Monday, July 9, 2012

(Phytochemicals in) Foods to Prevent and Treat diseases - cold sores

Cold sores (Herpes labialis) is an infection of the lip as a result of the outbreak of by herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). The blister is healed within 2 - 3 weeks, but the virus remains dormant in the facial nerve and the rate of the recurrence of the diseases is very high to rare episodes to 12 or more.

Types of food to prevent and treat cold sore and recurrent cold sore
1.  Legume
Lignin and ascorbic acid are found abundantly and measurable amount in the legume family. In the study to evaluate anti-HSV-1 activity of a pine cone lignin and ascorbic acid treatment, in a a clinical pilot study, showed that the majority of the patients reported the reduction in the severity of symptoms and the reduction in the recurrence episodes after the lignin-ascorbic acid treatment compared with previous episodes, suggesting its possible applicability for the prevention and treatment of HSV-1 infection(1).

2. Sunflower and sesame seeds
L-lysine  is found in measurable amount in sunflower and sesame seeds. In the study to determine the effectiveness of a combination of L-lysine with botanicals and other nutrients in relieving the symptoms of facial and circumoral herpes of thirty male and female participants (15 in each group) meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria were admitted to the study. The 10 outcome measures used to monitor the sores were tingling, itching, burning, tenderness, prickling, soreness, bump/swelling, small blister(s), oozing blister(s), and crusting, as well as before-and-after photographs of the lesion, and a daily diary, showed that  significant improvement in participants by the sixth day of treatment for all but two participants. There were no adverse effects reported during this study(2).

3. Orange juice
Orange juice contains the highest amount among other fruits and juice, according to the data of Food Summaries Vitamin Nutrition(3). In  a randomized double-bind, placebo-controlled clinical trial on the topical treatment of recurrent mucocutaneous herpes with a strong water solution of Ascoxal, an ascorbic acid-containing pharmaceutical formulation with mucolytic and non-specific antimicrobial activities, found that ccording to the patients' records, the active treatment resulted in a significantly smaller cumulative number of days with scab (P < 0.01), or with any remaining symptom (P < 0.02) and significantly fewer occasions of worsening of any symptom after the treatment (P < 0.05). According to the nurse's records, the persistence of scabs was significantly shorter in the active treatment group (means 3.4 vs 5.9 days, P = 0.03). Virus culture after the first day of treatment yielded herpes simplex virus significantly less frequently in the active treatment group than in the placebo group (P < 0.01). In conclusion, a brief treatment with this ascorbic acid-containing preparation resulted in statistically significant clinical and antiviral effects, which calls for further and more extensive studies with a more intensive treatment schedule(4).

4. Etc.
 
Sources
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20023248
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15989381
(3) http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/food/vitamin-c-foods.htm
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8540748

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