What Causes Cold Sores – Causes and Prevention

It’s a bright and sunny day, you’re walking down the street, looking at the rare sight of the sun, soaking in the vitamin-D through your body. You’re quite relaxed, happy and ready to take on the day. And suddenly you notice that there’s a very small blister-like redness on your face. You try to observe it in the mirror and as you try to touch it, you sense some pain. You show it to a few people and someone suggests that it could be a cold sore.

So, what exactly is a cold sore?

A cold sore – also known as fever blisters – is a group of tiny, painful blisters caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV). These blisters are grouped in patches and usually occur on the lips and around the mouth area, causing pain and/or burning sensation.

Common Symptoms of Cold Sores?

The thing that makes many people victims of cold sores is that you might even know that you have cold sores. That’s because the blisters start appearing only when the herpes simplex virus (HSV) gets activated. So, the HSV virus could be resting inside your body and you could only get to know about them only when cold sores start appearing.

As first symptom, you could start feeling tingles, burns, or itches at a particular spot on your lips or around your mouth. In rare cases, it could also result in swollen glands in your neck and other parts of your body. In 12 to 24 hours, visible blisters get formed and that spot becomes quite painful. After the appearance of blisters, cold sores break open and fluid comes out. This could last for 2-3 days or longer.

During these phases, you could be having some of the following symptoms:

• • Pain in mouth or tongue
• • Lip swelling
• • Difficulty in swallowing
• • Sore throat
• • High body temperature
• • Dehydration
• • Nausea
• • Headaches

You can buy some pain relief products to beat this discomfort and also use deep freeze cold spray 150ml which immediately helps to relieve painful muscles and joints.

What could be Causing Cold Sores?

As we saw earlier, cold sores are caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). In fact, there are two types of HSVs: HSV-1 and HSV-2. This virus spreads through contact with sores or body fluids. Although kissing remains the main way through which the virus spreads, it also spreads by sharing eating utensils or razor with an infected person, or touching that person’s saliva. Moreover, you can get infected by it if you contact the area even when cold sores haven’t appeared. There are other factors which act as triggers for Cold Sores. They are:

• • Having another infection, such as a respiratory tract infection
• • Having a high temperature (fever)
• • Emotional upset or psychological stress
• • Tiredness and fatigue
• • An injury to the affected area
• • Menstruation (periods)
• • Strong sunlight

How is Cold Sores Diagnosed?

Most of the times, doctors can identify cold sores just by looking at the infected area. In rare cases, they swab the blister and clinically test the fluid for HSV.

How can Cold Sores be Treated?

As far as the cure for cold sores is concerned, you might be surprised to know that there’s no cure for it. The virus stays in your body and the blisters usually disappear in one or two weeks. However, you can buy medications from the best online pharmacy UK (with prescription) to speed up the healing process.

Medications:

• • Acyclovir (Zovirax), penciclovir (Denavir), and docosanol (Abreva) creams stop the HSV from spreading through the body and reduce the speed and strength of cold sores.
• • Make an online medicine purchase of Acyclovir (Sitavig, Zovirax), famciclovir (Famvir), or valacyclovir (Valtrex) (You’ll need a prescription to get these).
• • Medicine such as intravenous or IV), cidofovir (Vistide) and foscarnet (Foscavir) can be injected in your bloodstreams if you have a severe case.

How to Prevent Cold Sores?

To keep yourself away from the wrath of cold sores…

• • Avoid kissing and having oral sex with the HSV-infected person.
• • Don’t share utensils with the infected person.

To prevent further breakouts if you’re already infected…

• • Take plenty of rest and don’t take stress.
• • Apply lip-balm and sunscreen.
• • Wash your hands with anti-bacterial soap/hand-wash often and avoid touching your face.
• • Consult your doctor.