The following is from the book “Food-your Miracle Medicine” by Jean Carper.

Do you have facial cold sores or “fever blisters,” canker sores (ulcers inside the mouth), genital blisters, shingles (a painful inflammation of the sensory nerves) or infectious mononucleosis, also called Epstein-Barr disease? If so, you, like thirty million other Americans, are tormented by the herpes virus. And you may be able to help control the outbreaks by what you eat. Although the virus lies dormant in 90 percent of us, diet may well determine whether the virus becomes reactivated and explodes into herpes symptoms, according to Richard S. Griffith, M.D., professor emeritus of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and an infectious disease specialist. Dr. Griffith explains it this way:

FEAST OR FAMINE CAN CONTROL HERPES FLARE-UPS

Here is Dr. Griffith’s explanation: Molecules of what you eat end up in your cells. Whether you present the virus with a banquet or slim picking at that cellular meeting may determine whether the rascal revives to torture you. If you feed the herpes virus enough of the right stuff, it may grow ferociously, prodding the body to make cold sores, genital blisters and other symptoms. On the other hand, you can starve the virus, subduing it so it can’t cause much trouble.

There are food black-hats and white-hats in the herpes drama. In the 1950s, Dr. Griffith says, it was discovered that amino acids found in food either stifle or encourage the growth of the herpes virus. Adding the amino acid arginine to the herpes virus in cell cultures made it grow like crazy. Adding the amino acid lysine halted the growth and spread of the herpes viruses in cells. One theory is that lysine wraps a protective coat around the cell, barring the virus from penetrating and eviscerating the cell. If that’s the case, doesn’t it make sense to feed the herpes virus a diet low in the growth-stimulant arginine and rich in the growth-inhibitor lysine? Letting the virus feast in the opposite manner could be foolhardy.

That’s what Dr. Griffith thinks. So for about twenty years he has been telling herpes patients to provide a starvation diet for the virus by eating foods high in lysine and low in arginine. What counts, he says, are the relative amounts of these two amino acids in your cells. It’s the “balance of power” between the two amino acids that determines whether the virus takes over cells and flourishes in your body. At that juncture, you want lots of lysine and little arginine to keep the virus in check.

THE ARGININE EXPERIMENTS

As a test of how arginine can prod the herpes virus into acting up, Dr. Griffith gave patients high doses of arginine - 500 milligrams four times a day - and restricted their lysine intake. Three out of five quickly developed such severe herpes outbreaks that he stopped the study. One subject who ordinarily had cold sores only on his lip developed them under his eye. A little girl broke out with herpes all over her mouth. The severe outbreaks happened overnight after taking the arginine.

And how much would you have to eat to get the amount of arginine used in the study? A mere two ounces of peanuts or chocolate!

At the same time, eating enough lysine-rich foods can help override the threat of a high-arginine diet. Foods high in lysine are: milk, soybeans, meat, including beef and pork. (Lysine is often added to animal feed, thus it can be high in meat.) “I’ve noticed that herpes patients don’t seem to drink much milk,” says Dr. Griffith. Further, infants commonly have a first attack of herpes infection right after they are weaned and taken off high-lysine milk, he notes.

‘BUT I EAT NUTS AND DON’T GET HERPES’

Not everyone, however, gets herpes symptoms from eating high-arginine foods. Nor does cutting out arginine-rich foods curb all herpes attacks. Some people can eat all the nuts they want without disturbing the virus. Why? For the same reason that not everybody’s blood pressure goes up from eating salt, says Dr. Griffith. It’s a highly individual matter.

You can use a low-arginine, high-lysine diet both to prevent and heal herpes outbreaks, says Dr. Griffith. “The worst thing you can do if you already have a herpes sore is to eat high-arginine foods like nuts which perpetuate the viral growth.” Not all experts agree with Dr. Griffith’s findings. But there’s no risk in the diet, and the alternative may be expensive drugs with potentially hazardous side effects, and/or little therapeutic benefit.

HOW TO TELL IF FOOD TRIGGERS HERPES OUTBREAKS

“All you have to do is experiment,” says Dr. Griffith. If food high in arginine, like nuts, chocolate and gelatin, is causing herpes flare-ups, you can tell overnight, he insists. It’s this simple: Eat lots of peanuts and/or chocolate and gelatin, and see if you feel the beginnings of the sores, blisters or pain the next day. All some people have to eat is a handful of peanuts to experience herpes outbreaks. For others it takes more, but a small snack pack, or three and a half ounces of nuts is usually enough for a test.

“It’s fairly easy to get most of the arginine out of your diet by leaving out nuts, chocolate, and gelatin. Chocolate covered nuts are a double threat”, Dr. Griffith says.

If you don’t have a herpes reaction, such foods are probably not at fault, says Dr. Griffith, so don’t worry about them. For those who are susceptible to food induced herpes outbreaks, you know it every time. “If you break out once from eating nuts, you do it each time you eat nuts,” he says. “The response is very consistent.”

Stop it early. Once the herpes infection explodes into full blown blisters or sores, healing it with the high-lysine, low-arginine method is more difficult. The sooner you take action against the virus, the better. Dietary measures are most effective in preventing recurrence of herpes outbreaks or in thwarting the herpes symptoms in the initial stages, right after you first feel the stinging and pain of an emerging herpes attack. It’s at that point you should cut out arginine rich foods.

THE WORST FOODS TO EAT IF YOU’RE PRONE TO HERPES

CHOCOLATE NUTS GELATIN

*IN ANY FORM!!! *ALL NUTS!! *JELLY BEANS
DARK OR LIGHT! WALNUTS ARE GUMMY BEARS

A KILLER

SECONDARY “BAD” LIST:

Cocoanut, barley, corn, oats, wheat in any form, pasta, Brussels sprouts

**NOTE: If your immune system is compromised for any reason, from getting very upset, becoming stressed, to illness, you are far more susceptible to a herpes outbreak.