The Phases of Cold Sores Without Therapy

Cold sores are horrible to deal with and can easily be very annoying when you keep getting them over and over. Since cold sores are a viral infection, they will certainly clear on their own like any other self-limiting viral infection. However, that isn't really much comfort when you have a social event coming up and you are stuck with an ugly cold sore!

Let's take a look at the numerous stages of cold sores and what can be done to lessen the pain and the severity of the sore.

Stage 1 - Latent:

The herpes simplex virus (or cold sore virus) is hiding near the back of your jaw in the nerve ganglia.

The cold sore virus could possibly remain dormant for weeks or even years without an outbreak. Your body's defense system can easily keep it in check. When you experience additional illnesses and your body's defense is down, the virus can easily awaken.

Note: Stages 2 through 8 are very active phases and you are incredibly contagious. You can pass it on to others or you can transfer it to additional parts of your body by touching the sore and not cleansing your hands. The average life span of the virus is 3 to 4 weeks.

Phase 2 - Prodrome:

The cold sore virus travels down your nerve fibers and heads for the surface. You will start experiencing an itchy or tingling sensation. The surface area could start burning and become very dry. This phase can last a couple of hours or even a few days.

Stage 3 - Inflammation:

The cold sore virus has now reached the surface of your skin and starts its reproductive cycle by incorporating cells at the end of the nerve. This is followed by swelling and redness at the cold sore site. Your cells are responding to the invasion of the herpes infection.

Stage 4 - Pre Sore:

The cold sore is now fully visible. Understand, a cold sore is not always one huge blister; it can be a cluster of little blisters. You could see them as tiny, difficult pimples that are extremely sensitive to the touch.

Stage 5 - The Open Sore:

You are now at the most contagious and most painful stage of the virus, and touching the fluid can spread the cold sore virus to additional areas of your body or to someone else.

In some extreme situations, you may establish a fever and/or swollen lymph glands under the jaw line.

Phase 6 - Crusting:

At some point your cold sore will form a crusty appearance or a scab. This is, in fact, the start of the recovery process. This phase is still pretty unpleasant, even more uncomfortable is the sore beginning to hurt due to smiling, talking, or eating.

Stage 7 - Recovery:

Once a cold sore has actually scabbed, the healing process is happening from the inside out. You will certainly continue to experience itching, irritation, and some pain due to brand-new skin forming under the scab.

Phase 8 - Post Scab:

At this phase, the cold sore is no longer visible and your skin has recovered.

This does not mean all is finished and done. Under the new skin, healing is still going on. This can easily produce a reddish area that can stick around for an additional 2 to 14 days, depending on how quickly your healing process takes place.

Caution: You are still contagious until all red spots have totally disappeared.

Treatments:

The majority of professionals report that, to date, there are no cures for cold sores. That is, only true as far as typical medication is concerned. Non-prescription therapies can certainly offer you some sense of relief from the itching, burning an inflammation.

Some medications do contain an anti-bacterial to prevent secondary infections, and some offer numbing agents to considerably assist in relieving the discomfort. Discover just how you can copy the hundreds of individuals who have successfully done away with their cold sores, and stopped further outbreaks utilizing an easy technique the drug business wishes you will never ever hear about.