For cold sores, chicken pox, shingles, try L-Lysine it is an amino acid and you can buy it at almost any store which sells vitamins (Safeway, Walmart, Raley's, King Soopers, CVS, etc., etc.) We take 500 mg 3-4 times a day when we first realize what's going on. If I start taking them at the first signs of a cold sore beginning I can almost totally avoid getting a cold sore. I gave them to my daughter when she was in the 5th grade and had chicken pox. The chicken pox began to dry up and scab over almost immediately. My husband had an outbreak of shingles and took them, ended up being a 'minor' outbreak.