Home treatment for cold sore herpes

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Cold sores sometimes resolve on its own within a week or two, but if they don’t then you definitely need to take help from your GP. You have mentioned that you have been already prescribed some medications for this. Your GP might have prescribed you medicines to fight against the virus. This is called antiviral medicine. It can help reduce pain and make your symptoms go away sooner. Medicines used to treat mouth sores include Acyclovir, Famciclovir and Valacyclovir.you might have been prescribed with any of these. Antiviral skin creams such as 5% acyclovir ointment (Zovirax) and 1% penciclovir cream (Denavir) may also be used. Though they are little expensive, often they help to shorten the course of outbreak. In addition to these medicines to treat the herpes simplex virus, a variety of home remedies can be used to address the symptoms of a herpes outbreak, as well as to prevent the frequency and severity of occurrences. I would suggest you to follow your GP’s prescription, take those medicines as prescribed; it will definitely help you for sooner recovery and I will also give you suggestions on to deal with some aspects of the problem yourself to help you reduce the physical pain and other symptoms that go along with having herpes.

The following steps can also help make you feel better:

1.       Apply ice or a warm washcloth to the sores to help ease pain.

2.       Wash the blister gently with germ-fighting (antiseptic) soap and water. This helps prevent spreading the virus to other body areas.

3.       Avoid hot beverages, spicy and salty foods, and citrus.

4.       Gargle with cool water or eat popsicles.

5.       Rinse with salt water.

6.        Take a pain reliever such as paracetamol. You can take upto three paracetamol 500 mg, three times daily 4 hours apart.

7.       Apply sunblock or lip balm containing zinc oxide to your lips before you go outside.

8.       A moisturizing balm to prevent the lips from becoming too dry may also help

9.       Stress and feeling run down can trigger recurrent episodes of cold sores. Taking measures to prevent yourself feeling this way can also help reduce your risk of having an outbreak

Hope this helps. feel free to ask if you have further queries

Thank you.