I have them, have had them my whole life. Cold sores, which are actually HSV-1 (herpes simplex 1) though apparently they could also be HSV2 which people normally associate with genital herpes, but they are apparently interchangeable to an extent. The silly thing about herpes is that pretty much everyone has one of them, but for some reason there are a “lucky” chunk of us that exhibit the infection with external sores on the face, lips, and eyes. Some people get it rarely, and only in one spot. Some people, the very unlucky few, get these painful sores constantly, and get them everywhere.
I am pretty lucky. I get them primarily on my lip, and only maybe 4-6 times a year. Though i do also get them on the side of my nose rarely, and about 25% of the time on my eyelid. Its been an annoying thing I have had to live with, but by no stretch is it a big deal to me. Im lucky. Some folks, not so much.
What happens is the virus goes dormant in a nerve bundle, usually near your inner ear for facial or at the bottom of the spine for genital. For me, I get a slight ear ache that signals a beginning of an outbreak. Before an outbreak usually some environmental trigger or physical causes a weakness for the opportunistic infection to break out. These environmental triggers can be:

• Exposure to strong sunlight or ultraviolet light (eg sun beds) or other extreme weather conditions (eg intense cold)
• Trauma or damage to the lips or mouth area, such as dental treatment, injury, cuts from shaving or even drinking very hot liquids
• Cosmetic procedures such as chemical peels and facial resurfacing.
• Stress, mostly physical, such as a cold (thus coldsore), but also emotional stress which can exhibit physical issues

I get them from sun, hot baths or hottubs, and colds. So enough about me and herpes as a problem. Lets get to the spirulina part of this story.
I take a fairly large dosage of spirulina (among a few other things which i will get to) for many reasons, all unrelated to herpes and such. I did so because I was feeling like my diet just wasnt getting me enough vitamins and such. Since I have started taking it, I feel better in a lot of respects, but there has been one interesting effect that I did not expect…
Spirulina has been observed to have some antiviral properties, in particular, inhibiting replication of some viruses. It has also been found to have many other health properties, but I don’t want to get into those, since this is not about the wonders of spirulina as a super green food or any other possible “quakery” that might make you hit the back button. Specifically, spirulina has been found to inhibit HSV replication in vitro, meaning, in a petri dish. Ok, well great, that means if i sprinkle some spirulina on some virus in a petri dish, it wont go wild-fire on me. How does that help with my face by eating spirulina? It seems it does.
This may not work for everyone and I may just be really freakin lucky here but, spirulina has reduced not only the duration of my outbreaks, but also reduced the size of the clusters, but probably 50% in both respects. Since starting spirulina 6 months ago, I have had 3 outbreaks, of which all 3 have been VERY mild in comparison to previous outbreaks. The first time I thought, oh it must be a weak one. Second time, hmmm, interesting. Third time, well, i’m now writing this because I feel I have to share.
The reality is that spirulina is an amazing food, regardless of all the vegigranolaparanoiafaithhealers blithering that you might read online. It is PACKED with nutrients and vitamins. It is basically impossible to over eat it, though its tastes like shit, and I wouldn’t try anyway since even water can kill you if you drink too much. But the fact is that spirulina has been around forever. It is one of the oldest organisms on Earth. But whats more amazing about it is that it really does seem to be a super food. Even if you take all the hearsay and “evidence”, and cut it in half, assuming 50% exaggeration, you are still left with a pretty phenomenal food.
But the main point is HSV1 and HSV2. Spirulina is fairly cheap, cheaper than something like Valtrex, and its good for you too, unlike valtrex. Its worth a try for you if you suffer from either herpes virus. I have no idea about genital herpes and what its effect would be, but I would assume that its got to be similar right? This may not work for everyone, and the fact is it may not work for anyone but me, but regardless you might as well try since you never know.
As a guideline here is what my vitamin regimen is:

• Morning
• 1 centrum multi vitamin
• 6000mg Spirulina (Hawaiian)
• 3000mg Chlorella
• 1 fish oil capsule (400mg EPA, 200mg DHA, 630mg Omega3)
• 840mg Phosphatidyl Choline from Lecithin
• Evening
• 6000mg Spirulina (Hawaiian)
• 3000mg Chlorella
• 1 fish oil capsule (400mg EPA, 200mg DHA, 630mg Omega3)
• 840mg Phosphatidyl Choline from Lecithin

I am a 220 lb. male in my 30′s so you might want to adjust appropriately to your weight. As usual, you should also talk with your doctor before you start taking anything in large quantity like this. If they are not open to it and dismiss it as silly or heresy, get a new doctor. If they tell you not to take it because of some health condition, or issue you may have, listen to them and don’t take it.
For dosing of Spirulina, basically start with the recommended dosage on the bottle. Then increase by a bit each day until your stools are greenish. Thats the best measure of getting enough. If the poop is green, your all good, give or take a few mg. I take 12grams per day. I have read of people taking 40grams per day, but that just seems ridiculous.
If you are going to take chlorella, in order to figure out how much to take is easy, just take half the mg of spirulina. So if you take 10grams per day of spirulina, you should also take 5grams per day of Chlorella, if you chose to take it at all. The only caution with chorella is that some people get a bit of diarreah when they take it the first few times, so you might want to build your dose up from 1 pill.
I also take lecithin and fish oil and a multi. Those of course could be helping with the herpes outbreaks as well, but everything I have read points to the spirulina.
Anyway, I hope that this ends up helping at least 1 person. Just be careful and be informed. Read as much as you can about it. Farmed spirulina is better than natural, because the 1 issue spirulina has is that it is a toxin-sponge. Good inside you, bad when in a polluted water way from which it was harvested and now your going to eat it.
Here is the Spirulina I take. Its pretty good, small pressed tablets, from hawaii, and is farmed.
500mg Spirulina Tablets from Now Foods
Some Resources:
http://www.chlorellafactor.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_%28dietary_supplement%29