Cold Sores – Treatment vs. Prevention

So you feel a cold sore outbreak coming (only those of us who have suffered know that “tingly” feeling) and you decide to do some online research.  The results…

The treatments tend to fall into the following types, home remedies, creams, ointments, numbing lotions and just waiting for them to heal.  Well let’s look at three of the results:

• Valacyclovir is a prescription drug used to treat cold sores around the mouth.  It claims to reduce the severity and length of cold sore outbreaks.  It costs about $25 per month (plus the cost of a doctors visit) and comes with the following side effects.
• Abreva is a cream that claims to reduce the length time it takes to heal a cold sore up to 25%.  It comes in a (small really tiny tube 0.07 ounce) that costs about $16.99 at your local Wall-Mart.
• LED (low intensity laser) is a treatment that claims to reduce both the time to heal and the occurrence frequency of cold sore outbreaks.  The products range in price between $90 – $299 and must be carried with you so that when you get that “tingly” feeling you immediately begin to use it to prevent an outbreak.

All of these were listed on the first page when searching.   Let me be honest with you, over the years I have gone deep into the google listings (20+ pages) looking for ANYONE who claimed to be able to PREVENT cold sores rather than treat an outbreak.  I could not find a single one, that had a viable solution.  

I started my journey of a way/product to prevent cold sores (in the 70’s) before ANY of the three options above were around.  As a matter of fact the internet wasn’t even around.  When I finally discovered how to prevent outbreaks with a tiny inexpensive capsule (non prescription for pennies a day) that could be taken with dinner daily (in the 90’s), these products were not available.

A typical outbreak lasts 7-10 days, and the most optimistic of the top three treatment claims to reduce healing time from 7-10 days to 4-5 days.  I don’t know about you but when I suffered from embarrassing cold sores, reducing the time I had to try and cover them up was better than nothing but NOT a solution.

In next weeks post we will begin to review my journey into finding a fool-proof way to prevent 100% of cold sore outbreaks.  We will discuss the culprit, the HSV-1 virus and why it is so hard to find a solution to problem that 67% of the population has by age 50.

I hope you find this information both helpful and informative, and discover that it is possible to prevent cold sore outbreaks.