Could housing stress be responsible for your cold sore outbreak?
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- Published: Friday, 03 May 2019 18:26 Follow @Herstat
We all know that too much stress and insecurity can have a detrimental effect on our health, wellbeing and immune systems and, for those who carry the virus, increased reliance on cold sore creams.
This above is of course true for everyone, but according to a new piece of research at the University of Stirling, tenants are at increased risk of poor health because of the difficulties they encounter in “feeling at home”.
This should come as little surprise; home is one of the great subjects, alongside love, family, death and sex, and if there is any question of doubt about the security of home it can be extremely destabilising.
The study, which Stirling University performed in conjunction with Dr Lisa Garnham from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, looked at various types of rental housing arrangements and their respective impacts on the health and wellbeing of the tenants concerned.
Crucially, it identified how the behaviour and standards of landlords and housing associations can influence the health and wellbeing of tenants and called for more to be done to ensure that everyone involved better appreciates the issues at stake.
However, the study identified the dearth of social housing and the expense and deregulation of the private sector as the major issues affecting tenants; around 1 in 6 people in the UK lives in privately rented accommodation.
The study’s lead author, Dr Steve Rolfe, Research Fellow in Housing Studies at the University of Stirling, commented, “Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference. Tenants told us how important it was to have a named member of staff to contact, who actually knew them and understood their circumstances. Where housing organisations can provide this personal connection for tenants, it helps them to settle quickly into their new tenancy, feel at home and, therefore, have better health and wellbeing outcomes. And that also means the rent keeps coming in for the organisation.”
Cold sore cream for challenging times
It is no accident that so many people are prone to cold sores during stressful events related to home and housing.
In fact, it is not only tenants who suffer this plight; even homeowners may be more likely to have a cold sore outbreak when experiencing the stress of moving house, while those who are returning ‘home’ to their parents for Christmas or another event are similarly at risk of a cold sore outbreak.
Fortunately, with Herstat’s cold sore cream you can feel confident that you can nip any outbreak in the bud, reducing the duration and intensity of cold sore symptoms. You can also check out our top tips for reducing stress to help your immune system so you have a better chance of avoiding an outbreak in the first place.