by Heather Moores

Created on: July 13, 2009

When I was in my early twenties, I had a major problem concerning canker sores. I would get rid of one only to get another sore a few days later. I tried all of the usual preventative measures, such as reducing consumption of acidic fruits, etc. Nothing seemed to work and I was beginning to think I might never rid myself of these painful sores.

When someone suggested that I might actually have Herpes Simplex Infection, aka cold sores around and in the mouth, I panicked. This is enough to deflate the ego of any young female on the prowl to mingle with some singles. I knew that this was probably not the case but I ran straight to my doctor anyway. She actually laughed at the notion of herpes and after she presented some very unpleasant diagrams concerning herpes, I was quite relieved. She gave me an ointment to use and sent me on my way. She also told me to stop eating fruit and sugar for a while and to steer clear of soda.

I hardly ever ate fruit but there was no possible way I could give up sugar and soda. What on earth was I supposed to put in my morning coffee? How could I live without Pepsi? The idea was unthinkable. Now that I am in my thirties, I can see the sense in this and I could actually do it without a problem but back then, no way. Telling a kid that she cannot ingest sugar or soda is going to go over like a screen door in a submarine. Tell a group of kids this and a riot could ensue.

Unfortunately the ointment was going to take five to ten days to work. There had to be a better solution. What did people do way back in the day to get rid of these? I decided to do some research and go from there. After only five minutes on the Internet, I learned that salt is a serious bacteria-killer so I decided to use that as my weapon of choice. I also remembered a line from a favorite movie: It has to hurt if it's to heal. This makes perfect sense to me so I went directly to my tiny kitchen, located my trusty canister of Morton salt and got down to business. I would make that thing hurt like hell.

I shook a dime-sized amount of salt in the palm of my hand and added a few drops of water. I made a saltwater paste and then rolled the mixture into a little ball. This little ball of salt contained thousands upon thousands of bacteria-snuffing agents. Picture the D-Day invasion. I tentatively opened my mouth and stuck the ball right on top of the canker sore and held it in place with my tongue.

Keep in mind that when you do this, it will hurt so bad that you

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