When you are looking for a suitable treatment for cold sores it can be hard finding the right one.
If you opt for over the counter remedies which are prescription strength or you can look towards more natural methods - some of which are highly successful in treating cold sores.
You must be aware though that prescription drugs and plants can cause effects which are secondary and these can trigger complications.
If you are looking for a natural method to treat cold sores you might have heard of using things such as sage, undaria pinnatifida, rhubarb, black current and Echinacea as they have been used for years.
Echinacea and its use when treating cold sores was studied by a group from the University of Ottawa and it was found that the plant was able to exert a positive influence over the virus that causes cold sores and this lead to a reduction in episodes of blisters and the spread of the virus was also halted.
In similar lab-based studies black current was also shown to be beneficial to anyone who was suffering from the herpes simplex type 1 virus as it also helped to reduce the symptoms of an outbreak on patients studied.
Sage, on the other hand is not thought to be as effective when used alone in the treatment of cold sores, instead it should be used with rhubarb - it is especially effective is mixed together in a cream.
Such a mixture in a cream is known as a topical cream and can provide the same results as acyclovir cream.
Wakame as it is known in Japan, or undaria pinnatifida is a type of herb that can also reduce the length of blister outbreaks and it can also reduce the number of outbreaks that occur in a person.
This results in the virus being kept under control as it lays dormant for longer which means its spread is halted.