Have Cold Sores or Herpes? You're not alone
Drug or Compound
Effect
Prevents outbreaks. Reduces number of outbreaks by 2.6 fold. May also reduce severity of outbreaks.
Reduces duration of outbreaks about 1 day, from about 6 to about 5 days.
Reduces duration of outbreaks by less than one day.
Reduces duration of outbreaks by less than one day.
May reduce number of outbreaks. Clinical trial evidence is limited.
Drug or compound
Dosing
Topical to arm, once every 3 months.
Oral pills for one day
Topical to lesion, 5x per day for 4 days.
Topical to lesion, 5x per day for several days.
3 grams once per day, every day.
Drug or Compound
Mechanism
Improves immune response. Shifts immune response from antibodies to T cells.
Inhibits DNA replication of herpes viruses.
Inhibits DNA replication of herpes viruses.
Inhibits fusion between the plasma membrane and the viral envelope, inhibiting entry of the virus into the cell
Herpes is said to have a lot of arginine in its proteins and lysine may compete with arginine and thereby inhibit herpes protein production.
More info and how to obtain the drug or compound
Genital Herpes
The table above is for cold sores. The same drugs and compounds would be expected to have similar efficacy for genital herpes. Valtrex is also approved for prevention and treatment of genital herpes, but is not approved for prevention of cold sores. Valtrex must be taken daily for prevention of genital herpes. Acyclovir is prescribed as a pill for genital herpes. Abreva is not used for genital herpes. Lysine and SADBE would be expected to have similar effects on genital herpes as they do on cold sores.
And here's some more information on the prevalence and biology of cold sores (oral herpes) and genital herpes.
