I was researching some natural "cures" for herpes this morning and overwhelmingly people feel that Splenda and Equal are causing them to get OBs. So many of us are consuming these artifical sweeteners...may be worth a try to cut them out of the diet to see if this will help. Many of the diet sodas that used to be sweetened with saccharine are now using the sweeteners found in Splenda and/or Equal(too lazy to look up the names..haha!) Mostly I was seeing people complain about splenda and/or equal and not saccharine...so maybe some people that all of a sudden have started to have bad OBs after being pretty much OB free for years could attribute the new OBs to a change in the sweetener you are consuming?

Hi, keepsgoin' ~

You know, I've been wracking my brain for about 2-3 months now about what caused a recent on-going strip of OB's. It has been over 7 years since I have had regular outbreaks.

At first I thought I was subconciously stressed because I've been out of work for 6 months (mainly my own choice).

Then I thought it was sunbathing for 2-3 days in a week while on vacation.

Then I thought it was this cream my doctor gave me (I told her I was having an itching problem, that I didn't think it was a yeast infection), which after I looked up on the internet was shown to trigger herpes OB's ! On a return visit the itching had progressed to full blown OB and she prescribed Valtrex. I've been taking it regularly and just when it seems it's going to clear up, another full blown OB occurs.

I started the South Beach Diet and noticed a lot of foods they want you to eat are the ones high in arginine which we need to avoid - YUP - onions, citrus, chocolate, all kinds of nuts, whole wheat instead of white bread, and many others. So I quit the South Beach Diet, re-started taking my L-Lysine (1000 mg a day). This still wasn't helping.

So then I'm thinking it's my hormone replacement prescription. I stopped taking all medications, including one for high cholesterol, except the acid reflux Px.

When I first got herpes, over 20 years ago, the Lysine worked great for me. After the initial, absolutely horrible first OB, I had regular monthly OB's for several years, and then it just went away until this Summer.

I recently bought the (I believe Australian product) Choraphor, and while it stings lika a SOB, it did clear an episode up, only to reoccur. So, I'm not impressed with it's pumped up website claims.

Eliminating the sugar substitutes is just one more thing to try. I'm looking for a herpes specialist in my area (a real doctor). If you have any info, I'd appreciate it!