In January Scott and I went on a vacation to Roatan, Honduras. I always choose places with good food and Central America has been great for us in the past because they serve locally caught seafood and locally grown veggies. Some of my most memorable meals are from when we were on a tiny island off the coast of Mexico and when we went to Panama.
We had fresh eggs and veggies every morning in Panama.
And I still dream about this raw tuna and veggie dish (I didn’t eat the bread).
And in Mexico we found some of the freshest, tastiest ceviche.
But in Roatan, despite the good reviews, despite the fact that it’s an island, we did not have good food. I had even called to confirm we could eat gluten and soy free. But for some reason, all of the food was imported, even the seafood. There was no fresh fish. There were no fresh vegetables. And most things were either fried or came in a sauce that I’m sure contained gluten, sugar and/or MSG.
I felt terrible. I was bloated, my brain was foggy, and worst of all, it really affected my mood. Not only because I was bummed about the crappy food, but because eating that junk directly affects the brain. I couldn’t even eat breakfast – we tried one time and the eggs they served us were green. GREEN! This ain’t a Dr. Seuss book!
So in addition to eating poorly, I was stressing about eating poorly. Which caused the worst cold sore of my life.
By the end of the trip, I couldn’t smile. If I tried, my cold sore would rip open and bleed. It extended from my lip down onto my chin and it hurt like hell. Even my normal natural remedies didn’t work, and it took two weeks to go away. Not to mention the fact that it was really gross and embarrassing, not exactly what you want on your romantic vacation, but it just would not get better.
Then again, I didn’t have essential oils that time.
Recently I felt the familiar tingle of a cold sore about to pop up. If you’ve ever had one, you know what I’m talking about. Your lip feels a little sore and tingly, and it may even start to swell a bit. So instead of letting it even try to surface, I went into action.
First, I thought about the oil that is the oil for viruses. This oil is potent and cannot be applied directly – it has to be diluted! And that oil, my friends, is oregano.
A cold sore is caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1). You can read this study demonstrating oregano oil’s efficacy with viruses.
Unlike antibiotics and prescription drugs, essential oils can penetrate cell membranes, which is where viruses live – within the cell. This makes it extremely effective for cold sores. I also used tea tree, lemon in addition to the oregano.
From a study performed at The Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Heidelberg and featured in an issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy,
” Treatment of HSV-1 with oregano essential oil has been shown to disrupt the viral envelope (27). In preliminary electron microscopical studies, we also demonstrated a disruption of the viral envelope after pretreatment of HSV with essential oils, thereby impairing their abilities to infect host cells…Pretreatment of HSV with the analyzed essential oils prior to infection caused significant reductions of infectivity, ranging from 95.9% to 99.9% for the acyclovir-sensitive and drug-resistant HSV-1 strains.” Source
This study found that ginger, sandalwood, hyssop and thyme were also effective, as well as tea tree,
“Acyclovir-resistant clinical isolates of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) were analyzed in vitro for their susceptibilities to essential oils of ginger, thyme, hyssop, and sandalwood. All essential oils exhibited high levels of virucidal activity against acyclovir-sensitive strain KOS and acyclovir-resistant HSV-1 clinical isolates and reduced plaque formation significantly….Therefore, other antiherpetic agents which are effective against viral mutants resistant to current antiviral agents are of great interest for additional topical treatment of recurrent acyclovir-susceptible and acyclovir-resistant HSV-1 infections, as has been demonstrated by topical application of tea tree oil (2) against recurrent herpes labialis.”
I ripped up a piece of toilet paper and folded it until it was about the size of the area of the cold sore, about half inch by half inch. I added a mixture of oregano, tea tree and lemon oil. I fixed it overtop of where my lip was tingly and slightly swollen, and held it in place with a bandaid. I kept it there overnight and repeated the process in the throughout the next day, until the cold sore was completely gone. I alternated using all of the oils. Sometimes I’d use oregano, lemon and tea tree, sometimes tea tree and oregano. You will notice that the area may sting a bit. I actually found it refreshing and envisioned the oils sinking deep into my skin, penetrating my cells and killing this asshole of a virus.
In addition to the oils, I always diluted them with coconut oil. I also ate coconut oil for its anti-viral properties.
Other Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1855548/#__ffn_sectitle
Original article and pictures take ancestral-nutrition.com site
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