gift
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Herbal for cold sore?

 
master pollinator
Posts: 4953
Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee
2118
6
forest garden foraging books food preservation cooking fiber arts bee medical herbs
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I don't get cold sores very often, but I got one today. Boo! My go to is carmex. It works well for me. But I wonder, what would my Permie Herbalists use?
 
pioneer
Posts: 194
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
74
cat forest garden chicken building medical herbs wood heat
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I use marjarom essential oil - one drop on any mouth sore that ails you.
 
Joylynn Hardesty
master pollinator
Posts: 4953
Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee
2118
6
forest garden foraging books food preservation cooking fiber arts bee medical herbs
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Is that 100*/* EO? Or is it mixed in with a carrier oil?

For example, I buy 100*/* oregano EO. But I mix it 1 part oegeno oil with 3 parts olive oil. It's still VERY spicy hot when several drops are mixed in an ounce of water.
 
pioneer
Posts: 415
Location: WV- up in the hills
100
3
hugelkultur personal care foraging rabbit books chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If I can catch it in the "tingly" phase, I can almost stop it from erupting by 2000mg lysine 2x/day for 2 days. I have used oregano oil @ about 1:5 with olive oil carrier. It worked to shorten the eruption but burned like hell. I'm told alum works, but also hurts, used topically.  Otherwise I try to keep it dressed with any waxy film, lip balm.
 
gardener
Posts: 3991
Location: South of Capricorn
2124
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
my go-to is lemon balm (melissa)-- I get cold sores inside the mouth, where it's easier to macerate a leaf and just stick it there for as long as i can stand, but I assume you could make a compress (leaf or tea) as well.
 
Posts: 86
Location: in the Middle Earth of France (18), zone 8a-8b
34
hugelkultur cat dog forest garden tiny house chicken building sheep rocket stoves homestead composting
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm also voting for lemon balm (melissa). If you can detect your cold sore at the tingy stange, run to your herbs, grab some leaves of lemon balm, mush them with your teeth (and saliva...) and place on the tingy spot. Do not press! Just let it rest over that spot.

The last time I used it, I pressed the leafmush firmly agains the tingy spot, just making it spread under the skin. Obviously caught it too late, or it just wanted to show its ugly face again after years of absence.
Being mindful of getting enough rest and vitamines (especially vitC) keeps it in check the best.

Good luck!
 
Elanor Gardner
pioneer
Posts: 194
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
74
cat forest garden chicken building medical herbs wood heat
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Is that 100*/* EO? Or is it mixed in with a carrier oil?

For example, I buy 100*/* oregano EO. But I mix it 1 part oegeno oil with 3 parts olive oil. It's still VERY spicy hot when several drops are mixed in an ounce of water.



I use the marjarom EO full strength, as it is not too strong that it would need to be diluted. Oregano and cinnamon are considered "hot" essential oils, and dilution is very necessary for any mouth application.
 
pollinator
Posts: 51
Location: New Hampshire
27
duck forest garden trees chicken sheep wood heat
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You can try chewing on a high-quality clove. You just want to make sure the clove has its bulb intact.
 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 8375
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
3972
4
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm interested in what people come up with here. Not that I need it much now, but I used to get cold sores fairly frequently. I think it was a side effect of feeling rundown. Maybe hormonal - but they did seem to hit me when I was down already! My sister said the tannin in cold tea was good - dab a used teabag on - but I never felt it helped me very much . It was soothing at the time, but didn't seem to shorten the sore period.
Since I made a life change and moved out of the rat race and away from suburbia, I have only had one or two pop up - I definitely felt for me they were stress related.
 
Tereza Okava
gardener
Posts: 3991
Location: South of Capricorn
2124
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Nancy Reading wrote:I'm interested in what people come up with here. Not that I need it much now, but I used to get cold sores fairly frequently. I think it was a side effect of feeling rundown. ... Since I made a life change and moved out of the rat race and away from suburbia, I have only had one or two pop up - I definitely felt for me they were stress related.


That would make sense, and I agree. I used to get them regularly, the week before I traveled with my daughter to stay a month with my mother every year. In fact I made sure she had a lemon balm plant there in her garden!!! I don't know if it helped but it made me feel better. Now that I do that trip with less stress and fewer obligations (and my work is less stressful as time goes by), it is rare for me to get a sore.
It's supposedly viral, and viral nasties generally show up when you're run down and stressed, so it stands to reason.
 
Posts: 13
Location: Southern Tier NY; and NJ
3
monies foraging medical herbs
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Lemon balm gets a hearty vote here! Studies have proven it to kill many viruses, including various flu strains and oral herpes (cold sores). I made a lip balm from it and my husband's annual 2-week cold sore was only 1 week, and half the size and half the pain.
 
pollinator
Posts: 121
33
trees books cooking fiber arts writing
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Interesting topic - I've always used topical application of alcohol - isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) or perfume (not eau de toilette though) as soon as that first prickly feeling appears.  Cold sore doesn't develop apart from minor swelling and redness which clears away quickly.
I guess vodka or other spirits might work too if they are available.
 
Deedee Dezso
pioneer
Posts: 415
Location: WV- up in the hills
100
3
hugelkultur personal care foraging rabbit books chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Mine do pop after a high stress event.

Lemon balm?  I think I can make a lemon balm ointment/ lip balm. And maybe there's a way to add some lysine!
 
Posts: 81
14
cat trees urban
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Kim Wills wrote:Lemon balm gets a hearty vote here! Studies have proven it to kill many viruses, including various flu strains and oral herpes (cold sores). I made a lip balm from it and my husband's annual 2-week cold sore was only 1 week, and half the size and half the pain.



"the study showed that lemon balm essential oil could inhibit influenza virus replication through different replication cycle steps especially throughout the direct interaction with the virus particles."

Antiviral activity of the oseltamivir and Melissa officinalis L. essential oil against avian influenza A virus (H9N2).
Pourghanbari et al.
Virusdisease. 2016 Jun;27(2):170-8. doi: 10.1007/s13337-016-0321-0. Epub 2016 May 21. PMID: 27366768; PMCID: PMC4908999.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4908999/
 
Ac Baker
Posts: 81
14
cat trees urban
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My lemon balm dies right back in the winter, as it is now.  I guess a tisane of the lightly dried leaves, or freezing the fresh leaves in ice cubes, are practical ways to have it available in winter.
 
steward
Posts: 16058
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4272
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have never had a cold sore though dear hubby uses what was mentioned in the first post.

I would try aloe vera if I ever get one.
gift
 
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic