If you are among the many thousands of people who endure the misery from cold sores then you’ll be familiar with both the physical discomfort and unsightly facial blemishes that are part of this condition. Although there is no cure for cold sores – once you are infected with the virus it is with you for life – there are a number of things you can do to ease the symptoms of cold sores; namely reducing the discomfort or pain and ensuring the sore heals as quickly as possible and without scarring.
One of the problems of HSV-1 is that once infected it inhabits a sufferer’s body for their entire life. Lying dormant in the nerve cells, it may reoccur when the body’s defenses are reduced, such as when the sufferer is suffering from a cold or from stress, as mentioned previously. As such there is no actual cure for cold sores, although the symptom itself – the sore - may be treated to ensure rapid healing, as well as reducing discomfort and preventing the likelihood of reoccurrence.
The only way of ensuring you don’t suffer from cold sores is to make sure you don’t get infected by the virus in the first place and so you should be careful about kissing anyone who is infected while they have a cold sore. You should also be careful about not being infected through contaminated eating or drinking utensils. Equally, if you are a sufferer you should be careful not to spread the virus to other people.
