Virulite Cold Sore Machine

[Crundy]

Unfortunately I've been a coldsore sufferer for as long as I can remember, and so my mother pointed me towards an infra-red device which claims to heal coldsores quicker than acyclovir:

http://www.vcs.eu.com/

She pointed out that they are also now available on the NHS.

I instantly thought this would be b*llocks, so checked out the details. Interestingly there's a link to a study which showed that infra-red light was more effective than acyclovir:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2230.2001.00783.x

So there could be a glimmer of hope there.

Has anyone heard of this before? Any idea if it works?

 

[Crundy]

Anyone? Someone must know something about these?

One thing I did spot in the study testing the device: They didn't test against a proper placebo, and instead just tested against acyclovir, which means it can't have been double blind. Surely they should have tested it against a box that just had a standard LED in it?

 

[genesplicer]

well, most viruses are killed by heating. It has been shown that breathing hot steam can kill cold viruses that are outside cells in your nasal passages, so I would assume heat kills the herpes virus as well. However, it will not prevent recurrences. At most it will just kill the viruses that are outside of the cells in the active lesion. It might take many applications to completely kill the viruses, and they may come back in the near future...

 

[Crundy]

I wouldn't expect it to stop them coming back. Nothing will. I'm interesting in heat killing viruses. Presumably the infected cell itself needs to be destroyed to stop the infection? Viruses spend very little time outside a cell, and so I wouldn't think heat / IR would make much of a difference?

 

[TobiasTheViking]

All i can say is that i have gotten some reputable studies from blackwell-synergy...

On other areas(autism)

 

[casebro]

How does that compare to sunlight? The abstract didn't give wattage figures, but it obviously was not enough to burn or blister. Hmmm, would a hot cup of coffee do the same thing? Or prevent the herpes? Starbuck's study, anyone?