L-Lysine for Canker Sores - Follow Up

As promised in my December 5th post (http://adayinthelifeoffibro.blogspot.com/2010/12/l-lysine-for-canker-sores.html) I am following up with my continued successful results with L-Lysine!

I have not had any mouth sores or canker sores since Thanksgiving, and after having suffered a continuous onslaught of canker and mouth sores for over a year, to me this is such relief, and a miracle! I even indulged in some trigger foods over Christmas, but was able to double up on the Lysine in anticipation and never developed the sores like I did before.

I also think that adding the Lysine and Vitamin C has been just an overall good boost to my immune system, as some really nasty sickness has been going around at work and I am one of the few in my department who remain unscathed by this horrible flu-like illness.

My next true test will be when I visit the dentist in February, I plan on doubling up on the Lysine a few days before to see if it helps the burning mouth syndrome from coming on full force after the dentist knocks around in my mouth. Keeping my fingers crossed!

L-Lysine for Canker Sores

Ever since I started with fibro symptoms over a year ago I've suffered too from frequent boughts with canker sores in my mouth as well as what I recently discovered is called "burning mouth syndrome."

I have discovered along the way foods and what not that seem to be triggers, (foods that are acidic like pineapple and cranberry, and spicy foods like jalepenos, cajun, anything with horseradish, even tangy things made with tomatoes like ketchup, cocktail sauce, salsa; this unfortunately has been a VERY difficult adjustment as I LOVE all these foods, most were staples of my diet :/)

I also quickly discovered that any toothpaste containing sodium lauryl sulfate was a huge instigator of my canker sore boughts. (So I now use Burts Bees toothpaste - is SLS free :)

I have also noticed that when I go to the dentist every 6 months for my regular cleanings I seem to suffer a month of burning mouth afterwords. Probably chemicals (maybe even SLS) in the products they use.

Anyhoo so I started on a path of research, and I discovered via amazon a booked called The Fibromyalgia Dental Handbook, by Flora Parsa Stay.

I was reading through the book and in the canker sores chapter came across an alternative treatment for canker sores which involved taking vitamin C, vitamin B and L-Lysine (boosting immune system and recovery.) For me canker sores are pure misery, 3 weeks from start to finish for each one, often multiples overlapping. And it seems that once I get a canker sore it initiates burning mouth syndrome and the burning pain in my gums. So yes I was willing to try something that would help them heal faster and quite possibly prevent them for occurring so often!

I was 4 days into a new canker sore with a another new one starting and began taking  500mg L-Lysine twice a day, as well as 500mg vitamin C at night and 1000mg vitamin B12 in the mornings. Now I have tried taking vitamin C and B before to no avail, but I was curious about this L-Lysine (is an essential amino acid that out bodies don't produce but we get from eating certain foods.)

5 days later and BOTH canker sores are COMPLETELY GONE!!! I am highly impressed, and excited! So I have cut back the L-Lysine to 500mg once a day, trying to prevent future breakouts. Crossing my fingers. I am hoping that by taking the vitamin C, B and L-Lysine daily it may also help with the burning mouth and hopefully help with the episodes after teeth cleanings with the dentist.

I will post updates if I have any more sores or not!

Anyone else have experiences like this with L-Lysine? I found it at the grocery store, fairly inexpensive, a bottle for about $8.