Those painful canker sores! These recurring ulcerated sores inside the mouth appear on the tongue, soft palate, or inside the checks. Eating isn’t a pleasant experience when you have an outbreak.
If you search the cause of canker sores, you’ll find different answers, and even that the cause is unknown. It’s frustrating, because if you knew what really caused them, it would be easier to search for a solution.
It appears the answer is this – the cause is different from person to person. To find an effective treatment, it’s important to be mindful when you get a canker sore of what food you ate, if something painful occurred in the mouth, such as dental work or biting the inside of your cheek, if you are under a lot of emotional stress, or not getting adequate sleep.
IS A VIRAL INFECTION CAUSING YOUR CANKER SORES? The herpes simplex I virus can be triggered by stress, fatigue, pain or irritation occurring inside or outside of the mouth. When triggered, a sore can erupt on the outside of the lips in the form of cold sore. It can also cause a canker sore inside the mouth. Chemo therapy or radiation treatments can also trigger a canker sore.
Remedies with Anti-viral Properties:
Propolis – Produced by bees, propolis is used as a construction material in bee hives, comprised of a complex of chemicals (especially flavonoids), which play a role as an antiviral agent. Some individuals have allergic reactions to Propolis, and for them, this would not be a good choice.
Slippery Elm – Make a paste by mixing this herbal powder and water. Smear the paste directly on your canker sores as often as you feel you need to. This mixture has been found to completely heal canker sores in some people.
Canker Sores Begone – You might want to try this superb, topical herbal product in a pocket-size bottle that you can take with you throughout the day. Feedback from clients, many of my readers, and that of my own personal experience is that it does work as promised.
PERHAPS A FOOD ALLERGY? If you’ve noticed a canker sore after eating acidic foods such as citrus fruit or a tomato, or other foods such as chocolate, grapes, strawberries, certain nuts, sugar, coffee, spicy or salty foods, you may be close to solving the puzzle.
Eliminate the suspected foods for a few weeks, and then reintroduce them one at a time to see which one triggers a canker. This may take a little self-discipline, but it’s well worth the experiment.
Food elimination may be too difficult for some people, so another way to go is nutritional supplementation. Buffered Vitamin C taken daily will reduce the level of histamines in your body. Take 1,000-1,200 milligrams. To enhance the effectiveness of the vitamin C, take 100 milligrams of grapeseed extract daily which will help work as a preventative, or if there’s an existing canker sore, allow for quicker healing.
VITAMIN DEFICIENCY OPTIONS – Because research shows that if you are deficient in thiamin, it can lead to recurrent mouth ulcers. As a preventative, and on a daily basis, take 100 milligrams of thiamin.
A High-Potency Multivitamin – Not all vitamins are created equally. To assure you’re taking a high quality vitamin, buy from a health food store or online health food retailer. The high-potency vitamin should include nutrients required to help prevent canker sores. Look at the label and make sure it contains 800 micrograms of folic acid, 20 milligrams of zinc, 500-1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12, and 10 milligrams of iron. Buy additional supplements to make up the difference of what your vitamin is low on.
If nothing has worked from the previous recommendations, don’t worry. Here are two additional methods from which many people have found success:
Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (DGL) – This is a form of the herb known as licorice. It has anti-inflammatory properties, speeds the healing process, and soothes the discomfort of canker sores. Take two 200-milligram tablets 20 minutes before meals, or chew one or two tablets two or three times a day. Use until the sore heals.
Tea Bag – Tannin from tea may relieve the pain almost instantly. Hold a used tea bag against the sore for a few minutes. Repeat a few times daily until healed.
In deciding upon which of these options to try, be patient and persistent. If one remedy doesn’t seem to work, try another. Finding a solution will be worth it, wouldn’t you agree?
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