letsovercome94

So here's my update! The past 10 days since making this thread, I have been tracking my intake of vegetables and fruits on an app in my phone, trying to reach a certain amount each day (6 vegetable servings and 4 fruit), along with 3 cups of different herbal teas, and my supplements. I haven't had a 100% successful day yet (which would be all my veg and fruit servings and tea servings, no white sugar/white flour/chocolate/nuts at all, and supplements taken on time) but I've had a streak of 5 near-perfect (80~90%) days and I noticed a SUBSTANTIAL reduction, if not near-elimination of my symptoms! Proving my hypothesis even more, that I have been making my outbreaks a LOT worse than they needed to be, by eating like crap almost every day. Yesterday I went through an emotional rollercoaster due to family issues and my favorite boss getting an illness and changing jobs, and I defaulted to the shitty coping mechanism of junk food. I soon felt symptoms start flaring up again. Within a few hours of eating all the crap, itchiness and burning returned. I basically have all the evidence I could possibly need now, that my shitty eating habits have been making my herpes symptoms WAY worse!!! It's even possible that all the autoinnoculation I've experienced may have been because of how bad I was eating enabling more shedding, weaker immune system and thus more spreading! I can't change the past now unfortunately 😞 but I CAN do any and everything within my power now to support my immune system against this virus and stop doing things that cripple it!!

Thank you so much for your caring and interested response! Yes, I defintely believe that diet plays a big role in our experience with outbreaks. I've read a lot of research saying how white sugar/flour, empty calories and just junk food in general taxes and suppresses the immune system, with noticeable effects in immune function within less than 30 minutes of consuming them! And I've seen myself, the days I'm eating a lot healthier for days in a row, my symptoms reduce if not disappear! So I can just imagine how much better it would be if I kept up that healthy eating nonstop for a month or longer!

Hi everyone! Here's a quick summary of my story. I got herpes about 2 and a half years ago, by kissing my ex-boyfriend who apparently didn't know he had it. The first five months were no big deal, just lots of tingling around the lip area. But after getting a wisdom tooth removed that had been bothering me, all hell broke lose and I started experiencing regular, almost nonstop breakouts. Then, pretty much the worst thing possible happened. I spread it to my hands. Doctors wouldn't believe me, since the sores on my hands weren't obvious, and I have thick palm skin. But I noticed spots on them getting tingly, red, and peely, which never used to happen. Partially in denial, partially believing the doctors who didn't think it was herpes, I was careless with my hands and before I knew it, I had itchyness, neural symptoms, and eventually bumps literally almost everywhere my hands had touched - ears, neck, nose, chest, vagina (from masturbation ugh), and even EYES 😞 To this day I still get itchy symptoms and clusters of small bumps in all those areas. It f**king sucks. I also happen to be a really unhealthy eater. I used to have mild anorexia and once I stopped restricting calories, my brain rebounded from all the starvation and said LETS EAT EVERYTHING!!! So for the past 5 years or so I've been binge eating regularly and have gained 70 pounds. Getting herpes and experiencing these horrible symptoms has been a wakeup call that I need to really start taking care of my body. Unfortunately my mind tends to swing between thoughts of going back to extreme dieting, vs thoughts of "dgaf lets have tons of cookies and cake". I see that that mental pattern is NOT going to help my immune system get strong enough to fight this disease. I need to start sticking to a diet that is NOURISHING, ABUNDANT, and consists 90% of: - Lots of immune-boosting foods. Green veggies, berries, garlic, herbs like curcumin, seaweed. - Lots of fruits and vegetables in general. - Fish, chicken, milk and yogurt (high lysine to arginine ratio) And includes very little to no: - white flour and other refined grains - white sugar or any other empty sugars like HFCS (so this includes cookies, cakes, icecream etc) - chocolate, coffee, alcohol and nuts, the known herpes triggers And I also need to start regularly taking my supplements and timing them well. I've only been half-assing these changes and still binge eating white-sugar/white-flour almost every day which is probably why my symptoms have remained so shitty. My immune system simply can't restore itself when I keep filling it with things that suppress it. That ends NOW! For accountability I'm going to start posting my daily food intakes, as well as indicating whether each food was helpful in supporting my immune system against herpes, or UNhelpful. I hope anyone else inspired to make these kinds of changes will join me. I need all the encouragement and accountability I can get! Thank you.