sore for example taking a shower would be terrible. This time I figured I would dry the heck out of it so I tried using a clay mask mixed with an equal amount of ACV on my developing cold sore. I did it two times a day for two days now and slept with it on my lip overnight and the cold sore completely skipped it's "exploding with pus" stage, dried up and is healing. I hope you try this, it really worked amazingly well for me.

Acetone worked very well for me. I get cold sores about once a year, usually in the Fall, when my lips start to chap from the cold. I didn't hear about Acetone soon enough to prevent the outbreak of my first cold sore this year - I was already on day 3 after the blisters had broken when I discovered this remedy. I started using it then - and it did speed healing greatly! In fact, it worked so well that I figured I didn't need to use it anymore, that my cold sore would be nearly gone by the next day or so, so I stopped using it. Unfortunately, when I stopped, it got worse the next day. I had to start using it again to see improvement. It made a huge difference in the speed of healing and that was with spotty/very late use!

Also - normally when I have a cold sore outbreak I get at least one or two, sometimes up to four in a row. Sure enough, I started getting not one but two more as the first began healing. I hit them with the Acetone on a cotton swab, pressing it into the newly forming bump/blisters, for at least 30 seconds, at least once every two hours for one day. By the next day - both were completely gone - they never continued forming!

A couple of days later, I started getting yet another, right next to where the first one was. I put Acetone on about every two hours or so, all day long. The next day - the swelling, bump and forming blisters are GONE! Completely! I feel confident that I will never have another cold sore again as long as I catch it in time and always have 100% pure Acetone on hand.

Hey! I would not recommend putting acetone on already formed scabs. It's hard... but you need to just let the scabs heal on their own. I have learned this from experience more than anything. Good luck!

I get cold sores at least 3-4 times every year. The last couple years I do everything I can as early as possible to try and reduce the sore and get to the scab phase. I use ice, hydrogen peroxide, l-lysine tablets and oregano oil but no matter what I do it always lasts about 5 days to a week. I got a bad one two days ago, I noticed it as I was on my way to work and unfortunately couldn't do anything about it all day. By the end of the day it was a full-blown nasty, throbbing sore that spread half way across my lip! I tried all of the things that I normally do and nothing seemed to be working in the slightest because I didn't catch it fast enough. I

finally decided to try the ear wax method and within an hour of applying it, the pain started to go away and the sore reduced drastically. I applied some more a few times throughout the day yesterday, and today it's already at the scab phase. This will be the first thing I try from now on.

Bicarbonate of soda for cold sores:

Been having cold sores all my life but it effects me more now as I have fallen in love. Massive cold sore came up yesterday (Thursday )above my lip found this site and made the paste put it on the sore and it went down within an hour. I covered my whole face with it and my skin is so soft and glowing now thank you so much

inez

Many times I have the tingling sensation when a cold sore is coming on. I simply use rubbing alcohol on cotton swab and hold in at the spot for a few seconds or 2 minutes. The cold sore never materializes and the itching stops after a while. Even when there is a slight raise at the spot using the alcohol gets rid of it.

At 33 years old I, for the first time developed a cold sore which started in the corner of my mouth but after a few days increased to the size of a silver dollar on my face. Desparate to make it go away I scoured the internet and found this page. Against my husbands wishes I tried the nail polish remover on a test section of the sore by applying twice within an hour to a small section of the sore. To my surprise I woke up the next morning and it was dried up and left a very small scab in that location. I was shocked so of course I did this to the whole sore by washing it with peroxide and then applying nail polish remover after with a cotton swab. Even though it stings, it was well worth it because the next morning it was all dried up and left small scabs. I followed it up with another treatment of nail polish remover that evening just to make sure the sucker was dead. The next morning I put first aid ointment on a few times and in two days later all scabs are gone and I am back to normal.

My best advice is to apply the nail polish remover instantly and not wait the five agonizing days that I did before I found this wonderful site!!!

Lecithin taken daily will keep you from ever having another herpes outbreak again. I tried everything and lecithin is the only thing that works.

Bleach is dangerous, but if it is applied properly I think it is an extremely effective way to stop a cold store dead in its track.

Use a little with a q tip and press it onto your cold sore for 3 - 5 minutes. Do this at the very first sign of a cold sore coming on and it WILL NOT come out, or grow to be worse. Be very careful not to burn yourself or your lip area. Allow for a little bit of stinging, but know what is too much. Compress with an ice cube after to get rid of the sting. I did this twice the first day I noticed one coming on, and along with Abreva and L-Lysine it was practically gone by day 2 and never got worse.

Found this website looking for flea remedies and found so much more! I too am always looking for remedies other than what are mainstream, just because it seems to me there has got to be more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak!

Read about Vitamin D deficincy in The Star Tribune by a doctor at the U of MN who discovered how many people suffer from a lack of it. Of course, I am a blue eyed blond who frys like a lobster in the sun and can't remember when the last time was that I went outdoors without sunscreen and and hat so I began taking a D supplement right away. I take 2000 IU of vitamin D daily. I have to say that I feel pretty darn good considering I have arthritis in all the major joints of my body.

I also have been using lysine to take care of my Herpes simplex outbreaks for years and would not be without it. I find that if I take 4-6 500 mg tablets at the first sign of the itch/tingle on my lip, and then 2 tablets every couple of hours after that, I can most times, stop it in its tracks and completely skip and signs of the break out. If I am nowhere near my supply of lysine and I get those symptoms, taking it at first opportunity causes the leisons to heal very rapidly. In any case, it works for me.

Am going to try the apple cider vinegar thing as well, for arthritis and for the flea problem. Weird that it will be for 2 such unrelated problems but If it works, who cares. It is certainly safe enough. Thanks for being here as a sounding board and gathering of natural remedies.

I've just read a lot of your comments on the Herpes Simplex outbreaks. I too have suffered from them, right in the middle of my face! For the past 2 days I have had it and have tried acv, hp, bacterial ointment. Digging through my medicine basket,I found the calamine loction. This one is called Caladryl by Park Davis. I dabbed this on my blister twice this afternoon with a cotton swab. I cannot believe the difference. It is drying up as I post this message. It is hardly noticeable! This blister was open this morning, between my nose and mouth and looked disgusting! I will certainly recommend calamine lotion to anyone. Good luck folks.