Using toothpaste to eliminate herpes rashes

Viruses are around us. Some of them suddenly appear and paralyze the normal life of the entire planet, others have been known for a long time, exist everywhere, often even are in the human body, but do not manifest themselves. The second option is the herpes virus.

Currently, 8 types are known, and the human body reacts differently to each of them. Some cause shingles or chickenpox, and only the first two appear less severely, most often just as “blisters” on the lips [1].

This disease was mentioned in literary works and historical documents 2000 years ago. But it was only in the 40s of the last century that the human herpes simplex virus was discovered, studied and described.

WHO indicates that in 2012, the number of people infected with the first type of virus alone was about 3.7 billion. At that time, 67% of the world's population was infected with it. The spread of this virus is trending to increase. Many people carry herpes and don't even know it [2].

Another problem is the high infection rate of the healthy population, mainly young, working age.
In the world, from 16 to 800 people are infected annually, and in Russia from 40 to 80 people per 100 thousand population “Features of herpes viruses” Ph.D. Peradze Kh. D., Ph.D. Sukhoruk A. A.

Types of herpes simplex virus and their features

If we talk about such a manifestation of herpes as a “cold” on the lips, then it is caused by the first two types of virus: HSV-1 and HSV-2. They are very contagious and contribute to the appearance of small bubbles - vesicles - on the mucous membranes. The favorite site of manifestation of HSV-1 is the oral cavity, and HSV-2 usually affects areas in the genital area.

Herpes disease does not always appear only on the lips or genitals. Other areas of the body may also be affected: fingertips, cornea, skin, internal organs and systems, even the spinal cord and brain.

Signs of the presence of herpes virus in the body

Anyone who has ever encountered such a problem knows how herpes manifests itself. Typically, herpes on the lips occurs in several stages and is accompanied by unpleasant symptoms.

1. Itching and tingling . A few days before the herpetic rash appears, itching, burning or tingling in the lips may occur.
2. Bubble formation . Small bubbles filled with clear liquid usually form at the border of the red border of the lips and the skin around the mouth. Herpes can also be located near the nose, ears or on the cheeks.
3. Crusts and weeping . The vesicles burst, the liquid pours out, and shallow open wounds remain on the mucous membrane of the lips, which eventually become covered with a crust.

Most often, this is how the body reacts to the reappearance of symptoms, when the immune system has already developed an algorithm for how to get rid of herpes. The first manifestation of herpes on the lips can be more complicated and be accompanied by additional symptoms:

• fever;
• ulcers on the gums;
• sore throat;
• headache;
• muscle pain;
• enlarged lymph nodes.

How to choose the right toothpaste

In order for a toothpaste to really help eliminate the painful symptoms of a herpes infection, you should choose a product that meets the following criteria:

• Presence of natural hypoallergenic ingredients.
• A minimum of dyes, flavors, bleaches, preservatives in the composition.
• Contains natural components that can heal wounds and relieve inflammation (oak bark, calendula, chamomile, eucalyptus, aloe vera, pine needles).
• A popular, trusted manufacturer whose products cannot be of questionable quality.

You should choose a white paste (not a gel) that contains soda, table salt, hydrogen peroxide, and triclosan, which have an antiseptic and skin-drying effect. Dental hygiene products that contain bee products - honey or propolis - have proven themselves to be excellent. They are valued due to their pronounced antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties.

If there are no antiviral ointments in your home medicine cabinet, and obvious signs of an infectious process appear on your lip, then herpes toothpaste will serve as an emergency and quite effective assistant. After all, you can find it in any home, and at any time of the day. However, do not forget that frequent relapses of the disease signal a depressed immune system, so you should visit a doctor and start strengthening your body in the near future.

Laboratory diagnosis of herpes

The insidiousness of this virus is that there are no signs of herpes for a long time. A person may not be aware of his infection until the first vesicle appears on the lips.

But it is quite easy to detect it in a laboratory. For this, the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method is used, which detects even a small amount of viral particles in biological material. It is suitable for early diagnosis, as it allows diagnosing the disease regardless of the timing of infection, even when the body has not developed an immune response [3].

If you examine antibodies, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is considered the most reliable. The body of the infected person begins to produce protective immunoglobulins G and M. IgM antibodies appear immediately after infection, and IgG antibodies are formed only after the first relapse.

Tests establish the presence of the virus and determine which of the two types it belongs to [4, 5].

How to use a herpes rash treatment?

To make sure that the chosen hygiene product is safe for the body, you need to apply a small amount of it to the inner surface of the elbow for half an hour. This sensitivity test allows you to quickly identify intolerance to the components of the paste and prevent unpleasant complications of the procedure. The safety of the product is evidenced by the absence of burning and itching at the site of application, rashes or redness after removing residues from the skin.

The paste should be applied to herpetic elements precisely 3-4 times a day. You need to smear the teeth cleaning product onto the affected area carefully, avoiding sudden movements and damaging the bubbles with liquid; you can use cotton swabs. The time the paste is exposed to the elements of the rash should not exceed 20 minutes, then you need to wash it off with warm water. With effective treatment, the rashes dry out and disappear within 3-7 days.

Methods of infection

There are several main ways of contracting a herpes infection.

Straight way

The virus passes to a healthy person from a sick person through direct contact. A prerequisite for transmission is the active skin manifestation of the herpes virus on the lips or other parts of the body. This route of transmission is possible through kissing (herpes on the lips), sexual contact (genital herpes), through hands, when the virus is actively released from herpetic vesicles.

Indirect transmission route

In this case, infection occurs through personal hygiene items, dishes, and cosmetics from a person with herpes at the stage of spreading the virus. For prevention, it is enough to use individual personal hygiene items - a toothbrush, comb, cosmetics - lipstick, creams, cosmetic pencils [2, 6].

Risk factors for colds on the lips

Once infected, the virus remains in the human body forever. An effective treatment for herpes has not yet been invented to help eliminate it from the body. However, you can try to reduce the frequency of herpes on the lips if you avoid the causes of virus activation. Frequent herpes on the lips can be caused by:

• stress;
• fatigue;
• systemic diseases, ARVI;
• hormonal changes;
• allergies;
• exposure to the sun or local hypothermia [7].

Criteria for selecting quality products

You need to carefully choose a hygiene product to treat herpetic elements on the lip using this method. A good therapeutic effect for herpes will be achieved if the selected paste has the following characteristics:

• natural composition;
• absence of coloring and flavoring substances;
• presence of phytocomponents.

The more natural the composition of the toothpaste, the more effective it will be in the fight against herpetic rashes. The ideal option is a cleaner containing hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. These substances have pronounced antiseptic and drying effects. You should not choose products containing menthol or alcohol. These components have a pronounced irritant effect, which is extremely undesirable for inflamed rashes.

Toothpaste for the treatment of herpes should not be colored or flavored, as these substances can have an undesirable effect. You should also not use a gel-based toothcleaner, as it will be much less effective.

Preference should be given to toothpaste containing phytocomponents. Cedar or sea buckthorn oil, calendula or chamomile flowers, oak bark extract, and eucalyptus provide a good healing effect. These components are characterized by anti-inflammatory, healing and soothing effects.

Treatment methods for herpes

Currently, doctors' recommendations on how to treat herpes are limited to a regimen that helps to quickly get rid of the manifestations of herpes on the lip, other part of the body, or helps prevent the onset of the active phase of the disease.

Sometimes local antiviral drugs are sufficient for therapy. Ointments and creams that help against herpes contain one of the following components:

• acyclovir;
• valacyclovir;
• pharmaciclovir;
• penciclovir.

These active ingredients are produced under different brands, and all are aimed at effectively treating the manifestations of herpes.

If local treatment of herpes on the lips is ineffective, it is recommended to take tablet medications that suppress the replication of viruses in cells. They are believed to be more effective. In special cases, with large affected areas, when internal organs and systems are affected, complex treatment in a hospital is possible [3, 4, 8].

Herpes

Encyclopedia of Health / Encyclopedia of Diseases

Once settled in the body, it remains with a person for his entire life. The virus lies dormant in the cells of the nervous system, but from time to time it wakes up and begins to act. It is impossible to kill it or drive it away from the body forever. But anyone can learn to live with it.

FEAR HAS BIG EYES

Experts believe: there is nothing wrong with a diagnosis of “herpetic disease” if exacerbations occur 1-2 times a year. Even in this case it can be called a disease with great stretch. According to WHO, today 86 million people in the world are infected with the herpes simplex virus. In reality, 9 out of 10 people are affected by it. And what - consider everyone sick?

Another thing is that exacerbations - those very bubbles on the lips, in intimate places and on those parts of the body where you can introduce the virus through your own carelessness - cause a lot of inconvenience due to their location: this is a forced refusal of sex, and an unattractive appearance view. But nothing more. For the most part, we are intimidated: pregnant women who detect antibodies to the herpes virus are recommended to have an abortion; patients who are ill are prescribed immunomodulatory drugs without a thorough preliminary examination and are assured that herpes causes severe damage to internal organs... Due to the incompetence of individual specialists, real herpesophobia is developing in society. But in most cases these fears are greatly exaggerated.

The liver, kidneys and other organs of a healthy person are not threatened by a “cold” on the lips at all.

A serious threat to the life and health of the fetus arises only if a woman gets herpes for the first time during pregnancy. And genital herpes is not fatal. It does not cause disruption to the functioning of internal organs and is transmitted to another person only during a relapse. Perhaps the most unpleasant in terms of consequences can be considered herpes zoster, caused by the zoster virus. After an exacerbation, postherpetic neuralgia often develops, which is long and difficult to treat, especially if antiviral treatment was started late. The zoster virus enters the body along with childhood chickenpox infection. So if you have had it, rest assured that you have the virus and are waiting in the wings. The only reassurance is that for its activation, really serious reasons are needed - aging of the body, when immunity weakens naturally, or secondary immunodeficiencies resulting from organ transplantation, radiation and chemotherapy.

LULLABY FOR HERPES

If herpes on the lips or in the genital area bothers you no more than 4 times a year, then no serious examinations or interventions in the immune system are required. You just need to learn how to quickly and effectively relieve exacerbations, strictly follow the rules of antiherpetic safety and carry out a set of preventive measures to “euthanize” the virus.

Trying to remove the herpes virus from the body is useless.
Even if you do a full blood transfusion, the virus will remain. After all, it lives in the nerve plexuses, and no medicine can drive it out of there. * Many people try to cope with rashes on the lips using folk remedies - apply a heated spoon, burn with alcohol, Corvalol, brilliant green, lubricate the blisters with earwax or toothpaste. The latter are most preferable, since sulfur, brilliant green, and paste dry out the sores and promote the rapid formation of crusts. Attention! You need to first lubricate the area around and only then the ulcer itself, and strictly with the help of a cotton swab. The concentration of viruses in this area is very high, and you can easily transfer them to other areas of the skin. Warming sore spots (with alcohol or a spoon) is not recommended; you can get a burn with scars on the skin.

* If herpes bothers you too often, the area of ​​the rash increases, brilliant green, ointments and creams do not help, you should consult a doctor. At least in order to get a prescription for an antiviral drug , which is not commercially available. After all, there are means that can easily and quickly bring the virus to a state of hibernation - stopping its rapid reproduction. They relieve swelling and speed up healing without the formation of crusts.

Doctors do not recommend vaccination against herpes. A herpetic vaccine exists, but its effectiveness is questionable.

vitamins in combination with antiviral drugs . 600 mg of vitamin C and 600 mg of B vitamins 3 times a day for 3 days, started in the prodromal period, leads to the disappearance of symptoms. Vitamin E helps reduce pain and speed up the healing of ulcers. Apply as an oil solution to the affected areas for 15 minutes. After half an hour the pain subsides. If itching and tingling resume, the procedure must be repeated. Zinc, when taken twice daily for 6 weeks, 25 mg along with 250 mg vitamin C, reduces the frequency and duration of relapses.

* Plant extracts of eleutherococcus, ginseng, echinacea, mumiyo, pantocrine have a stimulating effect: they increase the production of leukocytes, normalize the ratio between their subspecies, and accelerate the process of restoration of damaged cells. Tablets, extracts, and alcohol tinctures are also suitable. All of them help to increase the duration of the relapse-free period, but are not effective as the only means for treating exacerbations.

* If exacerbations occur more than 4-5 times a year or the generalization of the process begins - rashes appear on other and very large areas of the body, it is necessary to conduct an immunological examination , find out the nature of the “breakdown” and prescribe immune drugs.

VIRUS PROTECTION

The simplest rules that everyone knows but never follow protect against herpes.

IT IS FORBIDDEN:

* Hypothermia . If you don’t want it on your lips, dress for the weather. Start hardening only in the fall and gradually. No shock treatments!

* Overheat in the sun . If you are prone to herpes, you should not celebrate the New Year in Cuba and vacation in the south in July and August.

* Indulge in beer. Beer is a provocateur: 3-4 mugs can, under other factors, cause an exacerbation of herpes. Previously, beer was even used to detect latent gonorrhea: if you drank it, everything got worse. Fizzy drinks are also not recommended: they contain under-oxidized products and free radicals, which indirectly affect the immune system.

NECESSARY:

* Drink vitamin complexes , preferably every year from October to April.

* Treat chronic diseases. Exacerbation of herpes is provoked by caries, sinusitis, tonsillitis, and even thrush. Any source of infection or disturbance of the bacterial flora of the vagina - and, please, rashes will not keep you waiting.

* Use condoms if you do not have a regular sexual partner. The more unprotected contacts you have, the more different strains of the virus you pick up and the more often relapses occur. It is more difficult to treat such exacerbations: what helped once will not save you, because each exacerbation is caused by different subtypes of the virus. Remember that you can also catch the virus through oral-genital contact.

Prevention of infection and manifestations of the disease

It is not always possible to quickly get rid of herpes on the lips if it has entered the active stage, but you can strive to prevent the spread of the virus and minimize its manifestation.

Prevention of herpes consists of following basic sanitary and hygienic recommendations:

• keep your hands clean;
• use personal hygiene items;
• Avoid skin-to-skin contact with people with active disease.

If exacerbations occur frequently, this is a signal that the immune system needs help: it may be necessary to take a long-term antiviral drug as prescribed by a doctor [2, 9]. If the onset of the disease is provoked by sunlight or low temperatures, it is advisable to use special protective creams on the lip area and the skin around them.

Only a qualified doctor knows how to cure herpes in each specific case. But on your own, you can prevent further spread of the viral infection and reduce the number of relapses.

Medical expert: Oleg Sergeevich Shchekin

Last updated: July 21, 2022

List of sources

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