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Can you prevent cold sores with diet?

Curious how much diet matters for cold sores. Lysine, arginine, general immune support. Has changing your diet actually reduced your cold sore outbreaks, or is prevention mostly about UV and stress?

Community support, not medical advice. For a clinical read, use the Clinic.
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4 Alex (Labisan) · 28d ago

Thank you for sharing. For most people the biggest lever is daily sun protection on the lips, even on cloudy days.

1 BraveWillow82 · 28d ago

Winter is worse for me too, the cold cracks my lips first.

2 CalmFinch50 · 25d ago

I noticed a big difference when I cut back on nuts and chocolate during stressful weeks and added more veggies, but honestly it's not a cure for me, more like it takes the edge off how often they show up. Everyone's triggers seem a bit different so it might take some trial and error to see what your body reacts to.

2 WarmFalcon28 · 24d ago

Honestly I thought cutting out nuts and chocolate would fix mine but it only helped a little; what actually made the biggest difference for me was just eating regularly and sleeping enough so my body wasn't run down.

2 SteadyWillow50 · 22d ago

Sleep makes a huge difference for me, more than I expected.

3 CalmFinch50 · 22d ago

Honestly I noticed fewer outbreaks when I cut way back on nuts and chocolate during stressful weeks, though I have no idea if that was the food or just me finally sleeping properly. Worth a try but be kind to yourself if it doesn't fix everything.