How To Get Rid of a Cold Sore

Cold sore, canker sore, fever blister, herpe...whatever you want to call it, having a cold sore on your lip is ugly, painful, and frankly, becomes the worst week of your life.  You are embarrassed and don;t want to leave your house.  Some people I know actually take off from work because they don’t want to be seen with these nasty sores on their mouth.  Your husband or wife won’t kiss you.  And forget dating...you are on leave for the week that your cold sore is out.  So what can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.  Well, there are multiple canker sore remedies and herpes relief products, but there is only one way to truly prevent the sore from ever coming out or to limit the amount of time it is present on you lip. The following paragraphs will review the various treatments for cold sores.

The only over-the-counter-medication (OTC) medication that is FDA approved to treat cold sores is Abreva. You might have seen their fancy commercials on television advertising their medication. They also have a fancy website. Abreva’s main ingredient is docosanol, also known as behenyl alcohol. It is a saturated fatty alcohol that is used in many cosmetics. It is thought to have an anti-viral property by inhibiting the fusion of the human host cell with the viral envelope of the herpes virus, thus preventing replication of the virus, which leads to death of the virus.

The makers of Abreva would like for you to believe that if you use their product your cold sore can be treated. Well, not entirely true. The mechanism described above about docosanol inhibiting viral replication has never been proven. So, does Abreva work?

Clinical trials of Abreva for the treatment of oral herpes showed that application of the drug was shown to shorten healing time by an average of 17.5 hours! Wow! You mean that if I use the product, my cold sore might go away 17.5 hours earlier then if I didn’t use the product. Yes...that is the case. But wait, what we don;t hear about are the 3 other trials that did not show any clinical benefit in limiting the treatment time for cold sores. So, at best (only 1 out of 4 trials showed this) Abreva may reduce the amount of time your cold sore is present by 17.5 hours. Is there a better way? How to Get Rid of a Cold Sore.

The herpes virus typically causes some burning or stinging at the site that it is going to expose itself. Hours to days before your cold sore pops out, you may feel some tingling on your lip. If you don’t feel tingling, then the most important thing to recognize is the swelling that occurs on your lip hours before the cold sore comes out. The tingling and the swelling are critical for you to recognize...because once you fell that you have only a few hours to start your treatment.

Your treatment is going to consist of two medications - one you take orally and one you apply topically. The preferred oral medication is Valtrex and the preferred topical medication is Zovirax. The minute you feel tingling or swelling on your lip and start these medications, the less chance that your cold sore will come out. In fact, some people say that they never get cold sores any more because they do this regimen. In fact some people who are so afraid of cold sores, take a daily low dose of Valtrex as prophylaxis to cold sores.

Apply the Zovirax to your lip every 1-2 hours for a day.  The Valtrex is taken twice to three times a day for two days.

These medications are by prescription only.  So you should not be using them unless you have seen a physician.  If your physician thinks that you are a good candidate and the medications are safe for you, then ask for a prescription.  Remember, these medications also have side affects.  Therefore it is mandatory that you only take these medications while under the care of a physician.