You may have heard of using lemon balm for preventing and treating cold sores. And it’s great. We know it’s helpful from a long history of traditional use as well as from research studies. But lemon balm’s not the only game in town.
Cypress essential oil is distilled mainly from the leaves and twigs of Cupressus sempervirens, the cypress tree. If you’ve seen the pointy evergreen trees in Van Gogh paintings, then you know what cypress looks like. The scent is warm, woody, green, and balsamic with some spiciness and sharpness. The leaves themselves have a wide variety of traditional medicinal uses, from the respiratory tract to the reproductive system.
You may have read my recent article about how to topically treat cold sores (oral/herpes simplex 1), which offers five helpful topical remedies for quick and effective healing. In that article, I promised to write a follow-up article about herpes/cold sore prevention, which is of equal if not more importance. While it is great to have remedies on hand when these outbreaks occur, how much better would it be to avoid them altogether?
For anyone who gets a herpes cold sore from time to time (medically known as Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)), you know how unpleasant this ailment can be. These sores show up on the lips/mouth and can be quite painful and unsightly -- and are highly contagious. Along those lines, this means no smooching (the biggest reason I dislike having this virus), no sharing food or drink with friends and loved ones, and also generally means feeling low-energy and rundown.
As a writer, and as a health enthusiast, I have learned about a great many supplements, treatments, and healing modalities in my lifetime.
Lemon balm, also called Melissa officinalis and “the Herb of Good Cheer,” has easily become one of my favorite herbs in the past year. It tastes like a mellow, citrus-y herb (exactly what you would expect from something called “lemon balm”) but what I love most is that it’s an “all-in-one.” Not only is lemon balm calming for your nerves but it also has powerful healing properties and is especially helpful for killing viruses and lowering inflammation. Here are just some of the many benefits of lemon balm:
Sandalwood refers to wood from trees in the genus Santalum. Sandalwood trees grow in India, Asia, and places like Hawaii. There are many types of wood that have desirable fragrances such as cedar and cherry trees but the scent of those trees fades pretty quickly compared to the sandalwood. The sweet, warm, woody, and soft scent of sandalwood stays strong for decades. Sandalwood’s sweet aroma has been around and highly valued for many centuries.