It is recommended that the best way to treat your cold sore, is to become aware of the symptoms and as soon as you feel them coming on, start applying your treatment. But, now that we know what we are looking out for, what is the best treatment to apply? Well, this is really where personal choice starts to come into play. The reason I say this is because some people want to take a short term strategy which consists of putting a chemical on the sore as soon as they feel an outbreak, whilst others want to use a more natural remedy, which long term could be more prevention than cure. So after taking this into consideration, lets look at what a cold sore is and some of the ways it can be treated. Cold sores originates from the herpes simplex virus. Now there are two types of this virus, type 1 is the cause of cold sores whilst type 2 is behind genital herpes. It is believed that in America alone, approximately 80% of the population carry the virus, but it only breaks out in around 20%. The unfortunate thing is that once you have contracted the herpes simplex virus, you have it for life, so effectively there is no cold sore cure, just cold sore treatment. The other thing to add to that is that treatments on the whole are not necessarily getting rid of the cold sore, but merely controlling the pain, and preventing further outbreaks. But what treatments are available? Well, there are new treatments becoming available all the time. And if you take into consideration that approx 20% of Americans alone have outbreaks, then as you can imagine, the pharmaceutical companies want to have a big share of that market as there is big money to be made. In all fairness, the vast majority of these products are effective, but I feel that they are too short term, and too expensive. Natural home remedies, on the other hand, are more long term, as they can become part of your everyday life, and prevent outbreaks rather than treating an outbreak, and they generally work out cheaper than over the counter treatments. Other treatments that are becoming more popular for treating cold sores are the use of essential oils. And it seems to be quite interesting that the medical community are starting to embrace the use of essential oils as treatment for cold sores, and even genital herpes. One thing that has to be taken into account with essential oils is that you get what you pay for, so if this is a route you want to use, then make sure you use good therapeutic grade oils. Some people even suggest that you should use organic oil, but that comes down to individual choice in my opinion. If you want to use oil as a treatment for your cold sore, some that have been mentioned to be suitable are Ravansara, and Eugenol.
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