Cold sores are an outward manifestation of the herpes simplex virus Type 1. The virus is generally spread through interactions with someone who has an active lesion. This can cover anything from kissing someone to using her fork. Cold sores generally form around the mouth and appear as small, red irritations. Actually, they're blisters. According to the Mayo Clinic, there is no cure for cold sores, but there are things you can do to limit their eruption--including making changes in your diet.
Lysine and Arginine
Herpes manifests itself as a cold sore on the surface of the skin by filling receptor cells with a chemical arginine. Lysine likes to fill those same receptor cells and thus, in the cold sore battle, the more receptor cells that arginine cannot fill, the less likely a cold sore can occur. A diet that's rich in lysine helps control the frequency of cold sores. Because all foods contain some amount of lysine and arginine, it's important to eat foods in which the lysine is much higher in percentage than the arginine.
Lysine-rich Foods
When looking at what you eat, you'll want a much higher ratio of lysine to arginine in the foods you choose. All types of meat (beef, chicken and fish) have high amounts of lysine as compared to arginine. Flounder is found to be especially high in lysine. Dairy products such as eggs and milk also have good ratios of lysine to arginine, ricotta cheese being especially high in lysine. Other good sources of lysine can be found in fruits such as apples, pears, mangos and apricots, and in seeds, grains and nuts.
Lysine Caplets
As you can see, there are plenty of foods that can can give you a higher portion of lysine compared to arginine. You can also get lysine as a supplement. Although the body has a harder time digesting lysine in caplet form, many people rely strictly on the dosages they get from the capsules to supplement their lysine.
