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Phoenix Alternative Medicine Examiner

Natural treatments for shingles

April 8, 12:50 PMPhoenix Alternative Medicine ExaminerDeborah Mitchell
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Geranium/morguefile

Got shingles? No, not on your roof, on your body. Each year, nearly 1 million Americans get medical care for shingles or its complications, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. An estimated 500,000 new cases of the condition occur each year in the United States.

What is shingles?
Shingles is a rash that arises from an infection with varicella-zoster virus—the same virus that causes chicken pox. The virus lives inactive in the nervous system for decades. When it reemerges later in life, perhaps stimulated by emotional stress, immune deficiency, or cancer—no one knows for sure--the reactivated virus causes shingles.

What experts do know is that it develops most often in people 60 and older, and that it causes shooting or burning pain that can be severe, tingling, or itching. Shingles starts as small blisters that form along the path of individual nerves that come out of the spinal cord. The rash often appears around the waist and torso area, but can also appear on the face.
 

 

 


Pineapple provides bromelain 
Complications may include postherpetic neuralgia, a condition in which the pain continues long after the rash has disappeared. Another complication is cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection that can occur if the blisters become infected. If shingles affect the face, it can reach the eyes and lead to vision loss.

Natural treatment of shingles
Natural remedies for shingles, like conventional ones, cannot cure the disease. However, natural treatments are typically without side effects and can be effective. These include the following:

• Proteolytic enzymes, which are produced naturally by the pancreas to help digest proteins. These enzymes are also found in certain foods, such as pineapple (as bromelain) and papaya (as papain). A double-blind study of 190 people with shingles compared proteolytic enzymes with the conventional drug acyclovir. After 14 days of treatment, both groups reported similar pain relief, but the enzyme-treated patients had fewer side effects. Proteolytic enzymes are thought to help shingles by decreasing inflammation and regulating immune response to the virus. Side effects may include digestive upset. You should not take proteolytic enzymes with warfarin, aspirin, or other blood-thinning medications. Recommended dosages of proteolytic enzymes vary with the form, so you should follow the label directions. 
 


Chili pepper 
• Capsaicin is the active ingredient in chili peppers and is used to treat shingles and postherpetic neuralgia. In one study, people with shingles used either capsaicin cream or a placebo cream. After six weeks of treatment, nearly 80 percent of the capsaicin-treated people had significantly greater pain relief compared with the placebo group. Capsaicin cream works by depleting substance P, a neurochemical that transmit pain.  A typical dosage is 0.025% capsaicin cream applied two to four times a day. Stinging or burning sensation is the most common side effect. The benefit of capsaicin may take several weeks to occur.

Geranium/wikipedia 
• Geranium oil is effective in relieving pain in postherpetic neuralgia, according to an American Journal of Medicine study from 2003. In the study, 30 adults with postherpetic neuralgia received a single treatment of either 100% geranium oil, 50% geranium oil in mineral oil, 10% geranium oil in mineral oil, mineral oil only, or 0.025% capsaicin cream. All patients who used geranium oil experienced pain relief, and that relief was proportional to the amount of oil used. Therefore, those using 100% geranium oil had greater pain relief than those using 10% geranium oil.

Herbal remedies 
You can find the natural remedies for shingles mentioned in this article at many Phoenix-area natural food stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies. You may also want to check out the Natural Medicinary, which is part of the Southwest College of Natural Medicine.

Treating shingles conventionally
Conventional medical treatment of shingles includes antiviral medications, such as acyclovir (Zovirax), valacyclovir (Valtrex), and famciclovir (Famvir). Steroid drugs typically offer limited help. Pain medications are often used to relieve that symptom.

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