Asymmetrical Information

Wow, I don't think I would have the courage to admit I have herpes if I weren't commenting anonymously.

This actually could be good news for cold-sore sufferers. Until now, our disease was not life-threatening, even if incredibly annoying (not to mention painful, unsightly, and highly contagious), and ranked rather low on the priority list for medical research. Maybe now we'll get a boost in the search for a cure. And as a bonus, maybe we can stave off that dimentia as well!

Wow, I don't think I would have the courage to admit I have herpes if I weren't commenting anonymously.

My satire detector may need its batteries recharged, but it should be pointed out that the strain of herpes that causes cold sores is not an STD per se. It is easily acquired environmentally.

Some vitamin supplements should help reduce the frequency of cold sores: Nature Made has a time-release B-50 capsule, and 500mg C capsules. DHA should also help...

I found a great way to put my cold sores into nearly 100% remission: quit my job, leave DC, and work from home. Mine seem to have been 95% stress induced.

OH CRAP! As one who has herpes at BOTH ends (its fun to be me!) AND a history of neurological diseases on BOTH side of the family..this may be the most frightening thing I have read in some time.

I've been on the fence about getting long term health care insurance for myself - this may have pushed me over the edge!

Argh. Stuff like that gives me a headache -- like I didn't have enough to worry about. Plus, my cold sores are also often stress-induced.

However, since we're now sharing remedies, my secret weapon is to take a bunch of Lysine caplets at the first sign of a cold sore. It's like magic.

Alzheimer's is a natural part of life. Gene therapy is frighteningly close to stem cell research, and like all medicine, tampers with Gods plan. The dangerous type of herpes is transmitted by amoral behavior, those that suffer from the disease have made their own beds, and should be content to rest in them. Whatever happened to individual responsibility? I have been ill on many occasions in my fifty odd years on the planet, and the power of prayer has always rejuvinated my health.

We as a people need to start listening to the leaders that speak with God. President Bush has brought God back to the USA, and to the hordes of nonbelievers in Iraq. President Bush has done the country a huge service in rejecting stem cell therapy, and God has smiled upon the country with a record performance of the Dow. We need to follow President Bush's lead and eliminate all funding to medical research, be it flu vaccines, gene therapy, and certainly all forms of research that seeks to cure a sexually transmitted disease that this links proves Alzheimers to be.

Alzheimer's is a natural part of life. Gene therapy is frighteningly close to stem cell research, and like all medicine, tampers with Gods plan. The dangerous type of herpes is transmitted by amoral behavior, those that suffer from the disease have made their own beds, and should be content to rest in them. Whatever happened to individual responsibility? I have been ill on many occasions in my fifty odd years on the planet, and the power of prayer has always rejuvinated my health.

We as a people need to start listening to the leaders that speak with God. President Bush has brought God back to the USA, and to the hordes of nonbelievers in Iraq. President Bush has done the country a huge service in rejecting stem cell therapy, and God has smiled upon the country with a record performance of the Dow. We need to follow President Bush's lead and eliminate all funding to medical research, be it flu vaccines, gene therapy, and certainly all forms of research that seeks to cure a sexually transmitted disease that this links proves Alzheimers to be.

come on....arbitrary and weak...

Ms. Megan,

I'm a bit tardy in commenting, but I chuckled when I read your post on moving to Silver Spring. Hah! Welcome to the bastion of big hearted liberalism and very compassionate converatism (truly, not much diff). I moved to very liberal Falls Church from overseas several years ago and was surprised at how little political deviation prevails here among the smug crowd. Good luck adapting!

-A Snohomish High School grad

Who knew that God rewards good behaviour by raising the Dow? Why aren't these things taught in Econ classes?

Churchmouse:
Because you should have learned them in Sunday School, you heathen.

Numbers 35:12-14: So he called to his slave and bade him take the fattest lamb from out his flock. And he slew the lamb and made of it a sacrifice unto the Lord. And lo, his stocks did rise into the heavens, and his capital gains were without end.

Simplexed: why is courage required to confess to having a virus shared by somewhere between 60% and 75% of the U.S. population?

Are you sure you're actually suffering from cold sores? I have a food allergy that causes sores on my mouth. I thought for years that I had cold sores, but really it was just a reaction to corn.

You really need to get out more.

Go throw a pepple in Sligo Creek.

P.S. We all die.

Yes, Ddashes, we all die. Some suddenly, some horribly, many too soon. I hope for just enough notice to say goodbye.

I will be eighty in a few days, I have had cold sores all my life, I can still do complex math problems, if you go senile it won't necessarily be due to your Cold Sores.

So much for the blood-brain barrier. Summing up: something is causing Alzheimers and is related to herpes and ApoE-4. 1) It could be the ApoE-4 itself, since various forms of herpes are almost universal. 2) It could be swelling of the brain caused by the herpes that ApoE-4 allows us to catch. 3) It could be swelling caused by our immune response to herpes, which is somehow mediated by ApoE-4. 4) It could be accumulated destruction of the brain cells caused by long time exposure to the virus. (Supposedly, big brains are protective against Alzheimers. Would that be so if swelling was responsible?)

You have to ask, why is ApoE-4 still in the genome? Does it provide some balancing benefit, like the sickle-cell gene that protects us from malaria? Are we actually in the process of evolving away from it? Can we also expect that any other virus might have a similar long term effect? Such as HPV? which entails a known long term risk of cervical cancer. Maybe in the future humans will all have HIV and the resistance to it, and people will be wondering what the long term effect of that virus is.

I used to get cold sores all the time. I tried Lysine and, for me at least, it did no good. Additionally, I also suffered with constant canker sores.

Abreva did wonders in cutting down the length and severity of the cold sores.

Several years ago, I started taking heavy doses of vitamins, including mega doses of B Complex. Now, both the canker and the cold sores have all but vanished. (Less than two a year for the cankers and less than one a year on the cold sores.)

So, Tim (above) may be right, or it may be one of the other vitamins that I am taking. Dunno.

Do with it what you will.

anony-mouse: Herpes is not passed "environmentally", whatever that means. It's passed by direct contact, usually when sores are present. HSV-1 can be on the mouth and/or genitals, as can HSV-2. That means it's an STD. Even the friendliest people I know don't engage me in full-on liplock.

Christina: Okay, "environmentally" wasn't quite the correct choice of words, but neither is the alternate definition you supply. While it is true that herpes variants are ultimately transmitted carrier-to-carrier, said transmission does not necessarily require sexual contact of any sort. HSV-1 is not normally identified as an STD.

Chickenpox and shingles are caused by another herpes variant, and can be transmitted in much the same manner as the common cold; do you wish to identify those as STDs, also?

That should be pebble, not pepple.

What kinds of contact are kissing and oral sex if not sexual?

I'll grant you that only genital herpes is considered an STD by the CDC, but given the fact that the virus behaves the same whether located around your genitals or mouth, and can be passed between the two, I find the line you (and the CDC) are drawing to be faint at best.

I'm not trying to moralize, I'm just saying that herpes is not universal they way chicken pox and the cold are. I don't have herpes, but I've had the other two, and about 20% of the country is in the same boat I am. I bet we all are herpes-free for the same reason, we haven't had direct sexual contact with someone with the virus.

Christina: Numerous communicable diseasesare passed by direct fluid exchange at mucus membrane sites, but that doesn't mean that all things so-passed are categorized as STDs.

You seem to be bizarrely hung up on the fact that "herpes" is involved, and one variant of herpes is usually only transmitted through genital contact. See also: Composition fallacy.

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