Honey as a treatment for fever blisters

Cold sores

Cold sores are also known as fever blisters and they are considered to be one of the more common health problems among people. The main cause of fever blisters is a certain virus called herpes simplex virus 1 or HSV-1. In almost all cases of fever blisters, they last for ten days or so. They do go away on their own but people should treat them in order to speed the process of healing. There are a lot of reasons why people should treat the blisters but two of the main reasons are the pain that they cause and not being a pretty sight for the eyes. People need to know that the virus cannot be treated and that a person who is infected will have it for the rest of his or her life. On the other hand, people need not worry too much because there are a lot of possible treatments. Among all the possible remedies, honey is considered to be one of them. However, before using it, people should get to know as much as they can about honey.

Honey

Every person in the world knows that honey is made by bees from the nectar of flowers. In its nature, honey is a thick and sweet amber liquid. For a lot of centuries people have been aware of the healing powers of honey and the affect that it has on the skin. Even in ancient Greece people have used honey as a topical remedy for various skin infections and mouth sores were one of them. One of the main reasons why honey is such a good remedy for fever blisters is because of the high concentrations of sugar in form of glucose and fructose. Such high concentrations make it impossible for the bacteria and fungus to survive. People who apply honey on fever blisters help their immune system in a way that they make it easier for the immune system because it does not have to fight bacteria and fungus as well. That way the immune system will focus only on the virus. Apart from this benefit, honey has lots of flavonoids and phenolic acid. These compounds are known to fight the HSV-1 virus.

There are a lot of types of honey and they are all considered to be good for fever blisters. However, one type is considered to be particularly good and that is Manuka honey. Manuka honey contains one compound that other types of honey do not and that is called methylglyoxal.