Herpes treatment

0:01Hey what's going on so tell me why are you sitting on your bed like that well you know it's interesting that you asked I just had my appendix out last week um you can't see the scar because it's covered up because I'm wearing this binder thing um but there's about a 3inch incision on my abdomen that's stapled shut um so I'm here I am in my pretty zebra PJs you because I'm dedicated to you're you're you're dedicated to the mission and um and and you're hardcore my gosh just how long ago was surgery one week actually one week today right around now is when they were Wheeling me into the operating room so you're you're missing a whole body part and you're and you're still here with us that's I am that's awesome so we're here we're here to talk about um herpes treatment and a little bit about medication um and you you know this well cuz day in day out you you know you you talk with with herpes patients and um and I I know it through you know just my own uh experience with it you know having herpes and then ...

1:17... talking with a lot of people through the herpes opportunity forums and and um so all of this stuff you know obviously this goes without saying but we're not actual doctors we are not doctors we've tried to play them on TV but gry's Anatomy wouldn't hire us nope they don't want us I don't know why um L yeah it doesn't matter and um and then all of like once we actually get into the nitty-gritty of like the treatments and everything um those are all anecdotal too um you know there are tons of different treatments out there uh and and certain treatments work better for certain people and and not as good for other people so you know take the take this advice at your own at your own risk your own risk um take it as you will it's your body listen to your body seek medical care when you need it um but hopefully this can help you know provide some anecdotal relief um for things to try that we've tried that we found to be successful for us yeah perfect um and and even before we get into that to to even consider uh that if you're having a herpes outbreak especially at the very beginning I remember when I first got herpes and I thought oh my God I'm going to have to medicate myself all the time so I don't spread this ...

2:39... horrible disease to everyone that I walk past on the street you know and that's just not how it is uh so so when you first when you first um when you first get herpes or if you've had it for a while and you have that that um that concept that you have to be medicated all the time actually consider that it it may be healthier for you to just take better care of your health in general absolutely and um and and ride ride some of the outbreaks through and just see how they go on their own because because your body has a lot of natural antibodies that's that it immediately starts to build up after your first uh exposure to herpes so a lot of times I don't I actually don't take uh medication unless I'm in a relationship with someone who doesn't have herpes right so I I ride my outbreaks through I mean they're not really that big of a deal to me um what what are some other reasons that you might uh medicate generally you want to medicate um the indications like from a clinic perspective are if you're experiencing six or more outbreaks per year so frequency or especially severe outbreaks where like you're down and out for a week and a half and they're a ton of sores and you're feeling feverish and flu like and you're having those ...

4:02... kind of issues and you want to be able to keep those under control um I do take suppressive medication I've been doing it for about pretty much since I I was diagnosed because I was getting hurt break outbreaks like again and again and again and again and so frequency was a thing for me and I just wasn't in a place that I could eat healthy because I was a college student and couldn't afford to eat healthy um so so I was very stressed and not taking good care of myself so suppressives were a good choice for me and now it's just kind of habit um especially now that I have health insurance but for people that don't have health insurance suppressives are not your only answer and you know hopefully with some of the things that we go over today you'll have a better idea of like other ways that you can take care about breaks um to help make them um less annoying because that's they are they're annoying not like lifethreatening right yeah so if we think about it that way of okay so I'm just trying to lessen the annoyance Factor uh then you know first of all for all of you who don't know your first tpes outbreak is not representative of how they're always going to be that's that's that's one of the major things that people are like holy [ __ ] I don't want to deal with that I'm going to take medication so I can Stave that away the the the first tpes outbreak is your body reacting like oh my gosh what is this new virus ...

5:26... in inside of me right and and and from that point on your outbreaks are going to get less and less severe and less and less frequent so um so maybe for the first like few months while your body is building up antibodies you might want to go on suppressive therapy or or episodic therapy which is when whenever you have an outbreak or when you feel an outbreak coming on that's when you take the medication um and all the specifics of that are are in the blog article either on medication or or treatment that uh that this video is linked to um but uh but after that stretch of time once your body like you know within like six six months yeah right yeah about six months about six months is when it sort of levels off yeah your body is um is pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to outbreaks that doesn't mean that you're never going to have an outbreak but I think 15 to 20% of people um have a first outbreak and never have another outbreak again absolutely that's a thing that happens so then you're medicating your body unnecessarily if you're taking suppressives and a cycle of year which is what I take is not good for your liver like long term So eventually I would like to not be on suppressives because I don't want to like torch my liver ...

6:45... I did that enough in college you know yeah um so it it is something that you kind of want to feel out and see what's going to be best for you for the time being but like you said if you're in a relationship with someone who doesn't have herpes um so impressives are good because that helps to lessen the transmission rates um even though they're pretty low to begin with but it lowers them even further yeah and and the uh we actually have two two handouts um that if you haven't seen them yet go to the go to the re resources um on her's life uh to to download these two handouts but one of the handouts is on uh on the risk of transmission and um it shows you know if you're if you're a woman um then there's the the chance of of transmission even without suppressive therapy and even without condoms when when you're not having an outbreak or when when the man isn't having an outbreak if a man is having sex with a woman this is getting complicated when a man is having sex with a woman when the man has herpes and the woman does not the woman has a 10% chance of getting getting herpes because there's more of a mucous membrane there there's more more access to to the body um but if you take suppressive therapy ...

8:03... that cuts that 10% in half that's five 5% and then condoms lessen it by 30 to 50% some studies say so that's another that's down to two and a half% you know so you can see so yeah so you can see and and it's even lower for for men for for men without any protection and without any suppressive therapy if the woman has herpes then it much harder to transmit to to a man than it is to a woman then the the man has a five or a 4% chance um without anything and if if the woman isn't having an active outbreak if the a condom is worn then that's half of half of that 2% and then if suppressive therapy is in in in the mix then that's down to 1% so um so all of that being said you know that's another that's another reason that you would take medication is to protect your partner but if your partner already has herpes and you don't really have that many outbreaks and you've already ridden them out and know what they're like and they're just you know Annoying but nothing much else there's a give and take of do I want to put my liver through this extra work if I'm only gonna have an outbreak once a year exactly versus if I'm gonna have an outbreak like every two weeks or every month ...

9:21... then yeah I might want to put my liver through that so that I can have that trade-off to not experience the outbreaks so just it's a it's a personal thing know your body and read those handouts they're amazing I literally give them to every patient that is newly diagnosed with herpes or that comes in and says that they have herpes even if they've had it for years I'm like this is information that you need to have and I wish that I had when I was diagnosed so amazing handouts please download them and the Shameless plug because we're all about shamelessness here at herp opportunity I mean I'm in zebra paj sh I love it I love it I love it when you posted on on Facebook like and she's you're like posing in your new pajamas there's a hat that goes with it I'll have to find the Hat it's like a zebra like Mohawk and zebra ears and like comes down and it's the cutest thing ever I just got as a present from one of my friends and it was I was thrilled that's so awesome I I thought that that was just your hairstyle I didn't realize that was a zebra zebra h I wish no it's actually more my hairstyle I almost zebra zebra so um so let's see what's next um we can talk about different ways of holistically suppressing ...

10:46... and shortening outbreaks yeah what what uh do you use anything for your for yourself I do um my favorite is tea tree oil um it is an essential oil and it has naturally astringent and antiviral properties you app apply it directly to a store um so you take a Q-tip or a cotton ball um apply it to the store throw it away this is a onetime use thing you can't like take the Q-tip and put it back in the bottle of licing or in the bottle of tea tree oil that's not a good thing yeah um so new Q-tip appli to another store Q-tip applied to another store common sense but you know it's always good to say um so I love tea it it does have a very strong odor um that sort of smells like cleaning solution a little bit oh I kind of like the the smell of it yeah but you know then you're like my genital are so fresh and so clean of cool um so yes your your genitals will smell like pea Tre oil for the duration of the use um but it's not like waves of it like people around you probably are not going to know that you got teach but you will know yeah it it it also has a property from from what I've heard I I haven't used it that much but from ...

12:11... what I've heard it has a property of drying it out too which is good because I mean it's it's a lot like it's not it's not alcohol but it is a lot like alcohol where it it dries dries out the area and of course herpes prefers a moist environment so so it has all these great properties the antiviral um and drying it out um and what else I love line is an amino acid that your body does not produce naturally um you can take it as a dietary supplement it's available in any drug store pharmacy grocery store anywhere that sells vitamins it's there um you want to take about 1,00 to 12200 milligrams a day um you can take more when you're having an outbreak but it is a good like daily thing to take to help um keep the virus suppressed um it has antiviral properties it promotes membrane health and since herpes lives in lucus membranes that's where it likes to hang out um so this promotes the health of the membrane so that it's they're more likely to fight off the virus and and have a stronger um layer than you know when herpes is like trying to sneak in through the cracks that's that's sneaky sneaky herpes thing double D7 herpes I think thatp I think that's that's GNA be the uh the quote from this from this talk comic um ...

13:42... the it's interesting though because I've read um that there hasn't been any studies that show that lysine even works so it's because I've heard like I've heard from tons of people that you know anecdotally that they swear by it um but then I heard that there's there's been there's been a few studies uh and and it hasn't actually shown been shown to to do anything so so take that as as as you may you know like just like any other of the the treatments that we're going to be mentioning um try it out see see see see what happens and and listen to your body um there's actually let me throw some stuff in here um I know from from the the herpes opportunity forums uh people have had these kinds of conversations of like all right so how can I actually treat my outbreaks and um and a few people have mentioned let me just go straight to the article I love your uh your patience on this I'm um I'm not going anywhere I'm home from work for three weeks so I'm like you and your zebran that's right so okay yeah tea ...

15:07... tree oil peppermint oils y um Melissa uh which is I think another essential oil or a mix of essential oils Manuka m n u Ka I've never heard of that um euus oil as well eucalyptus oil um lysine plus asra astralis which is an a Chinese antiviral herb and and olive leaf extract as well it's another antiviral so you can see there's like there's a pattern here anything that has antiviral properties since herpes is a virus you might want to try those try those out um another person says uh that they like to to use probiotic 50 and lysine 1000 they're really they're really good supplements and they can keep you from getting sick as well um and then there's a uh something that I I found on the national help Group which is a national herpes group um it's a mixture of these these five ingredients uh first one is AA which you know ...

16:23... by itself apparently helps with cold sores but you can also apply it genitally so one tube of AA one tube of anasol which is a numbing agent so if there's a lot of pain involved that'll help one uh teaspoon of aino um one teaspoon of aloe vera 100% gel and three sprays of hydrogen peroxide and you mix all these together apply it two to three times daily to the irritated area and a lot of people swear by that mixture um but again an anecdotal evidence and that bird swears by it too apparently yeah the bird like oh yeah the bird of course my favorite suppressive and um holistic remedy for herpes we haven't mentioned yet which is Stress Management um stress is scientifically proven to increase herpes outbreaks so take care of yourself take care of your body um meditate do yoga EX excise um reduce the amount of stress in your life I literally have like trimmed down my friends so that my friend circle is a drama free zone um and let me just tell you how that has improved my mental health that's awesome it's you know it's it's finding different ways ...

17:46... of like really just cutting out stress in your life taking time for self-care and putting yourself first in a way that you can care for your body care for your mind and really be present for yourself and for people in your life yeah and I mean isn't isn't it interesting that maybe it takes getting herpes to realize wait a minute maybe I should tone down the stress in my life you know like maybe it's a good excuse for you to now like say well you know I would rather lessen the amount of outbreaks that I get so I'm going to I'm going to stop being so stressed out great great using it as an excuse just just like using it as as a great excuse to just be healthy in general and like and and the healthier that your body is the more that it can fight off any infection including herpes outbreaks so I I actually like to think of um because I mean shoot you might as well like you know uh play some games with yourself and and you know have fun with this instead of having it be like this disease that you have for the rest of your life so what I like to do is like if I get an outbreak um it's like oh herpes is trying to tell me something what is it trying to tell me ...

19:03... what how am I living my life now you know that's not so healthy so it's it's almost like a personal barometer that I have that tells me whoa dude slow down your body's a little bit stressed out your mind's a little stressed out calm down take care of yourself like knock knock knock her's calling right right exactly exactly I mean you know it's I I still like when when I have an outbreak it's not like you know unicorns and and uh rainbows show up you know it's not but but it can it you know it can actually be uh be telling you something that you need to know and um and you know with all of this with all of this kind of put together into one big pot you get to choose what you want to focus on whether it's the health of your body body whether it's medication whether it's you know these these treatments that we've mentioned um there's a whole lot of stuff out there I mean you could be overwhelmed in a Heartbeat by going out and searching for you know herpes treatments um so so really when it comes down to it being body conscious being being body aware is is one of the big things that has come out of of you know getting to know my herpes outbreaks you know it's like just knowing my body in ...

20:26... general and like knowing if I'm coming down with a a cold or or a herpes outbreak it it's like knowing your body is really important um and eating healthy and and all that stuff and that would make all aspects of your life better not just lessening outbreaks but it'll make you feel better it'll make your sex life better you know and everybody wants that to happen I mean I'm a sex educator so of course you know anytime there's a sexual benefit I'm like right on board you lacking the sex love the yeah I prefer it too yeah I like it I like it um I mean that's how we got this anyway right geez we were we were having the sex um let's see what else have we I feel like we've covered everything we' covered a lot pretty good any any other uh any other things we can think of bird Birds you got anything can you hear the birds I can awesome I'm so jealous like look at this beautiful scenery that Adriel gets to hang out in it's gorgeous just see and if you want to see all this beautiful scenery you ...

21:42... have to come to the weekend in in July and you get to see all of this beautiful scenery Carina herpes opportunity.com um yeah come come on down and uh and do the weekend Shameless plug again well I mean I'm gonna shamelessly plug too if you want to see more of me visit Ashley man.com um I do programs and I'll talk to you and you know we're all promoting each other we love each other totally totally and we're all doing good stuff in the world so that's that's always good you're on Twitter too right Ashley Twitter Ashley man cool m m n ta m n ta like Manta awesome all right well I guess that's it for now all right sounds good we're doing our our dance the man but we we don't take anything out from these though these are uncut and raw that's right just like we like it that's how we like it all right and with that that's a great way to wrap it up okay until next time until next time