Those painful canker sores! These recurring ulcerated sores inside the mouth appear on the tongue, soft palate, or inside the checks. Eating isn't a pleasant experience when you have an outbreak.
It's frustrating that there seems to be no consensus on what causes them, or if they can be triggered by bacterial or viral infections, allergic reactions to food, a vitamin deficiency, or if they are contagious.
Try to determine the next time you get a canker sore, what events occurred just prior to the eruption. Were you tired or under stress? Did you have a dental appointment that might have been a little painful? Did you eat something acidic, like a lemon or tomato? If you can zero in on a recurring pattern, you are on the way to relief.
IS IT A VIRAL INFECTION? If your canker sores occur after a dental procedure or other painful experience in the mouth area, for example, biting the inside of your cheek, or when you are experiencing stress, are over-tired, or receiving chemo therapy or radiation treatments, consider a virus as the culprit.
Anti-viral Treatments:
Propolis - Produced by bees, propolis is used as a construction material in bee hives, comprised of a complex of chemicals which play a role as an antiviral agent. This is not a good choice for those who are allergic to propolis.
Slippery Elm - Mix this herbal powder with water to create a paste, and smear it directly on the canker sore a few times a day. In some people, this mixture completely heals the canker sore.
Canker Sores Begone - My clients, readers, and others I've recommended it to rave about this topical, multi-herb product, which is packaged in a small pocket-sized bottle, convenient for throwing in your purse, backpack or gear for application wherever you happen to be.
FOOD ALLERGIES. When you eat acidic food such as a tomato, citrus fruit, strawberries, grapes, chocolate, certain nuts, spicy or salty food, sugar or coffee, do you get a canker sore? If the answer is yes, or I think so, try one or both (but not at the same time) of the following suggestions:
Eliminate the suspected foods for a few weeks, and then reintroduce them one at a time to see which one triggers a canker. This may take a little self-discipline, but it's well worth the experiment.
Food elimination may be too difficult for some people, so another way to go is nutritional supplementation. Buffered Vitamin C taken daily will reduce the level of histamines in your body. Take 1,000-1,200 milligrams. To enhance the effectiveness of the vitamin C, take 100 milligrams of grapeseed extract daily which will help work as a preventative, or if there's an existing canker sore, allow for quicker healing.
FOR YOU, IT MIGHT BE A VITAMIN DEFICIENCY - You might be deficient in Thiamine. Research indicates it can result in recurring canker sores. You might want to experiment to see if thiamin prevents your mouth sores by taking 100 milligrams daily.
A High-Potency Multivitamin - Not all vitamins are created equally. To assure you're taking a high quality vitamin, buy from a health food store or online health food retailer. The high-potency vitamin should include nutrients required to help prevent canker sores. Look at the label and make sure it contains 800 micrograms of folic acid, 20 milligrams of zinc, 500-1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12, and 10 milligrams of iron. Buy additional supplements to make up the difference of what your vitamin is low on.
If you don't find that the causes above apply to your situation, don't despair. Here are two remedies that just may provide the relief you're looking for:
Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (DGL) - There's an herb known as licorice, which has anti-inflammatory properties, decreases healing time, and soothes canker sore pain. Chew one or two 200-milligram tablets two or three times a day until the sore heals. In addition, you can empty the powder from a capsule into one half cup of lukewarm water, dissolve the DGL, and swish the solution around in your mouth. Repeat this at least two or three times a day until the sore has healed.
Tea Bag - Tannin is an astringent polyphenol found in tea. For some people, it helps to relieve canker sore pain almost instantly by holding a used tea bag against the sore for three to four minutes. Until healed, repeat a few times a day
If one remedy doesn't seem to work, just try another. For many, solving this problem requires patience and persistence, so be willing to invest it.

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The nutritional products are available in health food stores. Canker Sores Begone is available online at www.csbegone.com, (888) 877-6315. Author: Janet Malley is a natural healing consultant and writer living and working in Southern California. Contact her at janetmalley@gmail.com.

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