This week I've been busy writing articles for Suite101.com, so I figured I'd post them here and let you read them there. Have fun!
Weight Loss and the USDA's Exercise Recommendations Explained
Medical Tourism: An Alternative to Expensive Medical Care
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Cheap and Natural Cold Sore Cure
I haven't had a cold sore in years and years, but last week, I managed to sprout three of them on the inside of my lower lip. Desperate to get rid of them, I did some homework. There are several over the counter medications for cold sores, but I discovered that they cost more than liquid gold. I asked my dad if he thought they were worth the price and he said he wasn't sure. He'd used Abreva, but that Abreva sometimes didn't help his cold sores go away. It was his experience that with or without Abreva, the sores usually stuck around for about 2 weeks. My thought was if that's the case, what's the point of spending money on medication?
I read an article about placing a warm (wet) black tea bag on the cold sores for 30 minutes to help reduce swelling. So I tried it. At first it was painful, but the pain died down and eventually so did the swelling. This made eating a lot less painful. I knew that tannic acid in black tea is a powerful anti-inflammatory, but I never thought to use it on a cold sore.
The cold sores remained, so I went to work and started talking to one of my coworkers. She said that when she gets cold sores, she packs them full of sea salt and they go away. OUCH! I thought, but at the same time I was tired of these sores making my life miserable. That night I followed my coworker's advice and packed my cold sores with sea salt. It hurt like holy hell for the first couple of minutes, but eventually the burning sensation died down to a tolerable level.
I held the sea salt in my mouth for about 10 minutes or so before I rinsed. The inside of my lip felt like a raisin, but other than that I had survived. The next morning, the cold sores were much better. The salt trick worked so I tried it again. In fact, I repeated it for the next two days and the cold sores vanished and they haven't come back.
Hurray for good old fashioned sea salt and black tea.
I read an article about placing a warm (wet) black tea bag on the cold sores for 30 minutes to help reduce swelling. So I tried it. At first it was painful, but the pain died down and eventually so did the swelling. This made eating a lot less painful. I knew that tannic acid in black tea is a powerful anti-inflammatory, but I never thought to use it on a cold sore.
The cold sores remained, so I went to work and started talking to one of my coworkers. She said that when she gets cold sores, she packs them full of sea salt and they go away. OUCH! I thought, but at the same time I was tired of these sores making my life miserable. That night I followed my coworker's advice and packed my cold sores with sea salt. It hurt like holy hell for the first couple of minutes, but eventually the burning sensation died down to a tolerable level.
I held the sea salt in my mouth for about 10 minutes or so before I rinsed. The inside of my lip felt like a raisin, but other than that I had survived. The next morning, the cold sores were much better. The salt trick worked so I tried it again. In fact, I repeated it for the next two days and the cold sores vanished and they haven't come back.
Hurray for good old fashioned sea salt and black tea.
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