In a minute you will know why this virus causes so much damage. You will learn what you can do to prevent it from happening to you or loved ones. Yes. In spite of what you might have heard, your painfully embarrassing cold sores can be prevented. It really is not that hard or expensive.

There are eight different types of herpes viruses. The cold sore herpes virus most often responsible for a cold sore is the herpes simplex type 1. The type 2 version causes about 20% of cold sores. It does not really matter. The cold sores are identical in looks, pain, and healing time.

Is it not true? Cold sores seem to come at the worst of times. Some of the most common trigger events are weddings, dates and job interviews. These are particularly stressful events. Cold sore outbreaks will often take place whenever there is some physical or mental stress. Mental stress will always affect you physically, even if you do not notice it at the time. Quite likely, if you backtrack from your outbreak, you will find a stress trigger occurred two or three days prior.

The cold sore herpes virus is a sub-microscopic living particle. It is so tiny that it can hide inside your nerve cells. When latent, the virus will hide in the nerve fibers near your ear. Scientists recently discovered that, when hiding, the herpes virus can shut down nearly all function. This makes the virus all but invisible to even our own body defenses. This is also the reason medical science has not yet found any way to remove cold sore herpes from your system.

When the virus senses the conditions are right, it moves quickly. It will travel through the nerve fibers like a highway to the surface target area. It is this travel along the nerve that you feel just prior to an outbreak. This virus movement will produce an itching, burning or dryness sensation at the target location. From the time of the first itching to actual blister formation could be two hours or two days.

The only reason the cold sore herpes virus becomes active is to create new virus. It cannot reproduce itself, like bacteria. The herpes virus, once it gets to the surface, will enter a nerve cell. It will then take control and force the cell to make perfect clones of itself. Once the cell is filled to capacity, the original virus then explodes the nerve cell. The fresh virus clones spill out looking for a new home. When millions of neighboring cells are destroyed like this, you have an open cold sore ulcer. Your healing system then creates a fluid to cleanse the now open wound and wash away the new viruses.

What are the right conditions that encourage the cold sore herpes virus to become active? Living in the nerve cells, the herpes virus surely has an early warning system to any condition of your body.

Stress causes changes in our immune system, hormones, bodily functions and pH balance. A person who is in excellent physical health can take a lot more stress changes before cold sores occur. If you get frequent cold sores, or colds, you really should analyze your nutritional intake. Many folks have eliminated cold sore herpes events by merely taking a good vitamin supplement program. Some other nutritional improvements to prevent cold sores could be more fresh vegetables, particularly broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Also, increasing lysine intake by eating fish or taking a supplement has helped many.

The one trick that others use to prevent cold sore herpes outbreaks is to apply ice, or garlic oil, to the target area immediately at the first sign of itching or dryness. The coldness acts to repel the herpes virus and often send it back into hibernation. The garlic oil is excellent for repelling herpes virus. It may also help repel people, which may not be all that bad. You may be contagious during this period, so avoid kissing.

Now you know how this virus is so destructive. And you have seen those ideal conditions for the herpes virus are low immunity, and a low pH balance. You have also learned that the herpes virus hates cold and garlic. Armed with this information, you should now have a good start at preventing the mass destruction of cold sore herpes.