Thursday, March 14, 2024

How To Make Herpes Go Away Faster

Can You Get Herpes On Your Tongue

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While you may associate herpes type 1 with cold sores on your lips, it is possible to suffer from the symptoms of herpes on your tongue. This is referred to as oral herpes and usually affects more of your mouth than just your tongue. More than half of all adults in the United States are thought to have oral herpes.

Understanding Herpes With H Hunter Handsfield Md

Herpes expert H. Hunter Handsfield, MD, explains the basics about genital herpes, including the difference between genital HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection, testing options and the importance of knowing virus type, and the three-prong strategy for prevention. See more herpes videos at sexualhealthTV.com.

Have a question about herpes youd like Dr. Handsfield or our other experts to answer? Visit our Ask the Experts page to learn how.

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What Causes Genital Herpes

Eight species of viruses in the herpesvirus family are currently known to infect humans, but only two of them cause genital herpes. The most common cause is herpes simplex virus type 2.

It is also a cause of genital herpes, the herpes simplex virus type 1, well known because it is the main cause of the disease in the parts of the body located above the shoulders such as the face, eyes and mouth.

Sometimes we confuse the causes of genital herpes with the triggers. Stress, prolonged exposure to the sun, and wearing clothes that are too tight on the body are all factors that can cause herpes outbreaks in people infected with the virus, but they are not the real cause.

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How To Treat Herpes

This article was medically reviewed by Luba Lee, FNP-BC, MS. Luba Lee, FNP-BC is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and educator in Tennessee with over a decade of clinical experience. Luba has certifications in Pediatric Advanced Life Support , Emergency Medicine, Advanced Cardiac Life Support , Team Building, and Critical Care Nursing. She received her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Tennessee in 2006.There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,634,244 times.

Herpes is an outbreak of painful, itchy blisters caused by a viral infection. While there is no cure for herpes, antiviral medications can relieve symptoms and shorten an outbreak’s duration. There are also steps you can take on your own to ease your discomfort. To reduce the risk of subsequent outbreaks, maintain a healthy diet, get 7 to 9 hours of sleep nightly, and try to keep your stress levels in check.

Drying Out Herpes Blisters Quickly

Natural Cold Sores Treatment  What Helps Cold Sores Go Away Faster ...
r35506

Hi all,

Used to quite an active member but have generally come to terms a little with my illness over the past ten months. As a back story I caught herpes off my new partner. He didnt know he had it and it was a terribly tough time. Ive been through a major depressive period, but to those of you struggling, there is light at the end of the tunnel. On suppressive therapy and looking after myself I have been herpes free for about 8 months which has been awesome.

Unfortunately Ive just been on holiday and got a little lazy in taking my daily tablets And here I am. 5 days into an awful outbreak.

Has anyone got any advice on how to heal the broken sores quicker ? Ive been bathing and keeping them clean, washing with soap and water and applying some witch hazel but this is dragging out now, some of the sores are still not drying and obviously it is irritated and causing me pain. Walking and sitting in my work clothes is not comfortable and I just want this to end ASAP ! I forgot how annoying the outbreaks are!!

Do any of you apply anything directly to your sores ? Bearing in mind I am female and this is already a sensitive area and I dont want to irritate myself further

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, willing to try absolutely anything at the moment.

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When Treatments For Genital Herpes Are Given

  • Initial treatment. If you have symptoms such as sores when you’re first diagnosed with genital herpes, your doctor will usually give you a brief course of antiviral therapy to relieve them or prevent them from getting worse. Your doctor may keep you on the drugs longer if the sores don’t heal in that time.

After the first treatment, work with your doctor to come up with the best way to take antiviral therapies. There are two options:

  • Intermittent treatment. Your doctor may prescribe an antiviral drug for you to keep on hand in case you have another flare-up this is called intermittent therapy. You can take the pills for two to five days as soon as you notice sores or when you feel an outbreak coming on. Sores will heal and disappear on their own, but taking the drugs can make the symptoms less severe and make them go away faster.
  • Suppressive treatment. If you have outbreaks often, you may want to consider taking an antiviral drug every day. Doctors call this suppressive therapy. For someone who has more than six outbreaks a year, suppressive therapy can reduce the number of outbreaks by 70% to 80%. Many people who take the antiviral drugs daily have no outbreaks at all.

There is no set number of outbreaks per year that doctors use to decide when someone should start suppressive therapy. Rather, more important factors are how often the outbreaks happen and if they are severe enough to interfere with your life.

Continued

What Are The Risk Factors For Herpes

Some risk factors for herpes may include:

-Having unprotected sex

-Having sex with multiple partners

-Kissing someone with a herpes virus that is active

-Abuse of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs

-Spreading the virus by touching a cold sore and then touching something else

-Having an autoimmune disorder or illness, such as hepatitis or HIV/AIDS

-Poor eating habits that cause nutritional deficiencies

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Genital Herpes Treatment In Pregnancy

You may be offered antiviral treatment:

  • to treat outbreaks in pregnancy
  • from 36 weeks to reduce the chance of an outbreak during birth
  • from diagnosis until the birth if you first get herpes after 28 weeks of pregnancy

Many women with genital herpes have a vaginal delivery. You may be offered a caesarean, depending on your circumstances.

How To Prevent Cold Sores

How Can I Make a Cold Go Away Quickly?

The virus that causes cold sores, herpes simplex virus type 1, is a lifelong problem, but there are measures you can take to prevent outbreaks.

Replace your toothbrush after a cold sore. The virus can live on your toothbrush for days, and if you use a contaminated toothbrush, your lips could become re-infected.

Avoid triggers for cold sores, which can be different for each person. Some common cold sore triggers are stress, hormonal changes, illness and physical strain. Once you know your personal triggers, you can be mindful to avoid them.

Taking care of your lips with a sunblock lip balm can help prevent cold sores from other triggers, such as exposure to sunlight and dry, cracked lips. There are even lip balms specifically designed to help prevent and treat cold sore outbreaks. While this isnt a guarantee to stop cold sores, keeping your lips moisturized and protected from the sun is an easy daily step for prevention.

If you suffer from cold sores often, your dentist may recommend taking an antiviral medication regularly to help prevent outbreaks.

Although there isnt a cure for the common cold sore, there are plenty of ways to cope with it. Finding the right treatment for you might take a bit of trial and error, but with these options, you can find one that works best for you and get back to your healthy smile.

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The Early Warning Signs Of Genital Herpes

Once you learn to identify the early warning signs of a genital herpes outbreak, you can take action to avoid the worst outbreak symptoms.

The most common sign of genital herpes is the development of blisters around the genital area. Herpes simplex blisters are often itchy and painful.

Other symptoms may accompany the blisters to indicate early warning signs of genital herpes:

  • -Difficult or painful urination
  • -Wash your hands immediately after any possible contact with sores to prevent the spread of infection
  • -Take medication as directed by your healthcare professional
  • -Use natural treatments known to reduce discomfort and accelerate healing
  • -Use foods and supplements known to strengthen your immune system
  • -Use the Luminance RED on current outbreaks and in-between

Faqs About Cold Sores Answered

Most cases of genital herpes are caused by HSV-2. Since sexual contact is the major means by which genital herpes is transmitted, the illness does not usually arise before adolescence. When a child develops genital herpes, healthcare providers must consider the possibility of abuse. This is true whenever a person contracts a sexually transmitted disease prior to the teen years.

People at heightened risk for HSV-2 infection include those who have multiple sexual partners, women, people with low incomes, and those infected with human immunodeficiency virus . In fact, among people who tested positive for HIV, one study found that the prevalence of HSV-2 infections ranged from 70 to more than 90 percent.

  • A herpes sore on any part of the body
  • Saliva, if your partner has oral herpes, or genital fluids, if your partner has genital herpes
  • Skin around the mouth if your partner has an oral herpes infection, or the skin in the genital region of a partner who has genital herpes

You can catch genital herpes from a partner who has no visible sores, or from a partner who doesnt know that they have the infection. But a person is most infectious during their first outbreak of herpes, when they have sores, and during later outbreaks that produce sores.

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Is There Any Resistance To Genital Herpes Medication

Resistance to drugs that treat genital herpes even after 20 years of use is very rare. Herpes medications may not work as well in patients who are very immunosuppressed and have been treated with these drugs for a long time. Each individuals response to treatment may vary. In some cases, patients may need more drugs to suppress their viral outbreaks than others.

Treatment For Genital Herpes

How to Heal a Herpes Outbreak Quickly: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

There is no medication to cure your body of the herpes virus. Treatment is aimed at easing symptoms, reducing the frequency of recurrences and reducing transmission.

Symptoms can be improved by:

  • ice packs to the affected area
  • pain-relieving medication such as paracetamol
  • antiviral medication such as acyclovir, famciclovir and valaciclovir. These can reduce the severity of an episode if taken early enough . Topical antivirals usually used for cold sores on the lips or face are not suitable for use on the genitals.

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Do Herpes Bumps Go Away

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How To Treat Cold Sore Pain

DIY remedies arent likely to make a cold sore disappear anyfaster. But there are things you can do to ease the pain while youre waitingimpatiently for it to heal.

  • Numb the pain: Over-the-counter pain reliever creams such as lidocaine and benzocaine can numb the burning and ease the discomfort. These are often marketed for dental pain, so look for them in the dental section of the drug store.
  • Moisturize: Keep your lip and mouth area moisturized to prevent the sore from drying out and peeling, Dr. Beers says. But if you use lip balm on an active sore, consider it contaminated. Once youve used it on a cold sore, you should throw it away after the sore is better, Dr. Beers says.
  • Cool it: Using a simple cold compress, like ice or a cold, wet rag, can help reduce pain and redness.
  • Hands off: It can take all your self-control not to play with a cold sore, but try to resist the temptation. Its instinct to pick at it and scrape the peeling skin, but you should let it heal itself, Dr. Beers says.
  • Meanwhile, you dont want to inflict these sores on others. Skip the make-out sessions until youve healed and wash your hands often.

    While cold sores are annoying in adults, the virus can be life-threatening in a baby, so take care to steer clear, Dr. Beers advises: As much as you might want to see your niece or nephew or grandbaby, please dont shower them with kisses if you have an active cold sore.

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    Genital Herpes Is Spread By Skin

    The virus can be spread when someone with HSV has an episode or an outbreak characterised by having a sore, blister, ulcer or skin split . It can also be spread between episodes, when there is no sore, blister, ulcer or skin split present called asymptomatic viral shedding.

    During viral shedding the virus is on the skin surface and can be spread through genital skin-to-skin contact, or from the mouth or face to genital skin during contact.

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    The Herpes Simplex Virus Infection infection can hide away in a persons nerve cells for months or years before reappearing and reactivating the infection. Experts suggest that even if antiviral drugs destroy the active parts of the infection, it only takes a small amount of the virus to hide in the nerve cells and become dormant for the herpes virus to continue.

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    Triggers For Cold Sores

    In some people the HSV infection causes cold sores, which erupt following a trigger event such as a cold. This explains the term cold sore. Other triggers that may cause an attack of cold sores include:

    • feverish illnesses, like influenza, or chest infections
    • hormonal changes, such as the menstrual period
    • emotional or physical stress.

    It is important to remember that cold sores are a symptom of ongoing infection rather than a new infection. The sores usually recur in the same place.

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    Why Is Creating An Hsv Vaccine So Difficult

    Herpesviruses can live in your body undetected, meaning your immune system does not react to them right away. The longer the virus goes undetected, the more difficult it is to make an effective vaccine.

    When scientists make vaccines, they target the part of your immune system that recognizes an invader like a virus or bacteria has entered your body. The vaccine then teaches your body how to kill the invader before it makes you sick. If the immune system does not react to HSV right away, a vaccine cannot teach your body how to protect you.

    HSV vaccine studies in animals have had good results. But when these vaccines were studied in humans, they did not work as well. Thats when pharmaceutical companies have to restart their research attempts.

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    How Is Genital Herpes Treated

    There is no cure for the herpes simplex virus. The blisters usually heal and go by themselves, so you may not always need treatment. There is antiviral medicines for herpes, which can: shorten outbreaks, relieve discomfort and stop symptoms from getting worse.

    The antiviral treatment is most effective when you take it within the first five days of symptoms appearing. Avoid touching the blisters as this can also increase the risk of spreading the infection. If your herpes treatment requires you to apply cream to a sore, just gently pat the cream on, being careful not to rub around the surrounding area.

    You can ease your symptoms by:

    • keeping the affected area clean using plain or salt water to prevent blisters or ulcers from becoming infected
    • applying petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, to any blisters or ulcers to reduce the pain when passing urine
    • asking a healthcare provider to recommend painkilling creams
    • avoiding tight clothing because it may irritate the blisters and ulcers.

    Dont have sex until you or your partner have finished your treatment, and the blisters or ulcers have gone. If its your first outbreak, its sometimes advised that you check back with a healthcare provider before having sex again, to ensure that your symptoms have gone.

    Why Does It Take This Long For A Cold Sore To Go Away

    How to Spot Series: Herpes

    There are some stages for the healing of cold sores. The time taken by each stage would be different for everyone. The stages are:Stage 1: The first stage would cause swelling in the affected area where cold sores are formed. The person would experience pain, itching, and tingling symptoms. Burning sensations can also happen to some people during the first stage.Stage 2: During the second stage, the blister would be filled with fluids. The small blisters would mainly form on one side of the lip. During stage 2, the person may also have mild fever mainly in children.

    Stage 3: The blister would burst out during stage 3 of cold sores. After the blisters are burst, the person would experience pain. The impacted area would be very painful for some days.

    This is the most dangerous stage of the cold sores healing time when the cold cores can spread to other people.

    Stage 4: In this stage, the scabs would start forming. The scabbing stage would cause irritation and itching in the affected area. The person may experience bleeding and the scab may start cracking. The scab would fall, and the person would recover completely.

    The healing time for cold sores depends on how long it takes for the scab to form. In some people, the scab may fall off after a long time. Everyone can check with the doctor for any medication or treatment required.

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