Let us start with what a cold sore is.
A cold sore is a blister caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSY). When someone has the virus , it travels to their skin and causes one or more sores.
How long do cold sores last?
The typical cold sore lasts about 1-2 weeks, but some can last up to 4 weeks.
There are treatments you can use to help relieve pain, speed up healing time, reduce the swelling associated with a cold sore, and decrease discomfort in case of fever or pain.
The treatment will depend on the severity of your cold sore. The duration also varies
depending on the treatments you use.
Cold sores are a condition that is not always contagious but can be passed to others. The sores need to be open for an episode to occur. When this occurs, the virus can infect other areas of your body. This is called recurrence and can happen at any point in your life from 6 months to as long as 20 years after outbreak. While it is highly unlikely , recurrence can also happen if you have cold sores during pregnancy, which means these outbreaks could be caused by something else rather than the herpes virus itself.
Stages of a cold sore.
Stage 1:
Itching , tingling, or burning sensations mark the prodrome, or formation stage. The affected area may swell. Your body is reacting to a virus that it cannot see or feel.
Stage 2:
The blisters appear as fluid-filled sacs on top of an area of skin irritation (called the vesicles) . The blisters can be either clear, cloudy white, greyish-white, yellowish whi te, or yellow in colour depending on the severity of your cold sore outbreak.
Stage 3: This is where the blister burst s, and the area may become painful. Normally this can last around 3 days and one need to beware that, it is also the most contagious time of the cold sore.
Stage 4: The skin becomes crusty and scabbed over. This is either not healing or taking much longer than expected to heal or may have created a wound that will take even longer to heal. The pain associated with a cold sore is often worse at this stage as well as your fever may have gone down. You now have herpes zoster (shingles). The blisters appear as fluid-filled sacs on top of an area of skin irritation (called the vesicles) .
Stage 5: The scab falls off and the cold sore is completely healed.
Treatment
Cold sores usually heal with or without treatment, but painful or damaged cold sores need treatment . There are several different types of treatments that can help symptoms and speed healing. However, to our knowledge, none of those treatments are quite as fast as herlip’s natural, 8x action formula.
herlip’s rapid relief gel will reduce burning/tingling associated with facial cold sores, soothe inflamed and itchy cold sore area and decrease skin irritation and dryness.
Herlip helps reduce symptoms of minor skin wounds (cuts, scratches, and abrasions) with antiseptic properties for minor cuts and abrasions. Traditionally used in Western herbal medicine to support wound healing and skin regeneration.
If applied at the blister or cold sore ulcer stage, you may see the visible difference
in the appearance of cold sore within 24 hours. If treated at the first sensation, you
may prevent the cold sore outbreak.
Why not try it yourself? View our cold sore treatment here