Oh honey.

Cold sores suck. I have been fighting the good fight since I was a wee lass, and have tried all kinds of funky things to try and get rid of the damn things. They are tricky, and since they aren't deadly killers, science seems to be kinda MEH on finding a cure, or even something that actually works awesomely to alleviate the pain and crustiness and blerg of a cold sore outbreak.

Lysine worked for a good many years, but somehow just quit being effective at all. Then a friend told me to try the Abreva, but you know what, that crap gave me a rebound cold sore bigger than the one it had maybe, possibly made one day shorter. Honestly, that possible, maybe one day doesn't really make a heap of difference when the other days are still painful and crusty.

So, I was trolling the interwebz one day, looking for some kind of natural relief, and I found that there are a bunch of people touting honey as the miracle cold sore remedy. Simple, bee-made honey. There is no freakin' way this is gonna work, I thought to myself. Honey? Really??

Unlike many cold sore sufferers, I rarely get that tingly warning sign that an outbreak is coming, so I gotta be vigilant. Constantly on the lookout for the next attack. And the first time I sensed a crusty one coming on, I grabbed the bottle of honey sitting on my desk and put it on my lips a la lip gloss. Put it on about every two hours, and made sure I got some on before I went to bed, and what do you know, I never did get an outbreak.

I was shocked, to say the least. Of course, it probably was a false alarm, I thought. No way honey, that stuff I've putting on toast and spinning into my tea all these years, could stop a cold sore dead in its tracks. But ever since that day, every single time I do the honey trick, that potential cold sore never arises! For reals!

I don't know, but if stopping a cold sore is that easy, why is no one shouting this from the rooftops? I'll let you know if one sneaks though.