Myths, Lies, and Half-truths

There are no cures for cold sores.   Myth
You cannot prevent cold sores only treat them when you get one.   Lie
If there were a way to prevent cold sores a drug company would patent it and make a fortune selling it as a prescription.   Half-truth

In this post I want to address the Myths, Lies and Half-truths surrounding cold sores and the cause of cold sores, the HSV-1 virus.

The Myth
According to WebMD, “Despite the name (cold sore), that isn’t what causes them. The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is most often the cause. You get it from contact with an infected person’s skin or body fluids.  (If you have it, chances are you picked it up when you were a child.  It most likely came from direct contact with someone who had it, like getting kissed (as a baby) by an adult with the virus.)   Between outbreaks, HSV-1 hides inside nerve cells, so it’s never completely cured.”  Ironically, if you read the web page thoroughly you will see the following “This content is selected and controlled by WebMD’s editorial staff and is supported by Abreva (owned by Glaxo-Smith Kline a major pharmaceutical company).

The facts are that as early as 1975, Science magazine reported that there was a product that inactivated lipid containing viruses (such as HSV-1).  So what does that “inactivation” mean to you and me… If the virus in inactivated it means we cannot have a cold sore outbreak.  Practically speaking, if we cannot root out and and eliminate the HSV-1 virus from every cell in our body then the next best thing is to prevent (read cure) the outbreak of cold sores.  This is possible.

The Lie
There are a number of triggers for someone having a cold sore outbreak and according to the “experts” we should just try and avoid the items on the following list:

1) Stress (please tell me how this is done)
2) Fatigue (right, like that is possible)
3) Cold weather Move to the south)
4) Too much sun (oops, not to far south)
5) Spicy foods (no more Mexican or Thai food)
6) Hormonal changes (stop aging, how)
7)  Dental Trauma (I guess one should avoid getting cavities)
8) Weakened immune system (don’t get sick)

The fact is it is impossible to avoid any (let alone all of these triggers).  But if we assume we could avoid all of these (and still wanted to live), what other things trigger cold sores?  The fact is that you and I want to stop getting ugly, embarrassing cold sores while enjoying our lives.  Is this possible, you bet it is.

The Half-truth
So if it’s possible to prevent cold sore outbreaks, why hasn’t some big pharmaceutical company patented it and run ads on TV telling us to go to our doctors and get a prescription for a drug called CSbegone?  To receive a patent on a product (20 years of protection to sell that product exclusively) in addition to other factors the product must  have a novelty requirement.  Novelty simply means the invention must be new. That is, it must differ from knowledge already existing in the public domain, prior patents, published applications, publications available to the public and items on sale.

For example, you and I could not get a patent to cure stinky feet with aspirin (if it worked).  Why?  Because aspirin is already a product available.  Even though we may have discovered a new application for the use of aspirin, we could never receive a patent.  So this means if a product now available to the public, were to be effective in preventing cold sores no one is going to invest the time and money to produce and market the product because in a matter of months they would have dozens of competitors selling their own version.  They could not recoup the R&D, advertising, productions, etc. to make a profit?

It is my hope that you will find this information helpful, and yes it is possible to prevent cold sore outbreaks.