Living with Herpes: How to Control and Manage Herpes?

Those living with herpes know how unsettling, disgusting and upsetting it can be. Herpes is a kind of STD or sexually transmitted disease and people living with herpes feel ashamed to be diagnosed with an STD as there is a lot of social stigma attached to contracting STD. People start questioning your lifestyle, your character, your choice of sexual partners and the person living with herpes often breaks down and goes into depression. Some even develop social phobia.

People living with herpes know what they are going through and often they are isolated by society and deeply ridiculed. That is why patients living with herpes are asked to join support groups where they can find help, guidance, medical treatment and advice on how to control herpes, how to cope with social ostracism and other such issues.

In a support group, you can share your herpes story with likeminded individuals and fellow herpes sufferers and they will provide you with moral support and guidance and be your pillar of support. You can even join online forums if you want.

Did you know if you are living with herpes you need to always maintain cleanliness and proper bodily and genital hygiene? That means cleaning the genital area twice or three times a day with hygiene wash. Keeping the area clean and dry and avoiding certain kinds of food items that aggravate the outbreaks like peanut butter. Not only peanut butter, even chestnuts, almonds, other kinds of nuts, chocolates and other such things are also to be avoided as they are rich in arginine – a kind of amino acid.

Even foods rich in arginine and lysine trigger herpes outbreaks. So you should avoid these types of foods. Some other food items from which you should abstain are sugary food items like beverages, sodas, aerated drinks, coffee, black tea, drinks laced with extra sugar and caffeine etc.

Along with these, there are some home remedies and natural cures for herpes such as Echinacea extract, red marine algae, aloe vera and tea tree oils, eucalyptus which can relieve painful symptoms of herpes outbreaks and also prevent the HSV transmission.