Does anyone know if fish oil helps? And what, if anything, is so bad about flax oil?

Flax oil drawbacks: It tastes like crap. I switched from flax to fish oil....I had to mix the flax with OJ or some other strong drink and it was still over powering. I take my fish oil straight up, no chaser. :D

Taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance does seem to be very helpful with herpes and especially cold sores. Anything that makes your immune system work more efficiently should help so the zone diet and fish oil supplementation should be helpful. Since increasing flaxseed oil consumption could increase the production of good eicosanoids it could be helpful but then flaxseed oil could also be turned into bad eicosanoids and could also inhibit the delta 6 desaturase enzyme. Fish oil is probably the better choice because it contains EPA the major building block of good eicosanoids. Flaxseed oil must go through several steps in your body to be converted into EPA. Eat more broccoli and cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, brussel sprouts etc). They contain a compound called indole-3-carbinol (IC3) which could inhibit the herpes virus. In early animal studies a topical cream containing a herb called prunella vulgaris (self heal) could be helpful. Reservatrol found in red grapes and red wine (if you drink red wine dry wine is better) might help (due to the compound stil-5) So as not to avoid the obvious, avoid contact with active lesions as this is how the disease is spread. If you touch a lesion with your hands take particular care in washing your hands and fingernails. There is a quite credible theory that several autoimmune diseases could be caused by oral transmission from the fingers of herpes virus.