Caffeine and Herpes: Good and Bad

Herpes is a sexually transmitted disease that affects between 25% and 98% of the healthy population of the United States. The difference in number is related to the actual herpes virus that is being considered. There are close to 100 different strains of the virus that can affect men and women and which are not all related to genital herpes.

The herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) is the one that causes genital herpes while HSV-1 causes oral mouth sores and herpes varicella-zoster causes chicken pox and later shingles.

Research studies have found that approximately 25% of the American population has HSV-2 and most of them don’t recognize the symptoms or have symptoms that are subclinical. Subclinical symptoms aren’t felt or associated with the outbreak. 98% of healthy adults were found to carry and shed the HSV-1 virus even if they didn’t have an active outbreak.

Researchers have found that there are several triggers that are common among people suffering from recurrent herpes outbreaks that will initiate ulcerations. Some of those triggers include chocolate, lack of rest, menstruation, colds/flu, illnesses that involve the immune system or anything that compromises the immune system.