★★★★☆
Yes, the fruit, mangoes. I have to share this here because I believe it has reduced my cold sore outbreaks by about 90%. I had been having almost constant outbreaks for several years, with hardly a week going by where I didn't have at least one or two sores somewhere on my face. I tried SO many remedies, some of which lessened the severity of the outbreaks a little, but nothing that worked tremendously well. My skin was looking icky besides, since I balk at trying to exfoliate it even a little which has the potential of making a whole new batch of cold sores crop up all over, so I decided to give myself a mango facial. Mangoes contain bunches of alpha-hydroxy acids which are supposed to smooth your skin. So I bought a mango, peeled and ate it, then rubbed the inside of the skin all over my face, let it sit for about 15 minutes then rinsed with cool water. The next day my skin looked great - because my cold sores were visibly shrinking! I decided to stick with it just to see. Since then I have been doing the mango facial thing every one to three days, and for the past three months I have hardly had any outbreaks. When I do get them they aren't the monstrous red oozy scabby embarrassments they used to be... Now they are tiny, and usually come to a little white head right away. At this stage I carefully pop them into a tissue, press the area with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol for a minute, then I apply a layer of granulated alum (available in the spice section of the grocery store). I leave the alum on for as long as I can, then I gently wipe that off and go about my business. The sores turn into tiny scabs and disappear quickly if I leave them alone.
Anyway, as I said, since using the mango on my face both the frequency and severity of my outbreaks have diminished substantially, and I wanted to share this with others - it might work for them too. I have wracked my brain and can't think of anything else I am doing differently that might've caused this. I'm so happy with my discovery.
