It is said that one in five Americans has herpes, making it one of the most common medical conditions out there. The most dreaded consequence of a herpes infection is the herpes outbreak. It usually results in the formation of sores in the genital region. These are often painful and can act as a source of virus which can then be transmitted to other people. Between these outbreaks, however, one can live a very healthy and normal life free of any symptoms attributable to the condition. This therefore means that if you are able to control such outbreaks and keep them to a minimum, you can live with herpes without any symptoms for a very long time.
There are various things that can trigger a herpes outbreak. One of the most common documented causes is stress. If you have such an infection and can manage your stress well, you can keep the frequency of such outbreaks low. There are a number of things that you can do to facilitate this and these include:
Herpes Prevention – Frequent exercise
Exercise has all sorts of benefits to one’s body. However, one that most people do not know much about is that it releases a number of chemicals in the body called endorphins. These chemicals have the effect of making one more relaxed, and therefore less prone to stress. By making sure that you exercise (even lightly) frequently, you can increase the number of such endorphins in your body. This will make it much easier for you to handle all kinds of stressful conditions, and this means that you will be in a better position to avoid the flare-ups that are attributable to herpes.
Herpes Prevention – Yoga
Another activity that you can use to reduce the amount of stress that you face is yoga. However, you need to be careful about how you go about doing this. There are a number of facilities that claim to teach yoga, but which are not very effective.
For you to fully benefit from the relaxing nature of this exercise, you should always try to practice it with the help of a qualified instructor.
Master stress relief methods
You can also try to use a number of stress relief methods to get rid of stress that can cause a flare up. For instance, when you are faced with a situation that is driving you up the wall, you could try to do things such as counting backwards from then slowly and even closing your eyes and thinking about things that make you happy for a few seconds. The calmness that comes with this will make it much easier for you to deal with the situation, but it will also ensure that you avoid increasing the amount of stress that you face which can then cause the herpes outbreak. If you need to find out more about some of the exercises that you can use to reduce stress, you can go online or visit any lifestyle coach for more advice.
Taking a break from time to time
Another way of reducing the amount of stress that you face is by taking a break from time to time to ensure that you do not expose yourself to too much stress over a long period of time. For instance, if you are a workaholic, taking a weekend and simply indulging in the things that make you happy will not only make you more effective at work, but it will also work to get rid of all the stress that you have accumulated over the week as well.
As you can see, there are many things that you can do to reduce the frequency and intensity of a herpes outbreak once you are infected. The above are some of the most effective ways to do this. The good thing about them is that they not only reduce the chances of an outbreak. They also ensure that you have a much healthier and happier life. Therefore, when you realize that you have a herpes infection and are thinking of ways of reducing the number of outbreaks, you should not only concentrate on using drugs to do so since there are many other effective ways of doing it, such as the above mentioned ones.
