Lysine For Cold Sores

You may have heard about the amino acid Lysine For Cold Sores as a preventative or even a cure.  If so, than you have come to the right place.  Humans require amino acids for many metabolic functions that are critical to life.  One of these extremely important functions is the ability of amino acids to form the foundation of proteins.  Now the body is an amazing animal and can produce some amino acids on it’s own.  Unfortunately there are eight amino acids which we cannot produce and therefore we must ingest them in our diet or take them in as a supplement.  These 8 essential amino acids are count Lysine as one of their group.  The interesting thing here is that Lysine has been found to inhibit the proliferation of HSV-1, which of course is the virus that causes cold sores.  Therefore the medical community has confirmed that if you do not consume enough Lysine, it is possible for you to have more outbreaks with cold sores than an individual who is infected but has an adequate intake of Lysine.

lysine supplement

So right about now you might be thinking “Wow, I will take Lysine For Cold Sores and my problems will be gone for good”.  Not so fast buddy as there are other factors  involved in keeping our unique machines, a.k.a. “our bodies”,  running at peak performance.  One of those factors is another amino acid known as Arginine.  The interesting thing here is that Arginine has been shown to aid the herpes virus in reproducing!  So here we have one amino acid that aids the virus and one amino acid that inhibits it.  Knowing this fact should make you want to alter your diet to help as much as possible in avoiding any future outbreaks.

As you know, everything we consume must be broken down into microscopic particles before it can be absorbed.   What you may not have known is that there are designated sites of absorption for everything.  The problem is that these two amino acids compete for the same absorption sites.  Therefore  the more Arginine you take in, the less Lysine has an opportunity for getting absorbed.  The bottom line here is that you want to keep the ratio of these two amino acids balanced in the favor of Lysine.

Normally, people don’t actively think about their diet in terms of amino acids saying things like “ Gee, I need to eat less Arginine today”.  Therefore you would be well served to know to know what foods are high in Lysine and which ones are high in Arginine.  Armed with this information you could eat a balanced meal which favors the former and shuns the latter. 

O.K. so without further delay, here is the “good list” and the “bad list”.

Foods that have more Lysine than Arginine include: dairy products, fish, brewers yeast, beef, chicken, fruits and vegetables, beans but not peas.

Foods that have more Arginine than Lysine include: peanuts, chocolate, coconut, oats, gelatin, white flour, soy beans, wheat germ.

Don’t forget that supplementing with Lysine is always an option.  You would take 1000mg per day as a maintenance dose and then increase that to 1000mg with each meal during an outbreak.

Lysine For Cold Sores