Go Stress-Free to Go Cold Sore-Free in 2019
Stress is a big part of the start of a new year. After going through the planning and purchasing of Christmas, we have to yet again face reality head-on in the new year while also feeling the pressure of our resolutions and the desire to make a successful start.
Unfortunately, as we all know, stress can help activate cold sores. So, what can be done to try and ensure that you get the new year off to a great start with the minimum amount of stress and lowest possible chance of developing a cold sore?
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Your Christmas Cold Sore Remedy Options
No one wants a cold sore at Christmas. In fact, who wants one at any time of the year? Yes, not only can cold sores be itchy, uncomfortable and painful, but they can also be unsightly and difficult to conceal.
Of course, eating well and staying stress-free in the build-up to Christmas is the best way to prevent a cold sore from appearing in the first place but, unfortunately, doing this is no guarantee of guarding against an outbreak. The next best option would be the timely application of an effective cold sore remedy in the hope of healing the cold sore before Christmas, but if neither of these measures can be achieved and you find that you are sporting a large and conspicuous cold sore for your workplace Christmas party or family Christmas Day gathering, what are your options?
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Are cold sore outbreaks determined by your genes?
How can it be that around nine in ten people carry the cold sore virus yet only two in ten of sufferers develop symptoms, let alone the kind of persistent outbreaks that can lead to them relying on cold sore treatment five or six times a year?
Most of us pick up the virus during childhood and, if we do go on to develop outbreaks, may only do so once we reach our adolescent years – an age when we are particularly sensitive to the aesthetic effects of the blisters around our mouths and noses that can last for as long as a couple of weeks.
For a long time, virologists were completely perplexed by the question and postulated that cold sore outbreaks were a product of a rundown immune system, but without exhaustive data to back up their position, this was never more than a convincing but unproven theory.
Read more: Are cold sore outbreaks determined by your genes?
The Three Main Types of Sore
For many people, particularly those who have not suffered from cold sores in the past, it can be difficult to know whether the sore on or around your mouth should prompt a call to the doctor or simply an application of the best cold sore treatment in your cupboard.
With this in mind, it can be helpful to be able to differentiate between the three major types of sore that can develop around the mouth: cold sores, canker sores or, most worrying of all, lesions that may be a sign of cancer. Here we briefly summarise each of the three types so that you can work out whether you need to book an appointment with your GP or simply begin a course of the best cold sore treatment.
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Dreaming of a Cold Sore-Free Christmas
There’s a popular meme doing the rounds again this year. It goes something like this:
“How to tell it’s time to start thinking about Christmas: ask yourself if it’s December yet. If the answer is “no”, it’s not time yet.”
At the risk of provoking the ire of die-hard Decemberists, now may be a good time to begin planning your cold-sore free Christmas. This is because, as we all know, as the cold and windchill factors increase over the Northern Hemisphere during the autumn and winter months approaching Christmas, so too does the cold sore risk.
But does this mean that we should just give in to the inevitability of winter outbreaks and begin to prepare by asking Santa for a stocking stuffed full of cold sore cream?
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