Acetone
★★★★★
This is a GOD send, helping soo much. I am truly grateful!
Acetone
★☆☆☆☆
Acetone
★★★★★
Acetone
★★★★★
(Idaho, US)
11/02/2014
Wow I have never heard of using acetone! I will be incorporating this along with what I have found to be most beneficial today! I'm 51 and have suffered all my life with cold sores clear back to my grade school days! I have always considered myself as the cold sore queen! hahaha With age comes experience for what has worked best for me. At the first sign I always take a fever reducer. I take this through out the day and I even take it at night before bed. This by far has been the best way for me to attack the cold sores before they attack me at night! This has kept that god awful swelling from happening over night! Along with helping out with the pain! Thanks for the advice on the acetone can not wait to try it!
(Ny, US)
11/07/2014
Hi, read your post and really curious to know if it worked for you. I thought like we all do I suppose that I was the cold soar queen, but I see you are too. LOL... Mine come specifically with stress. I always know when it is about to come and can usually stop it with the medicine. They gave me a larger dose than I have heard normally because of how large one got once, so I get 1000mg of Valtrex. When it first starts the tingle I take 2 and if I was early enough it won't come at all.
This past week though I was away from home, knew it was coming and forgot the medicine... sure enough, BANG! However this time it is worse than it has ever been and I've had them so bad that once my lip was swollen 3" more than normal. This one goes from the middle of my upper lip two the corner of my mouth and that has never happened. Usually its one on the lip or above but this is like 4 of them together and is horrible. So I wonder did the acetone work for you??????
Acetone
★★★★★
I am sick of it and was driven to try the nail polish thing again so I bought some today because taking L-Lysine wasn't touching this one. My lip was so swollen it wasn't funny. Then, another started to pop out in a different after I started to use the nail polish.
I had to use it more than a couple times. I have been putting it on with a cotton bud every hour or so by dabbing it until the cotton ball dries out . I haven't just let it sit there for five minutes because I don't really want to breathe the fumes in. So I dab it, breathe, dab it, etcetera until it dries out and then I do it again a bit later when the thing tries to moisten back up.
It is working because I am diligently attacking it.
The thing is already crusting over after one day and normally it would take five days to get this stage. I will definitely keep putting the acetone on until it is all dried up and gone.
I am also taking L-Lysine, which wasn't really working that well, along with Vitamin C. I am planning to continue to do both as a daily preventative.
(Poland, Ohio)
12/17/2013
Cold sores, the virus is highly contagous, when the blister is present, also you have a viral shedding once a year, no sign, but contagious. try DMSO and lugol's solutition in a spray bottle, ( lugol's solutition is a mixture of potassium, and iodine) 50/50 mix, this will take care of just about any infection, iodine is very powerful antiseptic, also myrrh oil or oil of wild oregano. Also when you have a blister it's a clear sign that your immune system is down so try to build up your immune system (vit c).
Acetone
★★★★★
Then I jumped on earth clinic - and remembered the acetone trick. Thank goodness, the tingling stopped, it dried out and started to recede within 48 hours. It is taking a while to heal but is continuing to get smaller and smaller.
Chocolate is my #1 cold sore trigger. Each outbreak I have had in the past few years can be traced back to the effect of an overindulgence. Well THIS time I have learnt my lesson for sure.
(Australia)
09/02/2015
Thankyou thankyou for listing that Chocolate is your trigger. In my 46 years, I have never ever made that connection. I have the worse cold sore epidemic on my mouth and chin at the moment after eating kg's of chocolate & cupcakes this week. Yes I'm a little piggy but the kinder. I blame my son's birthday party & the kinder for all that chocolate I should have sold for fundraising as I know I'm just gonna gorge. Now to find a piggy anonymous thread on google. Hope the acetone works.
(Vancouver)
12/09/2017
Thank you so much for pointing out the chocolate - cold sore connection!!!
I do not like sweets very much, but yesterday I got these delicious chocolates, I tried one and then I just could not stop eating them last night!
This morning I woke up with a cold sore. This will teach me a lesson.
I tried the acetone before and it definitely helped me . So I am going to do it again now.
(Boston, Ma)
07/06/2018
Chocolate is definitely on the list of triggers for cold sores. My trigger is nuts, mostly peanuts and walnuts. It's the Arginine in them, which is the trigger and I believe counteracts Lysine as well, so do try to avoid overindulging. Others are seeds, carob, coconut, lentils, soybeans, spinach, raisins and a few others you can google.
Acetone
★★★★★
Acetone
★★★★★
I've been getting cold sore outbreaks for about 15 years now - I'm 39 - I found that taking 1000mg Lysine daily has kept me free of outbreaks for 4 years - I ran out, didn't take lysine for only 2 days and BAM my upper lip had the start of BIG nasty large vesicles - Couldn't believe it - no prodrome tingling, no warning. It was slightly obsured by my moustache so I didn't really notice it right away. This one just by the initial size was gonna be a major disaster.
I read all the miracle stories about it, so I tried the acetone on a cotton swab placed directly onto the sore for 5min at a time every 30min for the first day. To stop evaporation I used clear packing tape to press the swab right onto the sore. Don't be afraid to PRESS the acetone into the sore - it will burn bad but it's like you can also feel the acetone destroying the HSV inside.
The next morning I woke up and I thought Lisa Rinna's plastic surgeon had snuck into my bed and plumped up my lip with silicone - It was HUGE, I actually laughed in the mirror because it looked so ridiculous. However, the sore had gone directly to scab healing stage.
The following morning the swelling had almost completely gone and after my shower the scab had worn off and the final pink healing scab remained. So literally 48 hours from the start of what was to be a colossal large sore on my lip it's already to the point of what normally takes about 10 days to get to.
1000mg Lysine daily is the long-term cure you want to get on - but if you miss a Lysine and one pops up Acetone is what you need 100% - Do not even bother with anything else and start it as soon as you see or feel one coming on.
Acetone is also totally safe for your skin - read up about it on wikipedia - It's even used as a food additive!
Acetone
★★★★★
I take Famciclovir when the irritation starts and apply apple cider vinegar to my lips at work, or Acetone with a cotton Q-tip at home. I figure the complicated use and smell of Acetone at work might draw the attention of co-workers.
Here is what I have learned,
1- Stress life is present all the time.
2- Acidic foods help virus activation.
3- Do not eat fruits or too much meat. Meats including fish and specially shell fish are very acidic. Fruits are acidic and have lots of sugar that contributes to virus activation and growth.
4- Do not drink coffee or tea. Do not eat chocolate.
5- Do not eat animal products more than 3 times a week.
6- Eat green leafy and root vegetables.
7- Lime or lime juice is the best. Include a lime in your daily diet.
8- Eat a cucumber and a tomato every day, or make a cucumber, tomato and onion salad with a fresh lime juice and some cayenne pepper part of you daily diet.
Acetone
★★★★★
Every time I have a cold I get a runny nose. From all the wiping and irritation I develop a cold sore... In my nose!!! They are always painful and last a long time. I tried all the OTC products, they only cover up the sore and keep it moist; the exact opposite of what I should have been doing.
A few days ago, I took a q-tip and swabbed all the small blisters in my nose with acetone. I did this once an hour for 3-4 hours. The first thing I noticed was that the throbbing pain went away. I continued to apply the acetone throughout the day. Before bedtime, most blisters had dried up. I applied it once more before I went to bed. Then next day there were no more blisters.
Three days later, the skin is a bit red and needs to heal. I am using a combination of 100% aloe covered with antibiotic salve because I still have the cold and want to protect the area.
Thanks again for the great advice!
Acetone
★★★★★
I have been suffering for years and years now from cold sores. My immune system is weak to them and I suspect my partner carries the cold sore virus without any symptoms and infects me every time he eats lots of chocolate and nuts. Sometimes these cold sores are around my nose, on my cheeks, on my chin or above my mouth and I have had some terrible scars in the past from cold sores that became huge and lasted for weeks. These scars sometimes took over 6 months to disappear.
This used to be the bane of my life. It really ruined my existence, to the point where I did not go out for weeks as my face was marred with huge weeping sores or large crusty scabs sometimes several nasty cold blisters would spread in a line across my cheek and they were so painful. It was one of the worst periods of my life and lasted over 2 years during which I felt ashamed and disgusting. People would look at me with horror and no amount of make up could conceal these terrible sores.
Thank goodness for acetone. I cannot believe this works but it really does! The minute I feel a sore coming on or itchiness I swab the area with acetone several times, often the skin turns a little red. Then on top of that I put some cream containing acyclovir like zovirax. I keep repeating every couple of hours. Usually the next day the sore is gone or on its way out.
Just to give advice to others out there, there is a link between foods and cold sores especially sugars, processed red meats (avoid these like the plague) and foods containing lysine and arginine to my break outs. If I eat foods high in arginine like nuts, seeds, chocolate, soya, shellfish etc. then often a cold sore will come up, it is important to balance this out with either foods containing lysine or a lysine supplement.
Foods highest in lysine are chicken, tuna, cod, grouper, pollock, haddock etc. Foods highest in Lysine and lowest in arginine are plain yogurt, most cheeses, milk, kefir and many fishes.
Sticking to a good ratio of more lysine than arginine in your diet plus the acetone trick should mean no more cold sores!
I wish everyone well and no more cold sores, ever!
(London, UK)
12/02/2012
Gracie, that sounds more like shingles, a different type of herpes virus. It travels down the trigeminal nerve down the nose and across the cheek. It responds to Lysine and as you say, cheese, chocolate, nuts and red wine trigger and feed the virus. Counter this with Lysine (buy the powder from iHerb in Ca who ship to the UK for $6 per order). The ONLY way to dry them out (better even than acetone, is CAMPHOR SPIRITS OR in French l'alcool camphre). You used to be able to buy it in the UK, but now I have to get mine from the US yet again. You dab it on as soon as you get the tingle. Believe me, you will start keeping some in the larder. I use it now only once in a while as I know the signal tingle and start taking Lysine in juice. I was once told by a chief Medic in the Homeopathic Hospital, Tunbridge Wells "the herpes virus is a bitch". My friend in the US who gets shingles when run down, has had the vaccine and I believe you can now get it here.... It is with you for life I understand and I can locate exactly where mine resides; under the arachnoid around the skull on the left side which is where the blisters first appeared on my nose and cheek.... My nose is scarred but the cheeks are more resilient. Spirits of camphor.... As we know these cheap remedies are not endorsed by big pharma - too cheap and no profit margin for shareholders. We have to do the research for ourselves and take action.
Artemisia (purely coincidental that this is the latin for Wormwood! It was the name of an old horse of miine)
(Jackson, Ms)
12/06/2012
Please try iodine for cold sores, 20 drops of the 5% solution in coffee or milk. Resolved my case in two months.
(Charlotte, Nc)
12/18/2012
Wow Artemesia if you know the exact location "where the virus resides" or words to that effect, you're the perfect candidate for a topical application of colloidal silver to kill the infection. Apply the silver solution to a white paper towel and for good penetration add a few drops of DMSO (penetrant, solvent and carrier) and press onto the site for fifteen minutes. Do this three times over three days. The paper towel needs to be fairly wet... two tablespoons of the colloidal silver.
Acetone
★★★★★
My best advice is to apply the nail polish remover instantly and not wait the five agonizing days that I did before I found this wonderful site!!!
(Us)
03/08/2015
(Ky)
06/10/2015
★★★★★
Straight Acetone is the best, and at night I use calamine lotion to aid in the drying, makes you look funny, but it works! Two to three days and gone! Completely!
Acetone
★★★★★
(Northeast, Florida, Us)
07/20/2012
I've had breakouts for about 10 years, and I've never found anything that really helps. Whatever I do or don't do, nothing seems to make a difference, and, when I get a cold sore, it lasts for about 10-14 days. I've tried almost everything I've heard of, and I was on Valtrex for awhile, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so I stopped that. No matter what, I still get a nasty breakout every so often (used to be about every 2 months, now about 2 times a year). The only thing that "helped" was being pregnant, where I didn't have one during the whole pregnancy, but that's not exactly a medication I want to take again. LOL.
When I got a breakout around January, it was BAD, and I had to go to work and have everyone make a big deal out of it, and I have a professional job where it just doesn't look good. I read about the acetone nail polish remover about 5 days into it, and it helped, but it didn't really shorten the time it lasted. Plus, my boyfriend thought I was crazy. He doesn't get cold sores, and I don't want him to start, nor does my son who is almost 2. So it really freaks me out when I get one.
Yesterday afternoon, I get home from work, start chatting with the boyfriend, and I feel it come on out of nowhere. Sure enough, I look in the mirror, and there's a huge blistery bump in the crease of my mouth. I can tell it's gonna be bad. I immediately grab the nail polish remover, figuring that I'll try it again in this early stage to see if it shortens the length any. I did a Q-tip for about 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes about 30 minutes later, then another 5 about 2 hours later.
The first thing I did when I was half awake this morning was open my mouth to see how sore I was... And I felt nothing. It actually made me hop out of bed and look in the bathroom mirror. This HUGE cluster of blisters was practically gone. It was just a little red mark, not even a little sore. I Q-tipped with acetone three times throughout the day, and I predict it will be 100% healed by tomorrow morning.
I know it's probably not the best thing for me, and maybe it's a little dangerous, and there are probably ways I can change my diet (I've tried, but I haven't found anything that kept breakouts away completely) but I'm in sales, and, if I can help it, I need to not have this on my face. If nothing else, I need to at least not be in horrific pain when I open my mouth to talk. I feel like this is a miracle solution, and I had to share.
(Myrtle Beach, Sc)
11/04/2012
★☆☆☆☆
I just noriced a cold sore yesterday. It was barely noticeable so I ran out to CVS and got Abreva and Lysine , I spent about $30. I lathered that on and went to sleep. Wake up and its 2x bigger, red, swollen and has a white blistery area forming on my lip, sorta flat so far. I applied Nail Polish remover this morning since I was so pissed. I put it on a Q-tip and dabbed it on my lip for about 10 seconds. I did it again about an hour later, then 2 hours later. So far I see absolutely no change. Nothing. Looks exactly the same. I think this may be a placebo effect. Does not work.
(Augusta, Ga)
12/08/2012
★★★★★
I've used the acetone nail polish remover method twice in the last year. The first time I used it I had already had the cold sore on my lip for three days so it was pretty gnarly looking but I went ahead and did the acetone treatment anyway and it was almost 100 % healed within a few days when normally it would have taken two weeks. This time, I used the acetone as soon as I felt the cold sore and two days later its almost completely healed. It never got huge and super red and scabby. I am definitely a huge fan of this method.
Acetone
★★★★★
I was really skeptical about trying out acetone for cold soles, but I went ahead and tried this out. I had a cold sore that had developed for about a day, so I wasn't sure if this would work since most of the posts said to apply the acetone when the first symptoms appear.
Here's what I did:
Cold sore appeared for a day. It was still tingly, warm and the blisters and lip were definitely swollen.
Day 1: Applied acetone by dabbing the area in 5 minute intervals. I did twice before bed, maybe 1-2 hours apart. After each dabbing session, I rinsed the area with very cold water and applied a generous amount of vaseline.
Day 2: I did the same as above, about 3 times during the day.
After the first day I thought my cold sore felt better (less burning, less pain), but I couldn't tell if it mattered in any way because it was still pretty swollen.
After day 2 I the swelling and pain went down considerably and it scabbed over. I'm not sure if 'scabbed' is the right word. It was more like I could tell the acetone dried out the area.
Today is day 4. The last two days I discontinued the acetone. The swelling and burning are gone. The blisters are also gone. It's more of a crusty-dry area now. It's still noticebly red, but I went out and was able to cover it up with a bit of make up.
Does anyone else have any idea on how to speed up the healing at this point? I'm just using a liberal amount of vaseline in the evenings before bed, and I was hoping to speed up the healing. Thank you!
(Vancouver Bc, Canada.)
03/21/2012
Dear Bella_vcista2, If you have a cold sore you have a form of herpes. Taking BHT a food preservative that kills lipid coated viruses. Your cold sore will return as mine did but does no longer. You can get it at VRP (vitamin Research Products) very cheap. The informed have the power. Art.
(Worden, Il)
03/24/2012
I frequently get cold sores... Hate them. I've tried absolutely everything, including acetone and it did nothing for me. My cold sores swell terribly and I generally have flu like symptoms. I have been researching essential oils and making my own formulas and came across what oils are good for cold sores. I started out with tea tree oil, but found that it was not knocking the cold sore like I had hoped. So, I switched to Bergamont and applied it 3 to 4 times a day. It was wonderful. The cold sore did not disappear overnight, but the duration time and severity of the sore was diminished drastically. This will be the only remedy I use from now on. If you try it, I hope it helps you, too.
(Como, Colorado)
03/25/2012
Everything you put on your skin is absorbed into you. I for one don't want any acetone inside me or on me. If you take one 500 mg. Tab of L-Lysine a day the cold sore will go away. It's a herpes virus from the whole Chicken Pox thing. That is what causes cold sores. L-Lysine is an amino acid. The ole bod need this.
(Ny)
03/27/2012
(Culver, Ca)
04/02/2012
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(Walden, Ny)
06/23/2012
I use to use pure Spirit of Camphor, the same way you said you use acetone. I never used the vaseline on top of it. The spirit of camphor did indeed do the trick in a short time frame. But now I only use L-Lysine at the very first sign of itching, bubbling, puffiness. I take it 3-4 times a day for several days.
(Fl)
05/26/2016
Acetone
★★★★★
(Renfrewshire, Scotland)
12/25/2011
(Omaha, Ne)
01/10/2012
Acetone works but best is abreva and campho phenique which is over the counter at the drug store. Right when it starts tingling and getting red... Put on the campho and then slather on the abreva and it will barely come out... but you gotta catch it right away just carry it with you cause it's always unexpected.
(Lancaster, California)
01/27/2012
★★★★★
So I woke up with a bump on my lip the other day... I freaked cuz I knew it was coming I went to the store and got everything to try to keep it from bursting into a full on cold sore... Too late!! Ugg. I work as a host at red robin and I have had 2 days doing everything I can to get rid of it before I go back to work. I came across a few sites and found this... Nail polish remover it sounded scary but it has dried it compleatly. I mixed it with rubbing alcohol and used a qutip to put chapstick all around the sore cuz I am afraid that the nail polish remover would kill the heathly skin on my lips then I dapped the mixture on the sore for 5 mins every 20 mins with out touching it or irritating it in between, I work at 5 today and it looks like I'm not going to have to worry about ppl staring at my mouth, if only I knew about this sooner.... It really does work ppl
(Canton, Mi U.s)
02/21/2012
★☆☆☆☆
(Los Angeles, Ca, United States)
03/08/2012
Putting any type of of chemicals like bleach or acetone on a cold sore is a bad idea. It may get rid of it temporarily but it could cause unwanted side effects. The root cause of the cold sore is a virus, so you want to use treatments that attack the virus directly.
I've had good success using Lysine to treat cold sores. Here are a few good articles on cold sore treatments you can check out:
www.health911.com/cold_sores - In depth overview of a cold sore and various treatments
http://www.holisticallyhaute.com/2012/03/do-you-get-cold-sores-heres-how-to.html - Good article on natural remedies
www.yourcoldsoreremedies.com - Shows various natural treatment options you can choose from.
I know cold sores can be a major pain, but its better to do some research and use a safe treatment.
(Bklyn, Ny)
07/11/2012