StillHandsome

I have tried many things over the last 15 years to control outbreaks. I am sharing this to perhaps help someone else. We’re each different so what has worked for me may not work for you - but you never know. There are a few things I think which have helped mitigate outbreaks for me: watching my diet, monitoring stress and limiting exposure to direct sunlight on my face/lips. First diet - I think there is definitely something to be said for the relationship between lysine and arginine. Eating foods that have a higher lysine to arginine ratio has been key for me. If you do a search on the Internet for any food i.e. “cranberries lysine arginine" one of the first results will be from http://nutritiondata.self.com/. Someone at this website has gone to great lengths to catalog almost any food you can imagine with this very helpful data for herpes sufferers. What you're looking for are foods that higher in lysine and lower in arginine generally. Most importantly on the food list are the foods to avoid - stay away from nuts, alcohol, chocolate, caffeine etc. For me these have been serious triggers in the past. There is a comprehensive list here as well in PDF format http://www.sandiegohomeopathy.com/downloads/Lysine_Arginine_Foods.pdf Secondly stress - Without question for me this has made a huge difference. I have literally felt an outbreak happening immediately after when I have been under extreme stress. Learning different ways to process and handle stress has helped a lot - not easy when stress often feels like a physical event in the body but I’m trying. Third the sun - this might be a somewhat random item but for me almost always has had a predictable outcome - if I lay in the sun with my face/lips exposed I will inevitably have a breakout. The advantage to this is keeping my face out of the sun now if I’m lying on the beach which is better for the skin anyway - which in the end will help with aging etc. (hey there has to be some upside to all this right)? I also take 500mg to 1000mg nightly before bed. I still have prescriptions of Acyclovir just in case I feel an outbreak coming on and then I will take a pill if I have to. Of course the trick is you must take it the moment you feel any hint of a tingle. For me the prescriptions are really toxic to my system. They even mess with my mental which is weird - I become very introverted and almost a bit depressed so I try to only take them at the last minute when I have to. I have tried so many things over the years (potions, lotions, spells, etc.) and so far this seems to be a recipe that’s helping at least a little bit. Hopefully it will help you as well!