Ways To Manage Herpes Symptoms
While there is no cure for herpes, and no guaranteed method of preventing the recurrence of herpes outbreaks, the following treatments can help relieve pain and discomfort.
Practice good hygiene. Keep your body clean, wash your hands frequently and try to avoid touching the sores.
Take salt baths. This method can clean, dry and ease the pain of blisters and sores. Mix a few tablespoons of salt in a shallow bath.
Cool the affected area. Applying ice directly to the sores or drying the area with a blow dryer on the cool setting can offer some relief.
Wear loose-fitting clothing. Loose clothing reduces discomfort and promotes healing of the sores. Wear cotton, rather than synthetic underwear.
Wear sun block. Keeping your skin protected can help prevent the recurrence of HSV-1.
Urinate in a cool bath or shower. If you experience painful urination, this process dilutes the urine and prevents burning the sores.
Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water each day.
Practice abstinence when you are experiencing symptoms of herpes. Help prevent the spread of herpes by avoiding sexual activity when you are experiencing any symptoms, including tingling, itching or tenderness at the site of infection.
Take over-the-counter medicines. Reduce fever and tenderness by taking acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen.
Stay stress-free. Lowering stress can boost the immune system and possibly reduce your symptoms.
When Stress Triggers A Herpes Outbreak These Complementary Therapies May Calm It Down
A healthy lifestyle and the right supplements may offer relief from genital herpes.
A healthy lifestyle and the right supplements may offer relief from genital herpes.
Anna Ivanova/Alamy Alamy
A viral infection causes genital herpes, and there is no cure for it. But if you have genital herpes, you can use complementary approaches to reduce how often you have outbreaks. Some alternative therapies can also provide relief from discomfort and pain during outbreaks that do occur.
This kind of viral outbreak , and other viruses, like a cold, is usually related to stress and your immunity, says Lucy Gade, MD, MPH, the medical director at the Center for Wellness and Integrative Medicine at Northwell Health, in Oyster Bay, New York. As a result, an alternative medicine approach to herpes treatment involves making smart lifestyle choices to foster your general wellness. In doing so, you bolster your immune systems ability to fight the two viruses that cause herpes, herpes simplex virus 1 and herpes simplex virus 2 .
A healthy diet, appropriate sleep, finding ways to decrease stressors in your life These alone will make your herpes outbreaks less frequent, says Dr. Gade. Such healthy habits will also improve your overall well-being, lengthen your life, and boost your happiness.
But first, make sure you have an accurate diagnosis for whats causing your symptoms.
Treating A Herpes Cold Sore
Because a herpes cold sore is caused by the virus, it needs to be treated with antiviral medicines. These medicines include:
- Valacyclovir , Famciclovir and Acyclovir . These meds can help to relieve pain and discomfort. Also, they can keep the sores from popping up in the first place. To get the best results, you need to take them before an outbreak occurs. Once the sores are present, these medicines will not help much.
- Prosurx- Nanomedicine HSV-1 & HSV-2 treatment. Prosurx is one of the best over-the-counter topical medicines to treat a herpes cold sore. This cream can provide immediate relief from herpes symptoms. Also, it can help to prevent the sores before they start. Prosurx can attack HSV-1 at its root, thus helping prevent future outbreaks. You can apply this every time you think you have a herpes cold sore. This will stop your outbreak, soothe the symptoms and heal your damaged skin.
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What Triggers Herpes Outbreaks
2018 article , the initial outbreak of genital herpes is usually the result of skin contact, normally during sexual activity, including oral sex. Further outbreaks can be caused by having multiple sexual partners, stress, sunlight, colds, menstruation, and wearing tight clothes.
The American Academy of Dermatology Association writes that cold sores can be triggered by stress, fatigue, colds, flu, strong sunlight, and menstruation.
How To Treat Genital Herpes
There is no cure for genital herpes. It lays dormant in the body for long periods, then reappears as an outbreak of sores.
However, doctors can prescribe medications that reduce the likelihood of recurring outbreaks. These medicines may also lower the risk of transmitting the virus.
When a person has a genital herpes outbreak, they may be able to promote healing and lower the risk of transmitting the virus by:
- avoiding sexual contact with another person until the sores have healed
- keeping the sores clean and dry
- refraining from touching the sores whenever possible
- washing the hands immediately after touching the sores
- using barrier protection during sexual contact until told otherwise by a doctor
The first herpes outbreak is usually the worst subsequent outbreaks tend to become less bothersome.
Genital herpes does not typically cause serious health complications. However, it can make a person more vulnerable to contracting HIV.
If a person has genital herpes sores, viruses and bacteria, including HIV, have more opportunity to enter the body. Avoid scratching the sores, as this can lead to bacterial infection.
Also, having HIV can make genital herpes outbreaks more severe.
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How To Get Rid Of Herpes Naturally
Not every person with a herpes infection actually experiences breakouts of cold sores throughout his or her lifetime or even after initially becoming infected. How often someone has a herpes cold sore outbreak, how severe the outbreaks are, how contagious someone is after infection and how long the sores take to heal all depend on someones individual immune response.
1. Boost Nutrient Intake
If youre going to keep the herpes virus from frequently causing outbreaks, the first step in how to get rid of herpes is to improve immune function by boosting nutrient intake. Include these healing foods in your diet to keep the virus dormant as much as possible:
2. Avoid Inflammatory Foods
Certain foods can raise inflammation, weaken immune defenses and make skin irritation even worse. Avoid the following foods as much as possible to limit outbreak severity and duration.
3. Consider Supplements
- Antiviral herbs: These include elderberry, calendula, echinacea, garlic, astragalus and licorice root.
- L-lysine : Can help treat and prevent outbreaks.
- Lemon balm extract: Apply as a topical cream for healing.
- Vitamin C : Vitamin C boosts immune function improving herpes.
- Zinc : Zinc benefits include supporting immune function, keeping viruses dormant and rebuilding skin tissue to speed up healing.
- B-complex : B vitamins help your body deal with stress and can prevent outbreaks.
4. Try Essential Oils
5. Ease Cold Sore Pain Naturally
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Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
Herpes simplex virus type 1 is the
vast majority of HSV-1 cases affect the mouth and its surrounding area. However, it is possible for HSV-1 to affect other areas of the body, such as the genitals.
HSV-1 often develops during childhood and is a lifelong condition. It can spread through non-sexual contact with saliva, such as kissing.
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How Can I Prevent Genital Herpes
If youre sexually active, you can take these steps to protect yourself and others from the herpes virus and other STIs:
- Be monogamous with one sexual partner or limit your number of partners.
- Get tested for STIs and complete any needed treatment.
- Tell your sexual partners if you have genital herpes so they can get tested.
- Use condoms, including dental dams during oral sex.
- Wash your hands often if you have an outbreak or are around someone with symptoms.
- If your sexual partner has genital herpes, these actions can lower your risk of getting the virus:
- Dont have sex when your partner has active symptoms.
- Make sure your partner takes antiviral medication as prescribed.
- Wait to have sex until scabs fall off.
Prevention Of Genital Herpes
The best protection against STIs is to always use barrier protection such as condoms, female condoms and dams . Because herpes is spread by skin-to-skin contact, condoms will reduce the risk of transmission, but it will not protect sexual partners completely as condoms do not cover the entire genitals.
Using lubricant with a condom during sex will also reduce the risk of trauma to the genital skin. This has been shown to reduce HSV transmission, especially in the first six months of a sexual relationship. Silicone-based lubricants are recommended.
Remember that herpes transmission can occur when symptoms are present , but may also occur even if there are no genital symptoms through asymptomatic viral shedding.
For people who have frequent episodes of genital herpes, antiviral medication, taken daily, helps to reduce transmission of herpes to a sexual partner.
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Home Care Measures For Genital Herpes
First, simple self-care may be enough to relieve most discomfort caused by genital herpes. Taking an over-the-counter pain reliever, such as aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen, can help ease the pain of herpes symptoms. Doctors sometimes recommend soaking the affected area in warm water. But the area should be kept dry most of the time. If toweling off after bathing is uncomfortable, try using a hair dryer. Then put on cotton underwear. Cotton absorbs moisture better than synthetic fabric does.
What Can I Do To Prevent Frequent Herpes Recurrences
There is no need to change your lifestyle or take steps to prevent recurrences until you know whether or not you are going to get any. You will see plenty of internet sites offering dubious treatments that are unnecessary and probably have no effect for treating herpes.
These suggestions to help control outbreaks come from people with genital herpes, based on their own experiences. The HVA cannot confirm that any of them will work for you, but we believe they are worth considering:
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Types Of Antiviral Drugs
There are three oral antivirals recommended for the treatment of oral or genital herpes:
| Famvir, 250 mg | Twice daily |
Preventing genital herpes recurrence is important as it reduces the risk of HIV. According to the CDC, having an active genital herpes infection increases the risk of HIV by 200% to 300%.
Frequently Asked Questionsexpand All
People with HSV-2 infection have an increased risk of getting human immunodeficiency virus if they have sex with an HIV-infected partner. Taking suppressive therapy does not decrease this risk.
If a woman is pregnant and infected with HSV, it can be passed to the fetus during birth while passing through the womans infected birth canal. This is most likely to occur if a woman first becomes infected with HSV during pregnancy and in a woman who has her first outbreak late in pregnancy. But it also can occur during a recurrent outbreak in a woman who was infected before pregnancy, although the risk is much lower.
If you have sores or warning signs of an outbreak at the time of delivery, you may need to have a cesarean delivery to reduce chance of infection. The decision depends on many factors, including where the sores are on your body and whether the fetus would come into contact with them during delivery.
Yes, in most cases. The herpes virus cannot be passed to a baby through breast milk. However, the baby could get infected by touching a sore on your body. Make sure any sores that the baby could come into contact with are covered when you hold your baby or while breastfeeding. Wash your hands with soap and water before and after feeding your baby. If you have sores on your breast, you should not breastfeed your baby from that breast.
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What Percentage Of The Population Has Herpes
What percentage of the population has herpes? More than 3.7 billion people under the age of 50 about 67 percent of the global population are infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 , according to a new report from the World Health Organization.
- HSV-2 infection is more common in women than in men (almost 1 out of 9.
- HSV-2 infection is also more common in blacks than in whites
- Genital herpes is common in the United States. More than one out of every six people aged 14 to 49 years have genital herpes.
How To Get Rid Of Genital Herpes Fast: Is It Possible
The herpes simplex virus type 2, better known as genital herpes, is a sexually transmitted infection without a known cure. Although its not yet possible to permanently get rid of genital herpes, a number of techniques are proven to speed up the recovery of an outbreak and reduce unwanted symptoms.
You may recognize a genital herpes outbreak by the appearance of blisters and lesions. Most people experience their first outbreak two to 12 days after initial exposure to the virus. After the blisters break, it may take up to four weeks for herpes ulcers to heal.
After the first outbreak, recurring outbreaks are common but dont last nearly as long. Sores tend to heal within three to seven days in recurring outbreaks, and the number of outbreak periods may even decrease over time.
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What Are Genital Herpes Infections Like
The first herpes infection is usually the worst one. Genital herpes infections come back over and over again. The first time, you may have one sore or many sores. The sores are painful. Some may be hidden inside the urethra. The urethra is the tube that carries urine from your bladder. The sores make urination painful. Some people also have a fever, a sore throat, deep tiredness and body aches. These problems might last three weeks.
After the first infection, HSV sores can come back any time. They often come back when you are sick with something else and when your immune system isnt strong enough. Genital herpes might come back 4 to 6 times a year at first. After a few years, the herpes sores hurt less. They come back less often.
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Apply Hot And Cold Treatment
The application of warm and cool temperature on the painful blisters can help provide relief. The gentle heat stimulates blood circulation in the area, reducing inflammation and promoting healing.
Meanwhile, topical cold helps numb the underlying nerve endings to make you feel less pain, but this only lasts a short while. It also helps bring down swelling.
How to use:
- Take warm showers or soak your body in a warm bath like a sitz bath.
- Apply a cold compress over the affected skin for 10 minutes, every few hours. The simplest way to make your own cold compress is by wrapping a few ice cubes in a soft, clean tea towel.
Note: Dont bathe in hot water as that can be too harsh and drying for your skin. Similarly, dont apply ice directly to your skin as it can cause further damage and even lead to frostbite.
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How Can I Get Rid Of Cold Sores Quickly
They’re painful. They’re unsightly. They’re annoying. Cold sores are just plain unwelcome. When one pops up on your lip or mouth, you probably immediately think: What’s the fastest way to get rid of this thing?
“Herpes simplex virus the virus that causes cold sores is incredibly contagious, and infection with the virus is really common,” says Dr. Donald Brown, primary care practitioner at Houston Methodist. “In fact, more than 50% of adults in the U.S. are infected with the type of herpes virus that most commonly causes cold sores. Interestingly, however, most people who contract the virus never actually develop symptoms.”
If the virus does cause cold sores, it can spread from person-to-person through close contact, like kissing. But, while you may not know it, the virus can also spread by sharing:
- Utensils and drinking glasses
“The virus is most contagious when a cold sore is present, particularly when the blister begins to ooze,” Dr. Brown adds. “However, it’s important to know that you can still spread the virus long after a cold sore heals as well as when a blister isn’t even present.”
For those who are no stranger to those painful, fluid-filled blisters, when you get a cold sore, you probably want it gone fast.