What to Eat to Cure Herpes and Other Viral Infections
What is the High Lysine, Low Arginine Diet?
The high lysine, low arginine diet is a fairly inclusive diet that can be adapted to fit most people’s dietary preferences. No matter whether you prefer a diet with higher amounts of animal protein, like the keto diet or the carnivore diet, or if you lean toward a more plant-based diet strategy like that outlined in the China Study, you can easily adapt your current diet to follow this antiherpes healing diet protocol.Remember that your body does still need some arginine; it’s unrealistic to eliminate arginine from your diet. This diet is intended to reduce high levels of arginine from the diet, not to eliminate the presence of this amino acid entirely (which would literally be impossible, not to mention undesirable since arginine is an essential amino acid needed for life). Just like how anticancer diets recommend consuming foods lower in sugars, to avoid feeding cancer cells, this doesn’t mean that you can eliminate sugars from the diet. Even veggies have some natural sugars! In the same way, the low arginine diet aims to reduce arginine levels in the diet in order to stop “feeding” the herpesviruses in the body and thus to promote healing (more on this later).
The high lysine, low arginine diet can be utilized temporarily to treat or prevent herpes outbreaks, or over the long term as part of a comprehensive treatment protocol to cure herpes permanently. It can also be used to help treat chickenpox, Epstein-Barr virus, shingles, and autoimmune diseases that are known to be caused by a herpesvirus infection. For example, children or older people who have a Varicella infection (chickenpox/shingles) can use this diet temporarily in addition to other targeted anti herpes medicines to eliminate the Varicella virus more quickly. An individual with HSV-1 or HSV-2 may need to follow these dietary strategies over a longer period of time, however.
How the Low Arginine Diet Works to Treat Herpes
Arginine and lysine have a competitive relationship in the body; specifically, they compete with each other to be absorbed into cells, where they can be converted into different substances necessary for (or sometimes detrimental to) health. Both of these are essential amino acids, meaning that you actually need both in order to survive and thrive. It’s unrealistic to completely eliminate either of these from your diet. However, it is possible to reduce the amount of one or the other of these that you consume in your diet in order to achieve certain health goals. In this case, the reduction of arginine in the diet can help prevent herpes flare-ups, and even contribute to curing the infection entirely.Many people agree that this diet strategy works to manage herpes… but how can the low arginine diet work as an actual cure for herpes?
In the body, when arginine is absorbed into cells, it’s generally converted into nitric oxide, a reactive oxygen species (ROS). While there are contexts in which nitric oxide production in higher amounts can be beneficial to health, when it comes to treating a herpes infection, higher levels of nitric oxide in the body is a bad thing. This is because nitric oxide acts as a kind of “fuel” that facilitates viral replication of the herpesvirus inside human cells. When nitric oxide levels are low, however, the herpesviruses can’t replicate as easily.
Thus, a low arginine diet could theoretically, over time, cure a herpesvirus infection by limiting viral replication, meaning that viral numbers in the body would gradually get lower and lower until the virus is eliminated entirely. At the very least, though, the low arginine diet can help significantly reduce outbreaks and unpleasant symptoms caused by the infection. In combination with other treatments that actively seek out and kill the herpesvirus in the body, a low arginine diet can be an extremely valuable tool to include in an anti-herpes protocol.
Other research has found that higher levels of arginase, an enzyme responsible for degrading L-arginine down into L-ornithine and urea, also was correlated with inhibited HSV-1 and HSV-2 viral replication. Higher arginase levels also led to a decrease in cell-to-cell viral transmission and fewer virus-mediated cytopathic effects. Given that arginase ultimately reduces the amount of L-arginine in cells (since it acts to break down this amino acid into other components), this finding also ultimately supports the idea that a low arginine diet can be important in treating herpesvirus infections (as well as some other viral infections).
Accumulation of arginine in certain areas of the body may contribute to the way that a herpesvirus infection presents in different people. For example, one study found that accumulation of arginine in the corneal epithelium was seen in people with corneal herpes; the same study found that the administration of topical arginase to the eyes effectively relieved corneal herpes flare-ups, which again points to the significance of high arginine levels causing herpes infection outbreaks.
Anecdotal Evidence Supporting the Low Arginine Diet
A lot of people with herpes have had great success in using the low arginine diet to prevent and/or manage herpes flare-ups and other herpesvirus-related symptoms. The low arginine diet can make a huge difference in treating herpes, especially when combined with other relevant treatments and medicines. Below are some anecdotal reports of success from people who used the low arginine diet and other treatment strategies to manage herpes:- One person used supplemental lysine, red marine algae, and a low arginine diet instead of Valtrex to prevent genital herpes outbreaks. They took 3000mg of supplemental lysine daily and followed a low arginine diet to treat active outbreaks, and then used red marine algae continuously for a few months to prevent outbreaks.
- Another person topically applied coconut oil, lidocaine cream, lemon balm cream, and/or lysine cream directly to genital herpes lesions to relieve pain; this person also advised that drinking plenty of water to dilute the urine relieves pain caused by urination during herpes flares. During active herpes flare-ups, they also took 4000mg of supplemental lysine daily, and followed a low arginine diet, until all symptoms of the flare-up had disappeared.
- A case report of a 39-year-old man with recurrent herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) found that the patient’s high consumption of arginine via a protein powder contributed to frequent flare-ups of HZO.
The Basics of the High Lysine, Low Arginine Diet
In addition to incorporating more high lysine foods and fewer high arginine foods into the diet, as per the information below, it’s also important to also follow some general, healthy diet guidelines in order to support healing and detoxification. Click here to read more about our recommendations for a healthy diet, based on extensive research into special healing diets for cancer, autoimmune disease, pathogenic diseases, mental health disorders, and more. Indeed, different people are likely to prefer/need slightly different diets, but these recommendations outline the key parts of a healthy diet that will be true for everyone.High Lysine Foods - INCLUDE THESE
Below is a list of some foods that contain particularly high levels of lysine. Make an effort to include these in your diet in larger amounts, if possible:- Grass-fed, organic beef (skirt steak is a good choice)
- Free-range, organic chicken (especially chicken breast)
- Grass-fed, organic lamb
- Organic soy tofu
- Grass-fed, organic cheeses (parmesan and ricotta are especially good sources)
- Grass-fed, organic cow’s milk
- Free-range, organic eggs
- Navy beans (and other beans/legumes)
- Spirulina
- Fenugreek seeds
- Mung bean sprouts
Click here to read about why it's important to only consume grass-fed, organic sources of animal protein, such as meats, dairy products, and eggs.
High Arginine Foods - AVOID THESE
While you may still end up eating these high arginine foods frome time to time, try to limit your consumption of these foods as much as possible, especially if you are anticipating a herpes outbreak for other non-food-related reasons. Also, keep in mind that there’s nothing inherently wrong with these foods; they’re healthy! However, since arginine can inhibit healing from herpesvirus infections, limit how many of these foods you have in your daily diet:- Nuts and seeds
- Peanuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- Cashews
- Macadamia nuts
- Almonds
- Sesame seeds
- Pine nuts
- Hazelnuts
- Walnuts
- Brazil nuts
- Pecans
- Walnuts
- Grains (whole grain is a better choice than white/refined grains)
- Oats
- Wheat
- Cacao
- Carob
- Coconut
- Berries
- Black beans
- Chickpeas
- Peas
Other Dietary Recommendations for Herpes Treatment
In addition to following a specific diet protocol like the low arginine, high lysine diet, below are a few other dietary recommendations that may help support herpes treatment:- Increase fermented foods - Some probiotic strains, like Lactobacillus rhamnosus, have been shown to help minimize the severity, length, and frequency of herpes flare-ups (see the section below about the ketogenic diet for more information about how a healthy gut microbiome helps treat herpes). Yogurt with live cultures that has been made from grass-fed, organic milk is a good source of this specific probiotic strains, but there are many, many other fermented foods that can also be beneficial to people with herpes, such as kombucha, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, to name a few.
- Eat antiviral foods daily - Some examples of antiviral foods that can increase the healing potential of any diet include garlic, ginger, dark leafy green vegetables, medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, and coconut oil, among others. Include at least one of these antiviral foods in your diet daily, if not more.
- Hydrate well and often - Hydration is always important, but it’s especially important for people who are treating infections or major illnesses. Water helps the body detoxify more effectively, and anecdotally, may help reduce the severity and discomfort associated with herpes outbreaks.
The Ketogenic Diet for Herpes
The ketogenic diet may be a good choice for some people with herpesvirus infections since animal proteins in particular are both rich in lysine and relatively low in arginine. Given that the keto diet is a well-developed dietary protocol, this may be an easier diet to follow for some people, since there are already many recipes and cookbooks that follow the keto diet guidelines. It also may be a good choice for patients suffering from other health problems in addition to a herpes infection; for example, the ketogenic diet is especially well-suited to treating diabetes, PCOS, autoimmune disease, addiction, and chronic bladder irritation/cystitis.Read more about what the ketogenic diet is and how it works in the body in this article.
One study done on mice found that the keto diet may be able to effectively treat HSV-1 and herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE). In this study, the keto diet prevented infection of the brain and nervous system with the herpes virus, in addition to reducing virus-induced weight loss, neuroinflammation, neurodegenerative symptoms, and viral production. The keto diet also improved survival rates in mice infected with HSV-1 and/or HSE.
This study observed that mice with a gut microbiome that had been depleted by the administration of antibiotics were less likely to respond positively, especially in regard to neuroinflammation and development of HSE following HSV-1 infection, when put on a ketogenic diet. Specifically, the keto diet increased levels of Parabacteroides and Akkermansia, two probiotic bacteria strains that have an anti-seizure effect, as well as Lactobacillus and Roseburia, probiotics that have an anti-colitis effect. Lactobacillus bacteria are also known to generate a metabolite called nicotinamide n-oxide, which ultimately helps reduce neuroinflammation throughout the body. These findings suggest that, in addition to following a keto diet, inclusion of probiotic foods in the diet to improve the health of the gut microbiome may support healing and prevent potential damage from HSV infection.
The same study notes that other research has demonstrated that the ketogenic diet has similarly positive effects in treating and managing other viral infections, including coronavirus infections and influenza. It may also be an effective dietary treatment for other herpesvirus infections, such as congenital human cytomegalovirus infection (HCMV).
How to Take Lysine Supplements for Herpes
Take 1000mg of supplemental lysine, 3 times per day during flare-ups, in addition to following the low arginine, high lysine diet protocol. Take the lysine supplements with meals or snacks. If you experience frequent, recurrent herpes outbreaks, take a maintenance dose of 1000mg of lysine per day in between flare-ups (again, in addition to the low arginine diet protocol).Note that lysine supplements should not be taken at the same time as milk or other dairy products. Wait 15-30 minutes before and after consuming dairy to take a lysine supplement. Readers should also be aware that high-dose lysine can increase the toxicity of aminoglycoside antibiotics (like gentamicin, neomycin, and streptomycin). Stop taking these antibiotics before beginning lysine supplementation, and if you need to take these antibiotics after you’ve begun taking lysine supplements, stop taking the lysine for the duration of time that you’re taking the aminoglycoside antibiotics.
Click here to buy a 1000mg lysine supplement.
Resources:
• Medical Dermatology Specialists (2024). Herpes Outbreak Prevention Diet: What to Eat to Avoid Flare-Ups. Retrieved November 27, 2024 from
https://www.atlantamedicaldermatology.com/blog/herpes-outbreak-prevention-diet-what-to-eat-to-avoid-flareups/
• Medico Digital (2024). What is lysine? A quick guide to this essential amino acid. Retrieved November 24, 2024 from https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/the-health-hub/conditions/cold-sore/can-l-lysine-help-prevent-cold-sores/
• Mount Sinai (n.d). Lysine. Retrieved November 28, 2024 from: https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/lysine
• Zanin, Tatiana (2024). 14 Foods High in Arginine (to Add to Your Diet). Retrieved November 29, 2024 from: https://www.tuasaude.com/en/foods-high-in-arginine/
• Traub, Gabrielle (n.d). What foods are high in lysine and low in arginine. Retrieved November 29, 2024 from: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://healingcycles.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/lysine_arginine_foods.pdf
• Berg, Eric (2024). Avoid These Foods If You Have Herpes. Retrieved November 29, 2024 from: https://www.drberg.com/blog/avoid-these-foods-if-you-have-herpes
• Shan, Tianhao, et. al. (2023). Ketogenic diet restrains herpes simplex encephalitis via gut microbiomes. Retrieved January 6, 2025 from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1286457922001319#:~:text=Herein%2C%20we%20demonstrate%20that%20the,survival%20rate%20of%20HSE%20mice
• O’Rourke, Kelsey (2022). Diet and Herpes: Diet Recommendations and Counselling Suggestions. Retrieved January 6, 2025 from: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://eatright-tn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Diet-and-Herpes-Diet-Recommendations-and-Counseling-Suggestions.pdf
• LoBue, Stephen A., et. al. (2019). Recurrent herpes zoster ophthalmicus in a young, healthy individual taking high doses of L-Arginine. Retrieved January 14, 2024 from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451993618302068
