Ah, cold sores. Good times! 🙂 There is nothing worse than a cold sore staring back at you in the mirror. And, if you can’t hunker down in the darkness of your basement and wait it out, there are a couple of things you can do to minimize the appearance and duration of a cold sore.
- Run to the pharmacy and grab some Abreva. It’s over the counter {fair warning: it’s a bit pricey}, but it will take that baby down pretty quick {it won’t cure it, but it will minimize the symptoms}. It’s important to do this at the very first sign of a cold sore, though, for it to work effectively.
- Apply a cold compress–or even better apply moistened and then frozen green tea bags. It will help with the inflammation and take some of the red out. This is a good one if you are looking for a little more natural solution.
- If you really want herpes to forget your name, you can get a prescription from your doctor. This might be an option if you are getting cold sores frequently.
- Little known fact: Visine will take the red out. Put a couple of drops on your cold sore before applying your make-up. It will reduce the redness {and appearance} of the sore. Meanwhile, make sure you wash your hands after applying make-up to a cold sore–or throw the application sponge away. You can totally spread cold sores if you aren’t vigilant.
- Avoid the sun like the plaque when you have a cold sore. It can aggravate them and make them worse. While you are at it, try to minimize stress–stress also makes cold sores worse. {Both of those can trigger the cold sore in the first place}.
- Like I said, cold sores are contagious, so no making out with the cute pharmacy tech. This is the time to go into make-out seclusion. Even is there is no pharmacy tech in the picture, avoid kissing anyone, sharing toothpastes, toothbrushes {if you share a toothbrush, you’ve got other problems}, etc. Keep hands clean too-you can spread cold sores to other parts of your body, particularly your eyes {closest mucus membrane}.
- Okay, so this one pretty much applies to all of the life’s unfortunate mishaps, but practice a healthy lifestyle. Get plenty of sleep, water, healthy diet and exercise. It will minimize the inflammation in your body, and make cold sores a waaaay less common occurrence.
How about you, do you have any tricks to getting rid of a cold sore faster?
~Mavis
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