Cold sore no more!
A cold sore bubbling up from your lip is unsightly, painful, embarrassing and makes you want to disappear under your duvet. A couple of days before the drama, an unmistakable itching-burning-tenderness around the mouth warns you that the dreaded, disgusting, disfiguring virus is about to strike your exquisite epithelial cells, making your lip look like a cauliflower. A true esthetic and sanitary catastrophe creating days of suffering, distress and misery and knocking your seduction rate well below zero! To add insult to injury, there is no way of covering up the exploding ulcerated mess either, unless you stick a paper bag over your head.
If it’s any consolation, you are not alone in this predicament. These ghastly labial wounds are the bane of 80% of the world population, including celebrities. The herpes simplex virus – code name HSV-1, aka cold sore, fever blister, kissing disease, college disease, wild fire – is a nasty parasite that has been ruining lives for the past 1.6 million years.
Once this horror breaks into your system, it’s impossible to get rid of it. You are stuck with for life. Mostly dormant, it can strike and show its ugly head any time.
Descriptions of vesicular skin lesions have been found on Sumerian clay tablets from around 3000 BC. Hippocrates was the first to record the name herpes – i.e. to creep or to crawl. Roman physicians unsuccessfully prescribed snail ashes to the poor infected victims. Emperor Tiberius tried to quell a cold sore epidemic in Rome by banning kissing at public celebrations, events, and ceremonies. Roman encyclopedist Cornelius Celsus’ remedy was even more radical: the dear boy recommended cauterizing the sores with a red-hot iron.
Happily, there are more elegant, efficient and eco-friendly ways to neutralize the revolting red beast:
Mix 2 drops of Tea tree essential oil, 2 drops of Niaouli essential oil and 2 drops of Ravintsara essential oil with half a teaspoon of coconut oil and you have the holy trinity of cold sore destruction. Spread this miracle mixture on the crisis zone 4 or 5 times a day
You can also pack a mean punch against the gnarly non-grata with Peppermint essential oil. A study showed that a few hours was all it took to destroy 99% of the virus. And if you mix 1 drop of this magic liquid with 2 drops of coconut oil or honey – another unexpected sore buster – you send this barnacle ad patres dead fast.
In small study, with patients who applied honey 4 times a day, the outbreak healed in 3 days compared with 6 days for the usual prescription cream. And better even, those patients who applied topical honey on the sensitive area at the first warning signs of impeding explosion, actually prevented the outbreak.
Add some Zinc supplements for extra defense. According to Canadian scientists, if you take this wonderful trace element within a day of your flare, you’ll have a much shorter misery duration.
You’ll find more totally unexpected and amazing tips to fight this villain and other annoying outbreaks in:
Le Dictionnaire à tout faire
