What’s unfortunate about cold sores is that once you’ve had them, you’re bound to experience recurring outbreaks. It’s a lifetime disease caused by infection with the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1).
Although the virus stays with you for life, it doesn’t mean, though, that there’s nothing you can do to reduce the frequency of your cold sore outbreaks. For one, you can avoid foods and other factors that may trigger cold sore outbreaks. Find out which foods can help you prevent frequent cold sore outbreaks.
Lysine in Your Food
An amino acid, lysine is necessary for the synthesis of proteins. Although it functions primarily as a building block of protein, lysine plays many other important roles. For instance, it helps improve your body’s ability to absorb and retain calcium, which means that lysine is necessary for your bone health.
If you’re injured or wounded, you can also benefit from lysine. The amino acid helps in the synthesis of collagen, so it also promotes wound healing. There’s also evidence that lysine can help block stress response receptors, thereby reducing anxiety levels.
Lysine is also known to help with cold sores. HSV-1, the virus that causes cold sores, usually stays dormant but certain factors can trigger the virus to become active again. When it’s active, the herpes virus replicates and eventually causes cold sores to form.
During the replication process, HSV-1 needs arginine, another amino acid. However, lysine interferes with your body’s absorption of arginine. This means that when you consume more lysine, it can help prevent your body from absorbing enough arginine to support the replication of HSV-1.
Foods that are rich in Lysine
To help prevent recurring cold sores, you can increase your intake of lysine-rich foods.
Plant-based sources of Lysine
Meat and dairy products are the usual sources of lysine. However, there are also many plant-based foods that can give you a higher amount of lysine than arginine. Dehydrated apricots, for instance, contain a higher amount of lysine than arginine.
Other vegetables and fruits that are also rich in lysine include avocados, beets, mangoes, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, red pepper, green pepper, and pears. Legumes and soy-based products are also rich in lysine, so you may want to increase your intake of soy milk, soybeans, tempeh, and tofu.
Beans like black beans, kidney beans, and navy beans are also excellent sources of lysine. Edamame, chickpeas, lentils, and hummus also contain high concentrations of lysine. You may also want to snack on pumpkin seeds, macadamia nuts, cashews, and pistachios as these are all rich in lysine.
Meat and dairy products
Numerous animal products are excellent sources of lysine. These include dairy-based products like milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter. Meat, of course, is extremely rich in lysine.
Foods that are High in Lysine but Low on Arginine
To prevent recurring cold sore flareups, you’ll need to lower your arginine intake. This is one way to deprive the herpes virus of the amino acid which it absolutely requires for the viral replication process.
Foods that can help you do this include coho salmon, yellowfin tuna, herring, trout, and mackerel. A 5-ounce serving of coho salmon will give you only about 2 grams of arginine and more than 3 grams of lysine. Yellowfin tuna, mackerel, trout, and herring have similar lysine to arginine ratios.
Low-fat yogurt, reduced-fat, and nonfat milk have a lysine content that’s about three times as much as its arginine content. The lysine content of Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, and mozzarella is about 50%-70% higher than arginine.
Other Ways to Prevent Cold Sores
It really depends on what triggers your cold sores, but reducing your stress levels and boosting your immune system are excellent ways to fight the herpes virus. A lot of people experience cold sore outbreaks whenever they’re faced with a high-stress situation. So if you’re prone to frequent cold sore outbreaks, you should try to manage your stress levels.
One way to relieve stress and boost your immune system is to work out regularly. If that’s not something you have time for, you can also try herb-based supplements that can help reduce your stress levels.
Ashwagandha and Tongkat Ali are two of the most popular and scientifically proven herb-based supplements for reducing stress. These herbs are considered adaptogens since they help improve your body’s ability to adapt to and cope with stress.
If you’re looking for a great supplement that contains both Ashwagandha and Tongkat Ali, you can take Male UltraCore. It’s one of the best sex enhancement supplements available today. Plus, Male UltraCore also contains fenugreek seed extract, which is also rich in lysine.
Can You Still Have Sex Even When You Have Cold Sores?
Cold sores are symptoms of an STD called oral herpes. Even though it’s an STD, skin contact with cold sores or herpes blisters is all it takes to transmit the disease. This means that you shouldn’t be engaging in oral sex with your partner during a cold sore outbreak if you don’t want to pass on the virus.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should completely abstain from having sex whenever you have cold sores. You can definitely still engage in sexual activities even when you’re having an outbreak. Just make sure to avoid kissing and oral sex.
Supplementing with Male UltraCore
If you’re worried that your cold sores may affect your sexual performance, Male UltraCore can certainly help you. Not only will you experience reduced stress levels when you take this amazing sex enhancement supplement, but you’ll also experience great improvements in your sexual stamina and libido.
Male UltraCore is extremely effective in enhancing testosterone levels, thanks to its several testosterone-boosting natural ingredients. Fenugreek and Tongkat Ali are both contained in Male UltraCore, and these two herbs are known to be excellent testosterone boosters.
Male UltraCore also contains Tribulus terrestris, Ashwagandha, Horny Goat Weed, Maca, Zinc, and many other natural ingredients that are known to have great effects on erection quality and frequency, sexual stamina, libido, and testosterone levels.
Increase Your Testosterone Levels with Testosterone Boosters
Male UltraCore is a premium testosterone boosting supplement that is designed to maximize test levels, increase your performance and drive, and give you harder and fuller erections. 
NOW AVAILABLE
