It starts with a slight tingling of the lip, and turns into an embarrasing and painful mess that you can't hide. Although cold sores aren't deadly or incapacitating, they can appear without notice at the most inconvenient times and they take place on centre stage where we feel like the whole world is watching.
The burning, tingling or itching stage of cold sores is referred to as the prodrome and is soon followed by small, painful fuid-filled blisters on a raised, red and painful area of your skin. They usually occur on your lips, occasionally on nostrils, chin and fingers and rarely, inside the mouth and on gums. Blisters rupture and leak a sticky serum-like fluid which rapidly crusts, and finally sloughs off to uncover pinkish skin that heals without a scar. The whole cold sore process usually last from 7-10 days.
So what are these ugly lesions that pop up unannounced, unexpected and totally unwanted? Cold sores or herpes simplex virus type 1, is a viral infection that attacks the skin and nervous system. Unlike most infections where you are exposed to a germ and have a reaction straight away, dormant herpes virus particles come from a previous infection. The intial herpes simplex virus infection is called 'primary herpes stomatitis' and it doesn't usually take the form of cold sores. You may not experience the usual cold sore symptoms for as long as 20 days after exposure. Once you've had an episode the virus lies dormant in the nerve cells of your skin and may emerge again later as an active infection on or near the original site.
The symptoms of a person's initial infection may include fever, irritability, headache and pain when swallowing. A day or so after the initial infection the mouth becomes painful and gums are inflamed. By the third day a number of tiny blisters form throughout the mouth and then erupt resulting in grey coloured, painful ulcers. The entire infection runs its course in 10-14 days. Don't remember all this? It is quite possible that your case could be subclinical, which means the course of infection was so slight the symptoms were not apparent. You may have experienced just a couple of mild mouth sores. In addition, most initial cases occur before the age of 7.
Below are some natural solutions to treat cold sores:
L-Lysine
Helps relieve the symptoms of cold sores (Herpes Simplex virus).
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- Click to order L-Lysine
Zinc Amino Acid Chelate
Zinc is found in every tissue in the body. It is essential for growth, repair and reproduction of all body cells.
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- Click to order Zinc Amino Acid Chelate
For a prescription remedy, you may want to consider trying Zovirax. For more information about Zovirax and to order, visit www.zovirax-herpes-treatment.com
