How to Use Lysine for Cold Sores & HerpesMy father, myself, and my kids all carry the herpes virus (stats show 67% of people under age 50 are infected) and it breaks out on my lips, and around and inside my nose whenever I get short of sleep, or stressed = run down. Remember: healthy food, enough sleep and low stress are cornerstones of the immune system. Viruses only manifest when your immune system is compromised or not strong.

I once did an intensive Jini’s Wild Oregano Oil Protocol for over 2 years (cycling on and off to kill MAP) but that was not sufficient to kill herpes. I also applied diluted wild oregano directly to cold sores but that didn’t do much to speed the healing.

Then I tried L-lysine topical ointment and wow, did that ever work brilliantly! Later I experimented with L-lysine oral ingestion. Let’s get into the details…

Why does L-lysine heal herpes or cold sores?

Lysine inhibits the activity of the amino acid arginine, which is required for herpes replication. So you’re knocking out a key building block the virus uses to grow itself and spread.

In my personal experience, and my children’s, we have found L-lysine extremely effective at preventing or healing a cold sore eruption.

How to use L-lysine topically

I’ve experimented with taking it both topically and orally, my kids have only ever used L-lysine topically and been completely satisfied with the results. If you can get the L-lysine ointment on there before the sore erupts – when it just feels swollen, tender, or itchy – the sore may not even appear. But even if sores have erupted, applying the ointment 3x/day will greatly shorten the active and healing periods.

How to make your own L-lysine Ointment

You can either purchase an L-lysine ointment from your health store, we’ve used a product called Super Lysine and it works really well, or you can make your own at home.

Ideally, purchase a pharmaceutical-grade L-lysine in powder form (this avoids the fillers and flow agents included in capsules). But if you already have L-lysine capsules, those work too.

Take any olive oil-based herbal salve (I prefer comfrey or calendula) and mix in about 5% L-lysine and mix well to incorporate. So if you have 100 grams of salve, add 5 grams of lysine. Seal mixture tightly in a salve tin or glass jar and apply 3x/day.

Note: most commercial L-lysine ointments use less than 2% lysine, so you’re well covered at 5%. If you have genital herpes, then you may want to experiment with adding 20-30% lysine to your salve and see how that works.

How to take L-lysine orally

For oral treatment (and yes, you can do both): I take 500 mg/day during high stress or low sleep times for prevention. And then I take 1,000 mg if I have an outbreak. Thus far, I’ve only had outbreaks when I’ve forgotten to take the 500 mg during stress! I just open the capsule, or use the powder, and take it with a packet of Emergen-C (as I can’t swallow pills) – perhaps the Vitamin C potentizes the L-lysine as it supports the immune system? Who knows, but it feels good to my body.

The only caveat for oral use is if you tend towards diarrhea, which l-lysine can exacerbate. In that case, either try a small dosage and gradually increase, or, stick to topical application only.

However, research shows that L-lysine helps relieve anxiety-induced diarrhea and also shows promise as a colorectal cancer treatment. So I don’t see any downside to including a reasonable dosage of this amino acid as part of your holistic treatment.

Some people take up to 3 grams per day of L-Lysine (3 doses of 1000 mg each) but it’s not recommended to go higher than that, or to stay on a high dosage for longer than a year without a break. My experience – if you’re holistically managing stress, sleep, good diet, exercise – is there’s no need to use such a high dosage. It’s much better to treat issues holistically, rather than looking for one ‘magic bullet’.

Remember that L-arginine is also a beneficial amino acid. It’s converted by the body into nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to open wider for improved blood flow. It’s essential under certain circumstances, like pregnancy, infancy, critical illness, and trauma recovery. It also helps counter the effects of aging, improves immunity and fertility. So you don’t want to inhibit L-arginine ongoing, by taking continual high doses of L-lysine. Just use it as and when it’s needed.

Remember health is about balance, not mega-dosing on anything long-term – except probiotics! But only because most of us don’t get good bacteria from our diet anymore.

p.s. Check out the HOME REMEDIES section of this site – all my tried-and-tested protocols (by my family and thousands of my readers) are all there. Make sure you check it first for anything that comes up!