Canker Sores.

Most medical doctors and conventional dentists will tell you that no one knows the cause of canker sores. Some alternative healers, however, think that they do. It's a six-letter word with a four-letter reputation:

Stress.
"The mouth is one of the first places that react to physical, mental, and emotional stress," says Michael Lipelt, N.D., D.D.S., a naturopathic physician and dentist in Sebastopol, California. "If you have a breakout in your mouth, you have extra stress in your life."

Canker sores known to doctors as aphthous ulcers, are little white bulges that open into a stinging, red circle of pain. They take up residence for a week or so on the inside of your cheeks or lips or the loose part of your gums. (Don't confuse them with the somewhat similar-looking cold sores, which are caused by the herpesvirus and populate the outside part of your lips and the hard areas of your gums.)

Here's how to stop stress from causing canker sores-and how to soothe any sore that you may

already have.

ACTIVATED CHARCOAL: Stop Sores before They Start

At the very first sign of a canker sore inside your mouth-tingling, warmth, or any other discomfort-put a tablet of activated charcoal right on the area and keep it on until the sensations go away, which should happen within about 15 to 20 minutes, says Amy Rothenberg, N.D., a naturopathic physician in Enfield, Connecticut. Don't use more than one tablet an hour. The charcoal absorbs the virus, thus stopping the eruption.
"1 tell all my patients who are prone to this problem to keep tablets of activated charcoal in the house," she says. "My patients love this remedy. Literally hundreds of people have used it successfully to prevent canker sores." There's one drawback, though: The charcoal turns the treated area black and may turn your stools slightly black as well. "There's nothing toxic or dangerous occurring," says Dr. Rothenberg. "The charcoal just dyes your stools."

B VITAMINS: Overcoming Deficiencies
Deficiencies of folic acid and vitamin B12 may cause some cases of recurrent canker sores, says Flora Parsa Stay, D.D.s., a dentist in Oxnard, California. If you have recurrent sores, she recommends taking 400 micrograms of folic acid and 200 micrograms of vitamin BIZ daily.

ZINC: To Speed Healing
A canker sore is a wound, and zinc helps wounds heal faster, says Beverly Yates, N.D., a naturopathic physician and director of the Natural Health Care Group in Seattle. Zinc is particularly good for healing epithelial tissue, the type that lines your entire digestive tract, including the inside of your mouth. As soon as you notice a sore, take 30 milligrams a day, then continue with that dosage until the sore heals completely, she says.

MYRRH: Repairing Damaged Skin
Myrrh is rich in tannin, a substance that dries, tones, and repairs injured skin. "I am amazed at the speed at which my patients' skin injuries recover when they use myrrh," says Dr. Yates.
Look in your health food store for an herbal tincture of myrrh. Put a whole dropper of the tincture (not just a couple of drops) on sterile cotton gauze. Four times a day, place a piece of treated gauze on the sore and leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes.

If this is more time than you're willing to spend with cotton gauze in your mouth, try this instead: Put a dropper of tincture in a 4-ounce glass of water, stir it with a spoon, swish the solution around in your mouth for a few seconds, and spit it out. Do this four times a day. "The treatment with myrrh-soaked cotton gauze is ideal, but even brief exposure to myrrh is very beneficial," says Dr. Yates.

HERBAL WITCH HAZEL: Common and Effective
Myrrh isn't an easy herb to find. If you can't locate it, says Dr. Yates, use a tincture of widely available herbal witch hazel instead. (You're looking for herbal witch hazel, not the clear, alcohol-based type that you find in supermarkets. To be sure that you get the herbal product, look for the botanical name, Hamamelis virginiana, on the label.) Use it in the same way as you would myrrh, either on cotton gauze or in water.

BEE PROPOLIS: Winning the Seal of Approval
Bee propolis helps seal in nutrients and moisture so that tissue can rebuild faster, says Dr. Yates. If you can't find pure bee propolis, look for a salve in which it's an ingredient. Other healing herbs to look for in the salve are myrrh and calendula. "All of these herbs are good for canker sores," says Dr. Yates.

FUN: Take It Thrice a Day
One of the best ways to protect yourself against canker sores is to reduce stress, says James Hardy, D.M.D., a holistic dentist in Winter Park, Florida. He recommends that you identify activities that you love, such as riding a bike, listening to music, making love, praying, exercising, playing with the kids, or taking a bubble bath, and be sure to do one or more of them once or twice a day, every day.
"When I see new patients with canker sores, I ask them to rate themselves 'low,' 'medium' or 'high' in stress. Then I ask them to make the same rating for fun. They often say, 'Fun?'-as if it were the first time they'd heard the word."

If their stress ratings are higher than their fun ratings, Dr. Hardy tells patients to increase the fun in their lives. "Reduce your stress by showing yourself some kindness, by doing something you love to do," he says. "This is a very important part of disease prevention, including preventing canker sores."

IRON: Extra Protection for Women
Women get a lot more canker sores than men do. The reason may be fatigue (a potent form of stress) caused by a lack of iron, says Dr. Stay. If you're a woman who's prone to canker sores, she recommends a daily supplement of 18 milligrams of iron.

LYSINE: A Potent Stress Buster
Fatigue and stress can also rob the body of the amino acid lysine, and low levels of lysine can trigger canker sores, says Reid Winick, D.D.S., an alternative dentist in New York City. He recommends that people who are under stress and prone to canker sores talk to their doctors about taking 1,000 milligrams of lysine a day-500 milligrams with breakfast and 500 milligrams with dinner. If you are prone to outbreaks of canker sores, take the supplement on a daily basis. If you don't, you will need to take it as soon as the problem arises to lessen the severity of the outbreak.

NATURAL TOOTHPASTE: A Better Alternative

Sodium lauryl sulfate, an ingredient in many toothpastes, is a foaming agent that has no cleansing value whatsoever, says Michael Olmsted, D.D.S., a biocompatible dentist in Del Mar, California. It does affect your body negatively, however, by drying out the tender tissues inside your mouth and making it more likely that you'll get a canker sore. And it won't help to spend a lot of time in your drugstore or supermarket searching the shelves for a toothpaste without sodium lauryl sulfate, since nearly all commercial brands contain it, Dr. Olmsted says. His recommendation? Shop at a health food store for a brand without the additive.


Rx For Canker Sores.
"I had a patient, a girl in her teens, who was very good at playing the violin," says James Hardy, D.M.D., a holistic dentist in Winter Park, Florida. "But her parents constantly pressured her to practice, and she started to develop canker sores from the stress. When 1 saw her for a dental problem, I noticed the canker sores. 1 told her to play the violin because she loved playing, not because she was being forced into doing it, and also to add some fun activities to her life that would balance the stress and pressure of being a top-level violinist.

"I saw her a few months later, and her canker sores were completely gone. I asked her 'What did you do?' And she said, 'I took your advice, and now I do more fun things. When Mom and Dad pressure me to practice, I say, 'Okay, I'll get to it. But I want to do this right now,' She increased her level of fun, decreased her level of stress, and her canker sores vanished"