Finally…Evidence-Based Answers to the Question I’ve Been Asking for Over 45 Years
If you’ve ever stared in the mirror during another outbreak and asked “Why does this keep happening to me?” I want you to know that I’ve been asking that same question since I was a teenager.
My name is Rodney M. Schroeder. I’m a Doctor of Chiropractic, a biology graduate of Iowa State University, and I’ve been living with oral HSV-1 for as long as I can remember. Looking back at childhood photos, I can trace my first outbreaks to around age five or six. By the time I reached my teens and young adulthood, I was averaging six or more outbreaks per year. Each one was often a large, painful blister the size of a dime, sometimes more than one at a time, lasting two full weeks and leaving me frustrated, self-conscious, and exhausted.
I wasn’t unhealthy. I didn’t get sick more than the average person. So why did I keep having outbreaks?
That question consumed me for decades.
I Tried Everything…And Nothing Actually Solved It
Like most HSV sufferers, I worked through every over-the-counter remedy on the market. I used prescription antivirals at the first sign of that familiar burning tingle on my lip. The antivirals helped reduce severity but they didn’t stop the outbreak from forming. They didn’t answer the real question. They just managed the symptoms while the next outbreak waited around the corner.
It wasn’t until I entered college and graduate school, gaining access to real research databases and diving deep into the scientific literature, that I started to understand something nobody in mainstream medicine was talking about:
Most HSV treatments are designed to address outbreaks after they start. Almost nothing is focused on why some people have frequent outbreaks while others with the same virus almost never do, and more importantly, how to keep HSV latent and prevent reactivation in the first place.
When I shifted my focus to that question, everything changed.
The Transformation
I completed, with Honors, my Bachelor of Science in Biology at Iowa State University before going on to attend Palmer College of Chiropractic, the oldest and most prestigious chiropractic institution in the world, where I graduated Summa cum laude and Salutatorian in 2007 with my Doctor of Chiropractic degree. Between those eight years of undergraduate and doctoral education I studied anatomy, physiology, neurology, immunology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, and nutrition at a rigorous academic level. I knew how to read research. I knew how to evaluate evidence. And I knew how to apply it.
I began systematically researching and experimenting with evidence-based natural protocols, including vitamins, supplements, and lifestyle changes, specifically targeted at suppressing HSV reactivation rather than just treating active outbreaks.
The results were remarkable and they came in two distinct waves.
First, my outbreak severity changed dramatically. The large dime-sized blisters that had defined my outbreaks for decades began shrinking. Today, if a breakthrough outbreak occurs, it manifests as one or two pinhead-sized spots, often barely noticeable and nothing like the outbreaks I suffered through for over thirty years.
Then my outbreak frequency changed. The monthly cycle I had lived with my entire adult life began to stretch. Four to six months passed without an outbreak. Then six to eight months. Now I notice zero to two mild outbreaks per year, managed naturally without dependence on daily prescription antivirals, and with protocols that have made me genuinely healthier overall in the process.
Why I Created Outbreak Free Life
After decades of research, experimentation, and transformation, I realized that the information I had pieced together, scattered across hundreds of scientific studies, research papers, and clinical trials, simply wasn’t accessible to the millions of people suffering with HSV-1 and HSV-2 who don’t have a science or medical background.
So I built it for them.
Outbreak Free Life is a resource built on one foundational principle: you deserve to know what the science actually says, presented in a way you can understand and act on.
Every natural protocol discussed on this site and in my ebook Outbreak Free is evaluated using my proprietary Trust Grading Scale, a framework I developed based on the hierarchy of scientific evidence used in legitimate medical research. Protocols that have demonstrated positive outcomes in randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of medical research, receive an “A” grade. Protocols supported by promising but less rigorous evidence receive lower grades accordingly.
Think of it as the grading scale you grew up with in school, applied to science. An “A” means the evidence is strong. A “D” means it exists but is limited or unrecommended. You always know exactly how much confidence to place in each recommendation.
You Are Not Alone…And There Is Real Hope
HSV affects billions of people worldwide. Yet the stigma, the silence, and the lack of evidence-based natural guidance leaves most sufferers feeling isolated, hopeless, and without answers.
I’ve spent over 45 years living with this virus. I’ve spent decades researching it. And I’ve experienced firsthand the transformation that’s possible when you stop just treating outbreaks and start addressing the root question of why they happen.
Whether you were just diagnosed or have been living with HSV-1 or HSV-2 for years, I want you to leave this site with something I didn’t have for most of my life: hope, answers, and a clear evidence-based path forward.
Welcome to Outbreak Free Life.
Rodney M. Schroeder, B.S. Biology, D.C.