What Can Herpes Support Groups Do For You?
The purpose of herpes support groups is to help you deal with the psychological aspect of herpes and provide information about treatments and research. People often write to me for support. They either feel ashamed, helpless, and dirty or just want the pain to go away. I do everything I can in my book Herpes Wise and on my website to tell people how to alleviate the physical pain, but Im fully aware that I cannot provide psychological pain relief to all of my readers. Thats why I feel local herpes support groups are important.
The International Herpes Alliance defines the role of a support group as an entity that can provide medical advice, refer patients to clinics and doctors and help people pass through different emotional stages. They say that for most people, genital herpes is a psychological disease, not a
Aromatherapy Oils and the Herpes Virus – One Person’s Success Story
The Herpes Simplex virus (or HSV) is a difficult disease. It is widely known as incurable, with painful skin lesions on sensitive areas of the body. The lesions reccur more often for some people than others – their ‘outbreaks’ tend to be related to periods of high-stress. Modern medicine does not offer a cure, though there are pharmaceutical preparations available to limit the frequency and duration of HSV outbreaks. With a reputation as ‘incurable’, ‘painful’, ‘not-so-pretty’, and varieties described as ‘oral and labial’ or ‘genital’, the disease can be a little challenging and embarrasing to say the least.
Well, I’ve been through this. I’ve had the painful lesions, had to deal with the regular outbreaks of painful cold-sores in my mouth and on my lips (I was blessed with the ‘oral’ variety).
What is Oral & Genital Herpes?
There are two types of herpes infections, oral herpes and genital herpes; both are contagious. The most insidious fact about herpes is that it can be an invisible virus; it is possible for a person to have and to spread either type of herpes virus and not even know that he or she has herpes.
The virus that infects a person with oral herpes is named herpes simplex type 1. The virus that infects a person with genital herpes is named herpes simplex type 2. Both types of herpes are spread by direct contact with an infected area
About The Herpes
Herpes, an infection caused by the herpes simplex virus, is estimated to be present in 50 to 80 percent of the American adult population. 20 percent, over 50 million people, are infected with genital herpes, also caused by the herpes simplex virus, and the majority of these cases may be unaware they even have it. Studies show that more than 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with genital herpes each year, and the largest increase is occurring in young teens.
Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older, or one out of five adolescents and adults, have had genital HSV infection. Between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, the number of