Cold Sore Cure

It is aggravating and humiliating to have an ugly cold sore pop up on your lip just before an important occasion, but it can happen if you are a person who routinely suffers from cold sores. Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus. This virus can lie dormant in a nerve of your face, then travel down the nerve to cause an outbreak at a most inconvenient time, often when you are under stress.

Now there is help in the form of lysine, an essential amino acid which actually seems to counteract the herpes virus. Lysine is an “essential” amino acid because it can not be manufactured in your body, so you have to get it in the foods you eat or in supplement form. It plays an important role in the repair of damaged tissue and in the production of antibodies, hormones and enzymes.

The late Dr. Richard Griffith, professor of medicine at Indiana University, suggested treatment of cold sores with a daily dose of 500 mg of L-lysine per 22 pounds of your weight. If you are 122 pounds, you would take six 500-mg tablets or 3 grams daily. And if you are 185 pounds, you need nine 500-mg tablets daily or 4.5 grams of lysine.

To prevent outbreaks, Dr. Griffith recommended taking a 500-mg tablet daily. If you want to try these megadoses of lysine, talk to your doctor first. If you prefer to get lysine from your diet, choose lean red meat, cheese, milk, eggs, fish, lima beans, potatoes, soy products and yeast.

To enjoy the healing properties of lysine, it may be even more important to avoid foods which contain the amino acid arginine, which blocks lysine’s action. Foods such as peanuts, walnuts, seeds, whole grains, rice and gelatin are very high in arginine. To avoid a cold sore attack, do not eat large servings of these feeds, especially before an important occasion.