Herpes Outbreaks: Treatment with Vitamins and Minerals:
Treating your herpes outbreaks is important for many reasons. First and foremost, you will feel much better about yourself if you do not have constant outbreaks. Also, decreasing the number of outbreaks you have each year – or eliminating them entirely – will greatly reduce the chances of herpes transmission to a partner.
Currently, the only treatment approved by the FDA are the (3) antiviral medications: Zovirax, Famvir, Valtrex. Valtrex is essentially next generation Zovirax (better absorbed by the body, requires signficantly less dosage, but the cost is much higher. Famvir is similar to both Zovirax and Valtrex with only slight differences (it is actually a next generation of the antiviral penciclovir). At any rate, Zovirax, Famvir, and Valtrex are the three name brand drugs studied and recommended to treat herpes outbreaks. The good news: They do work. And I recommend them. But you do need to consider what your long-term plan will be for herpes suppression.
In my opinion the best treatment for herpes is to boost your immunity so that the HSV2 can and will remain dormant in your system. There is no cure for herpes. Even with 100% successful episode suppression, you will still be positive for the virus and need to tell potential partners that you are infected.
So how to you boost your immune system?
I’ve already written about the importance of sleep and stress reduction, and here I would like to talk more about Vitamin C and Zinc: What I believe to be the two most important tools in your arsenal to keep the herpes virus dormant.
Vitamin C enhances immunity by acting as an antioxidant, antihistamine, antiviral and antifungal. It may also enhance white blood cell activity and promote production of interferon-specific immunoactive proteins released by blood cells in response to viral infections. To help your immune system, doses of up to 4000mg a day would be acceptable.
Zinc has been shown in several clinical trials to reduce the frequency and severity of herpes outbreaks. It may inhibit the ability of the herpes virus to reproduce itself. Zinc supplementation in the form of 60-90 mg daily (taken in divided doses of 15-30 mg at a time with food to prevent nausea from developing) appears to enhance cell mediated immunity and help the immune system identify and fight the virus. This large dose may be continued for a month or two, then reduced to 30 mg daily as immune function improves and outbreaks decline.
These are two realistic and inexpensive methods to greatly reduce or eliminate your genital herpes outbreaks. As with any health product, I would recommend purchasing the highest quality, standardized products you can afford. Purchasing an unrecognized brand that is packed with fillers and potentially less of the product than stated will not help you at all and will only leave you feeling less in control of your genital herpes. I will not recommend one over the other here because there are many excellent vitamin companies on the market. If you found this website, you can find an excellent brand of both Vitamin C and Zinc.
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