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For the 48 percent of Americans infected with HSV-1 and another 12 percent running around with HSV-2, this could be the most welcoming news of their lives.
According to The Fresh Toast, new research is backing up what previous studies have revealed, and it looks as though scientists have found a pretty powerful tool to combat both cold sores and genital herpes. That tool? You guessed it – weed, brah.
Some of you know that herpes also comes in the form of shingles, and they can resurface in times of high stress or when other diseases attack the immune system. Well, a 2010 study “tested a facial lotion that contained cannabinoids on people with postherpetic neuralgia, a pain condition similar to shingles, and that lotion reduced pain by 87 percent.”
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That research backs up several other tests that were conducted on herpes patients from 1980 to 2004. In 1980, researchers used THC to treat both HSV-1 and HSV-2 infected subjects, and the replication of the virus came to a halt. Other studies in 1991 and 2004 yielded the same results while other tests revealed “the possibility of THC suppressing the spread of genital herpes infections and of reducing the replication of the herpes virus in human cells that have been cultivated in vitro.”
So there you have it, kids. It looks as though THC can essentially take care of an unwanted side effect of a little TLC.
