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get rid of a cold sore FAST?!
i NEED to get rid of a cold sore FAST! i have one day so please answer this asap! i have an interview that it needs to be gone for. i don't have time to go to the doctor and get "speacial cold sore cream" i tried abreva for like a week but it didn't work. i think it showed up because i was stressed. i i tried campho-phenique, aftershave, and now neosporin. any advice? im 14 if that's in any case important? haha thanks!
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your screwed you cant get rid of it in one day and scince your fourteen (im 13) if you dont want the cold sores stop kissing!!!!!
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There is no way to get rid of the sore in one day. Period. It's a disease, not a pimple.
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WAIT! Please, please, PLEASE do NOT put nail polish remover onto your coldsore! DO NOT! That is not using your head.
A coldsore is HSV-1. That's herpes. It's, actually, what we typically refer to as oral herpes.
A herpes outbreak (coldsore, feverblister, or whatever you want to call it) can very much come from stress. When it blisters out it's at it's peak shedding rate. This means a lot of the infected (diseased) cells are shedding off very rapidly. Your body will never get rid of the virus so every now and again the virus will try to shed a little bit. It's just what it does and you will have to deal with for forever.
Some people are extremely lucky and only have outbreaks once every 10 years while others have an outbreak every month. It varies, which you may already know.
Now, since this isn't like a pimple, scrape, or typical wound then the typical treatments don't really work. You aren't going to magically dry it up with nail polish remover, it is only going to cause you A LOT of discomfort. The skin is very sensitive at the outbreak area and applying something like this can really actually cause more damage and leave your lip with a scar. Who wants herpes scars, right?
There are some things that can help speed up the healing but it just won't go away overnight, especially if it's already blistered out. Sometimes--SOMETIMES--you can stop the rapid shedding before it surfaces but once it swells up or breaks the skin then you just have to wait for you body to heal that area.
In the meantime, you can help the body heal. L-lysine is wonderful for reducing outbreak occurrences and healing damaged skin but you have to take it accordingly:
Take up to 4000mg of L-Lysine tablets each day for 2 weeks straight. At the end of 2 weeks--STOP for at least 2 weeks. This method makes sure your body doesn't get "used" to getting so much l-lysine and so the tablets still work like you want them to.
Outbreaks can occur when you ingest a lot of foods with L-Arginine, like wheat products. Your body NEEDS L-Arginine though you don't want to get rid of it completely, you just want to reduce the amount in your body, especially near breakout times. L-Lysine counteracts the L-Arginine and doesn't let it be absorbed by the body as much. L-Arginine is something that sort-of feeds the herpes virus to replicate quickly. It's a little confusing so we just won't go into it.
Water. You need to drink A LOT of pure, clean water with no additives right now. Being properly hydrated helps your skin to repair quickly. Make sure you drink lots and lots of water.
Don't mess with it. Touching the outbreak area can help it spread on out from your lips. There are many cases where the herpes sores spread to the face and upward. In very, very rare cases it has even spread into brain tissue and can lead to death. It's important to do your best at not spreading it. Wash your hands before AND after if you absolutely must touch it (like to apply ointments or creams). Try to keep the area from sticking onto anything like cotton or clothing.
Now, for healing the skin and boosting immunity, try some:
*Vitamin C with Bioflavonoids- Take between 1000 - 2000mg every day. You do not need to be experiencing an outbreak to take this and you should take it every day--your body will not become "immune" to it.
*Zinc - Take 20mg to 50mg per day, outbreak or not.
*Echinacea - Take for 2 weeks and then stop for 2 weeks. You may repeat process until desired time. Take 1000mg daily as directed on the bottle.
*Vitamin B Complex - Take one daily, outbreak or not.
*Multi-vitamin - You should be taking a multivitamin tablet every day--outbreak or not.
Putting alcohol, nail polish remover, or anything else meant to be "drying" to the skin is not a smart move. Many times the outbreak occurs when the area is too dry anyway. Drying the area around the sore can actually cause it to spread on out, too. The pain is not worth it. It won't get rid of it. It isn't going to make it go away any faster than normal because it's harmful to the skin. Moisturizing the area is a much wiser choice.
If you use chapstick on the area then don't use it on other parts of your lips in case it picks up infected cells shedding off of your sore.
Do NOT apply make-up the the sore or the surrounding area. You can easily end up putting the infected bits elsewhere on your face or in your cosmetic bag. I know it's ugly but sometimes it's better to just face the issue right now and let it heal later. People who interview (or all sorts of things) have seen this before and are well aware that it does go away.
The more you stress, the more likely you are to experience an outbreak. What's done is done and there is no taking this back. Try to relax and tend to your body now. It is important to do everything you can to boost your immune system to decrease outbreaks. You should begin avoiding chocolate and direct sunlight, as both can trigger severe outbreaks.
There are some over the counter topical treatments you can pick up at your local pharmacy (or even WalMart stores). Go down the chapstick aisle and there should be a nice handful of ointments, creams, and helpful applications to try out. The best one I've found is using Herplex (a $10 bottle of pills walmart sold that was homeopathic remedy for it) and a little glass vial of clear liquid from CVS (but I think walmart sells it in a name-brand version. You can't miss it. It's clear liquid in a small glass vial in the packaging). Releev also has helped me, especially when the sore was just starting out--I've caught it in time with Releev and it hasn't broken the skin in the end so that's REALLY good news.
Do not kiss. Do not engage in oral sex. Do not share drinks. You will only spread the sore to others doing these things. Even after the sore heals, you should still avoid these things for at least 2 weeks. Seriously. Even after it heals it can still be shedding a few extra cells that are infected that you're unaware of.
I have some more links through this Advicenator question you might want to check out sometime: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
I hope it heals quickly. Use your common sense in the meantime.
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I have been getting cold sores/ fever blisters since I was 2 or 3 years old- I am now 20 and have tried tonnnns of treatments and home remedies to get rid of those awful things. If you have a few bucks, stop by cvs or wallgreens or rite aid and pick up some vitamins called Lysine. Take at least 4 of those every day this will also help prevent them in the future. This treatment sounds kinda gross but it truly helps, take a cotton ball and pour some nail polish remover on it and then press it agaisnt the cold sore. It's going to sting and burn a little but it dries up the cold sore quickly. For an over night remedy, apply toothpaste on it before you go to sleep. Hope this helped!
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