Chronic Stress, Not Chocolate, Is the Trigger Behind Most Herpes Outbreaks
Answered by: Christopher Scipio, RH (AHG) — Registered Herbalist and Holistic Viral Specialist; thirty-nine years as an herbalist, twenty-three of them as a herpes specialist; author of Making Peace With Herpes (20th Anniversary Edition). In the nineties, the only...
Are My Symptoms Prodrome or Something Else?
Prodrome is the early-warning phase, when the virus is reactivating before anything shows on your skin. It usually comes as tingling, itching, burning, numbness, or nerve pain in the place where your outbreaks arrive. If you're feeling that in your usual spot, treat...
Genital HSV-1 Sheds Less Than HSV-2, but Oral HSV-1 Is Now the Leading Cause of New Genital Herpes
Nearly every consultation gets to this question once a test result has named a type. Which one do I have, and does it change my life? Type 1 or type 2. People want to know if the number on the lab sheet is a verdict. How contagious am I? How sick will I get? How much...
Can a Herpes Blood Test Be Wrong?
Can a Herpes Blood Test Be Wrong? Yes. More often than you have been told, and in a specific, predictable way that the number on your report will reveal if you know how to read it. I want to be careful here, because this article gets misused in both directions. Some...
Is the Western Blot Worth It?
Is the Western Blot Worth It? Every article you have read about herpes testing mentions the Western Blot, calls it the gold standard, and stops there. None of them tell you how to actually get one, what it costs, or whether your particular situation warrants the...
When Should You Actually Get Tested for Herpes?
When Should You Actually Get Tested for Herpes? The honest answer is that you are probably going to test too early, get a result that cannot answer your question, and spend the following weeks believing something that is not yet true. I want to save you from that if I...
Your Herpes Test Results Do Not Say What You Think They Say
Your Herpes Test Results Do Not Say What You Think They Say You got a number back and a word. Nobody explained either one. Maybe the word was “positive.” Maybe it was “exposed,” which is worse, and I will come to why. Maybe there was a number...
How to Have “The Talk” — And Why It’s Not What You Think
The conversation most people with herpes dread is not actually the conversation they need to be having. The standard advice — the version you will find on every herpes forum and in every well-meaning article — frames “The Talk” as a confession. You have...
Herpes and Pregnancy — What Your Doctor Should Be Telling You
There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the risk of herpes during pregnancy, and much of it is designed to frighten women into unnecessary caesarean sections. Let me set the record straight. If you have herpes and you are pregnant or planning to become...
What Western Medicine Leaves Out About Antivirals for Herpes
I am going to say something that will make some doctors uncomfortable. Antiviral drugs — Valtrex, acyclovir, famciclovir — are presented to most people with herpes as the primary, and often the only, meaningful response to their diagnosis. They are prescribed widely,...