What Virus Causes cold Sores
The causes of cold sores are usually that some condition has allowed a dormant virus to become active in your body. The Herpes Simplex 1 virus is the most common of the causes of cold sores. While the virus may live in your body in a dormant stage, there is typically something that prompts the virus to become active. This activity – causes of cold sores on your lips and in your mouth – can be a reaction to any of several factors. Before we look at what prompts the activity you should understand how you came to have the Herpes Virus in the first place.
The herpes simplex virus is thought to be one of the most common viruses in the world. Literally millions of people live with the virus, most without any side effects other than the occasional outbreak of cold sores. The condition that most people refer to as cold sores or Fever Blisters is the herpes simplex 1 virus. The causes of cold sores can be tracked to this virus.
Typically, the herpes virus is very easy to spread. That means that the causes of cold sores are often simply the sharing of drinking glasses or silverware between two or more people when one has the herpes virus. And once you have the virus, you have it for life, though the herpes virus only occasionally manifests itself in the form of cold sores.
But if you always have the virus, why is it that you only have cold sores now and then? Most people are able to control the virus to some degree so that the virus is not active for long periods of time. But when your body has other problems to contend with, the system is weakened and the ability to control the virus is lessened. These are the major causes of cold sores becoming visible on and in the mouth.
Being tired and run down is listed by most health care professionals as one of the causes of cold sores. Your body’s ability to cope with the daily requirements of keeping you healthy becomes less effective when you haven’t taken good care of your body. Other causes of cold sores include being sick or having a fever – the reason these outbreaks are often called either cold sores or fever blisters. Following this train of thought, keeping yourself healthy overall will help lessen the severity, duration and frequency of Cold Sore Outbreaks.