Cold sores are perhaps one of the most frustrating everyday health problems anyone can face. The quicker you can find a cold sore treatment, the quicker you can continuing on smiling!
Brought on by an underlying herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), cold sore blisters are painful and can come with other (sometimes debilitating) symptoms. Another overlooked side-effect of cold sores is reduced confidence, as blisters are often noticeable to others.
Cold sores don’t have to disrupt your life. If you can understand them and recognise when they’re about to appear, you’ll be in a better position to treat cold sores.
In this blog, we’ll outline:
- what cold sores are and how they happen
- what symptoms to look out for before cold sores strike
- the best cold sore treatment
What are cold sores and why do they occur?
What is a cold sore?
Cold sores are red blisters that usually form close to the mouth. Although tiny, they’re often very painful and itchy.
Also called “fever blisters”, they are not caused by fever directly — this is usually just an accompanying symptom.
How cold sores occur
Cold sores first occur when a person contracts the herpes simplex virus type 1. An estimated 3.7 billion people had HSV-1 infection during the same year; which is around 66.6% of the world’s population aged 0 to 49. Herpes simplex is spread by skin-to-skin contact with infected areas.
The virus usually lies dormant in the human body without causing harm. However, when the body is exposed to certain “triggers”, cold sores can occur.
Some of these triggers include:
- stress and fatigue
- viral infections
- hormonal changes
- immune system changes
- exposure to sunlight or wind
- injury to the skin
Symptoms of cold sores
Before cold sore blisters appear, you may experience burning, itching, tingling, stinging, throbbing or numbness. These sensations are an early warning sign that you need to rest and reduce trigger exposure as much as possible.
Once cold sores appear, you may also experience secondary symptoms like:
- fever,
- muscle aches,
- swollen glands in the neck
- reddish, inflamed gums.
Those with newly contracted herpes simplex are particularly vulnerable. Once the body has developed antibodies to fight the virus, secondary symptoms should occur less often and less severely.
The Best Treatment for Cold Sores
Once someone has contracted HSV-1, it never leaves the body, and cold sores can linger for several weeks.
To avoid unnecessary suffering, we’ve developed the Herlip Cold Sore Rapid Relief Gel which makes a visible difference to cold sores within 24 hours.
Herlip gel contains over 20 natural ingredients including nine actives; essential amino acids (lysine and glycine), vitamin B9 (folic acid), Australian manuka honey, zinc oxide, menthol, melissa officinalis (Lemon balm), propolis liquid extract and ubiquinol-10 (Coenzyme Q10).
While you’re using our Herlip Cold Sore Rapid Relief Gel, we recommend resting, avoiding stress and giving yourself time to recover.
herlip® Cold Sore Rapid Relief Gel
Although we advise avoiding cold-sore triggers such as stress, fatigue and illness, we know it can be difficult in today’s fast-paced world.
We understand that simply adding antiviral ingredients would not be sufficient to address the whole range of annoying signs and symptoms of cold sores including pain, itchiness, skin drying and irritation, inflammation and “fever blistering”. That’s why we’ve spent six years developing our herlip® Cold Sore Rapid Relief Gel.
If you are looking for a fast-acting, safe and effective treatment for cold sores, choose herlip® for a soothing, natural solution with visible results in 24 hours.