L-Lysine: Help for Canker Sore Sufferers
When I was a little girl I remember one summer day when my father was unable to eat tomatoes from his backyard plants because he had two canker sores on his lower lip. Young and inexperienced I thought that was silly-what could be so bad that you wouldn’t be able to eat your own favorite vegetable? And then I grew up and discovered exactly what could be that painful.
As a teenager I suffered from frequent canker sores and in college it seemed like they were monthly occurrences-worse in December and May (finals months)-and sometimes there was more than one. The worst were the ones that grew into gigantic sores which are often aptly called mouth ulcers. Sometimes they were as big as a fingernail and speaking became so difficult that I avoided it for two or three days at a time-which for me was the biggest hardship of all.
Eventually I learned the steps of a canker sore by heart: 1) a small pain somewhere on the inside skin of my mouth which would announce the start of something that was going to get much worse and lasted for two days in that form 2) on the second day the pain would get sharper and begin to ache on the outside of my mouth as well 3) on the third day the canker sore was visible and causing pain when I tried to eat or drink 4) the fourth, fifth, sixth and sometimes, seventh, days were the worst-pain so sharp when I tried to eat or drink or talk that it was excruciating, and 5) finally, it would begin to recede and by the seventh or eighth day most normal activities became possible again.
I tried all kinds of over the counter pain analgesics-campho-phenique, alum, whisky, oragel, cank-aide-but most hurt as much in the application as the eating or drinking did. By the time I married and had children the cycle was well established. I did discover as an adult, however, that taking ibuprofen about a half hour before I ate was a huge help in easing some of the pain. The ibuprofen, however, did not make them stop coming or go away once they developed and what I really longed for was something that would “cure” me from their outbreak once and for all. It was painfully obvious that stress was a huge inducement to their development as our annual hosting of my family’s Thanksgiving or the production of the high school play I directed every year caused outbreaks which were far worse than normal.
I did notice, however, that when I was pregnant I got fewer canker sores than when I wasn’t and my own rudimentary research suggested that this might be the result of the daily prenatal vitamin I took during those months which I did not take when I wasn’t expecting. So after the birth of my third daughter I began to take a daily mult-vitamin and the result was pretty evident. Although I still often got canker sores during the months of Thanksgiving and the school play, I got far fewer of them during other times of the year. Still searching for the cure-all, however, I continued to research possible cures.
As my oldest daughter came into the teenage years she developed the canker sore gene and it was as bad as mine if not worse. And then she got braces. It was a nightmare. In four years (her teeth were pretty bad) she rarely went a full month without being in some stage of canker sore development. During one particularly awful week she had a routine appointment, came home and within two days developed three canker sores which grew together into something so hideous even I couldn’t look at it. She began to run a fever and a return to the orthodontist revealed that some wires had not been properly clipped and the now infected sores had been the result.
In an effort to figure out how to alleviate our suffering I asked two different dentists and three doctors what to do about these vicious visitors. I got various answers and the all-too-common response that they are a herpes virus and there isn’t really much anyone can do about them. I sensed that those answers were incomplete or that not enough research had been done since the multi-vitamin clearly did help. It was after the wire-clipping incident that the orthodontist gave me the one piece of information which turned out to be vital: L-lysine he’d heard did seem to provide some cure for the common mouth-ulcer.
I hightailed it directly to my local Phar-Mor pharmacy and bought a bottle of L-lysine in the vitamin section. L-lysine is an amino acid which is not produced in the human body but can be obtained from protein, legumes, wheat germ and dairy products and can be purchased in tablet form in most stores which sell vitamins. It seems most of the tablets are HUGE so I did discover that I had to be careful where I bought the stuff or it was impossible to get down my throat. The results, however, were astounding. I stopped getting canker sores-I mean I completely stopped getting them. Every once in awhile I would feel the old familiar sting and be certain one was beginning and then nothing would come of it. Even in times of great stress I remain sore free.
I became a pesca-vegetarian about six years ago and discovered a powdered soy supplement at Vitamin World which contains L-lysine. I put a scoop in skim milk every morning and in six years I have not suffered from a single canker sore. During my early research I discovered that if I searched for canker sore cures sites would often mention l-lysine but always with the caution that nothing had been proven. Well, I no longer need anyone else’s proof. Lysine may not be a cure all for canker sores but it is certainly a cure. I don’t know if lysine alone would stop the sores but I’m not hedging my bets on this one-I take a multi-vitamin supplement along with the lysine and the results have been dramatic.
Lest you think that somehow my life got less hectic six years ago and maybe that made a difference, I would point out that my now eight year old son was two back then and believe me when I tell you that if there was ever a time when I should have been nothing but one huge sore that was it. The kid was, and is, wild, but my mouth remains calm. If you are searching for the “cure”, it is my researched opinion that L-lysine is the answer. Experiment with tablet size and milligram amount but it is my sincere hope that you will see the same dramatic results I did. Good luck!
