Herpes, whether experienced as Type 1 (typically circumoral coldsores) or Type 2 (typically genital lesions), is an infection. That may sound obvious but what it means is that your natural defences have failed to protect you. That's not too surprising since active Herpes viruses are quite good at penetrating normal barriers such as moist, mucous membranes and the skin too, if it is damaged already. Once through those barriers it is your immune system's responsibility to eliminate or contain the invader.

All the evidence to date suggests that containment is the best our immune systems can manage against Herpes. This virus becomes a permanent resident deep within our tissues. When people carrying Herpes allow their health to become quite run down they sometimes develop the condition known as Shingles. With even quite minor reductions in immune performance the virus can go into an active state and cause more skin and mucous membrane erruptions.

With each such repeated cycle of activity the immune system in a generally healthy person improves its response to the virus, making subsequent erruptions milder and shorter in duration. Of course, if your immune system is not performing at its best you may expect more frequent outbreaks which may tend to last longer than they should.

During the period from shortly before an erruption until all sores are healed a sufferer is highly contagious. It is therefore in everyone's best interest for these erruptions to be eliminated or very greatly reduced.

Sensible strategies to deal with Herpes should include promoting your health generally (which is always a good idea) and specifically ensuring support for natural protection systems. These include your skin and mucous membranes and your immune system. So how do you do that?

The very first and most important step is to help ensure your basic health is sound. The most fundamental requirement is effective, quality nutrition. Specific supplements are usually necessary, such as Beta Carotene (provitamin A), vitamin C and zinc. These are specifically supportive of the skin and mucous membranes and as antioxidants also assist the immune function. Since Herpes has an affinity for nerve tissue a vitamin B group supplement is a good idea unless the diet is exceptionally good already. More details on nutrition for health and supporting the immune system may be found at Healthy Vitamin Choice where free, professional health education is provided.

Herbal medicine can be very beneficial in addition to nutrition. The first use of herbs is for tissue cleansing to assist the work of nutrients and immune function at the cellular level. Specific herbs can then be employed to boost the immune function. Further details are available at the Herb Health Guide site where the safe use of herbs is encouraged.

Unfortunately, for a great many people with Herpes infections, nutrition and herbal medicine alone are unlikely to prove entirely satisfactory. They offer important and indeed very valuable assistance but to dramatically reduce the suffering and risk of spread associated with Herpes infection in the shortest possible time, more is needed.

You must choose between risky, side effect prone, expensive and not always effective prescription based treatment on the one hand and alternative, widely proven, inexpensive and evidently safe topical products on the other. I admit to a bias based on clinical experience, but let me say this, before you accept a prescription for herpes, ask what the known side effects are. It may just prove an important question for your safety.