Hi! I have had so many patients complain of this. Cold sores are cause by the Herpes 1 Virus. It it contagious. Sun, diet, stress, menstruation and depression can trigger out breaks. If may that you were stressed out, got a cold sore,they it was time for you period, wham, you got hit again. Some of the things that help avoid an outbreak, or speed up the healing of the one you have is Lysine. You can get that in an health food store. The second is avoiding nuts, peanuts in any form(oil as well) and chocolate. The arginine in theses products encourage outbreaks or makes them last longer. If you smoke, an outbreak will last longer or move to another part of the lips. Eating non-fat yogurt every day will also help prevent an outbreak as well as 200 mg. of Vit and Zinc. Even if you get one, with these, it should not be as bad, and heal quicker. I find a lot of patients that used Camphor-Pheneique or Topical Ayclovir, the pain would stop and it would dry up in 2-3 days. The problem is you have to used them 4-5 times a day and even 1-2 days after. If you treat the existing cold sore for several days after, sometimes it will not travel to another site. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
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Edited by MichaelsMom on May 8 2006 at 7:31pm
