What causes cold sores to happen often for some people and not at all for others?

In a couple minutes, you will discover the top three causes of cold sores and what you can do now to prevent future cold sore occurances.

Cold sores are caused by the replication process of the herpes simplex virus. Most of your life the virus is dormant and hibernating in the nerve cell roots - called the nerve ganglia. When the cold sore virus senses a change in your immune system and will take the opportunity to causing yet another cold sore.

Fact is, the cold sore virus can quickly sense any change in your body because it lives in the nerve cells. To understand what causes cold sores, what we really want to know are the physical events and changes to our body that triggers the activity of the cold sore virus.

The three primary triggers that cause cold sores are as follows.

1. STRENGTH OF YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM. Your immune system, and the associated anti-bodies, help keep the herpes simplex virus under control. Several factors are responsible for the strength of your immune system. The most important factor is your nutrient intake from foods and nutritional supplements.

If you are bothered with reoccurring cold sores, this is a sign you need to upgrade your nutritional efforts. Even if you have an excellent diet, you should still be taking a good vitamin and mineral supplement. Today's vegetables and fruits are being grown on depleted soils and contain only a fraction of the nutrients of 50 years ago.

2. YOUR LYSINE AND ARGININE BALANCE. These two much talked about amino acids have a strong involvement in causing cold sores. High amounts of arginine in the cells encourages cold sore virus to replicate because it is an important ingredient in the new virus.

Your cells utilize many different amino acids for different purposes. Lysine and arginine are always fighting for the same storage space in the nerve cell. The more lysine and the less arginine you consume in your daily diet, the higher the quantity of lysine in your cells. Since lysine does not support virus replication, you can create immunity to the virus that causes cold sores.

3. YOUR pH BALANCE. The perfect pH level in a healthy person is 7.4, which is slightly alkaline. When your pH balance drops below pH 7, you are moving into an acid state that encourages illnesses to become active. This definitely causes cold sores to develop, along with other illnesses, such as colds and flu.

The body regulates your pH balance quite efficiently, trying to keep your pH around 7.4. The mineral calcium is the main way it does this. If you have a high acid causing diet, such as carbonated drinks, coffee, meats and pickled products, your body will need more calcium. If you will eat more fruits and vegetables, you will help avoid the acid environment that causes cold sores.

Yes it is true what you may have heard - that stress is the main cause of cold sores.

Why did I wait until now to mention it? Mainly because it is important to understand that it is not stress itself that causes cold sores, but what it does to the body. When you feel any stress, your body tends to go toward the acid side, which causes cold sores.

Also, the body in stress starts using large quantities of certain nutrients such as the B and C vitamins, and minerals such as calcium and potassium. Additional quantities of these vitamins and minerals during stressful situations will help cut down on the instances of cold sores.

All stress, whether physical or mental, can cause the same effects in the body - thus causing cold sores. These stress triggers include dentist work, colds, fevers, excessive sun exposure or any physical damage or shock to the body. Conflict, worry or fear in your life also causes cold sores because these also cause physical changes in our body.

You now know that the actual causes of cold sores are based, primarily, on your level of health. You also now know the true reasons stress is blamed for causing cold sores. Armed with this information, you will, hopefully, be better equipped to banish cold sores in your future.