Shingles Treatment

At the bottom of this page is more information about Shingles, treatment and action from the western medical perspective, which is important.

If you suspect you have Shingles it is important to go to your GP and take the medication prescribed.

Acupuncture Shingles Treatment

Though it also important to have acupuncture as soon as you can to help prevent the shingles causing terrible nerve pain or spreading through the body which can go on for years.

Treatment of shingles with Traditional Five Element Acupuncture can help with pain and nerve damage by helping your immune system, relieve and reduce pain and helping overall health and well being.

In the last few years I have treated patients right at the beginning of their shingles infection and they have recovered well with out any long term nerve pain. Catching it early is important to avoid long term neurological problems.

Shingles for Different reasons

Each patient is different to how they respond to treatment. It is important to remember that if you have contracted Shingles, it is likely because you are run down, under much stress, recovering from an illness, have a chronic illness, or undergoing immunosuppressant treatments (eg Chemotherapy). Shingles can also affect the elderly more easily, as often their immune system weaker.

Shingles can be very painful and can make you feel ill like flu, you need to rest and take care of yourself.

Traditional Five Element Acupuncture can help improve your immune system and general well being, assist your recovery and support other illnesses or stresses you are experiencing, due to the acupuncture treating the whole person in Body, Mind and Spirit.

Action

Action to take when you have Shingles is contact your GP or call 111 to get the required medication.

Then have Traditional Five Element Acupuncture for support and recovery.

For more information and acupuncture treatment contact Hannah on:-https://www.southwellacupuncture.co.uk/contact/

What is Shingles

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the right side of your torso.

Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you’ve had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles.

While it isn’t a life-threatening condition, shingles can be very painful. Vaccines can help reduce the risk of shingles, while early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and lessen the chance of complications.

Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of shingles usually affect only a small section of one side of your body. These signs and symptoms may include:

• Pain, burning, numbness or tingling
• Sensitivity to touch
• A red rash that begins a few days after the pain
• Fluid-filled blisters that break open and crust over
• Itching

Some people also experience:

• Fever
• Headache
• Sensitivity to light
• Fatigue

Pain is usually the first symptom of shingles. For some, it can be intense. Depending on the location of the pain, it can sometimes be mistaken for a symptom of problems affecting the heart, lungs or kidneys. Some people experience shingles pain without ever developing the rash.

Most commonly, the shingles rash develops as a stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or right side of your torso. Sometimes the shingles rash occurs around one eye or on one side of the neck or face.

When to see a doctor

Contact your doctor promptly if you suspect shingles, but especially in the following situations:

• The pain and rash occur near an eye. If left untreated, this infection can lead to permanent eye damage.
• You’re 60 or older, because age significantly increases your risk of complications.
• You or someone in your family has a weakened immune system (due to cancer, medications or chronic illness).
• The rash is widespread and painful.

Shingles affects the nerves

Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. Anyone who’s had chickenpox may develop shingles. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus can enter your nervous system and lie dormant for years.

Eventually, it may reactivate and travel along nerve pathways to your skin — producing shingles. But, not everyone who’s had chickenpox will develop shingles.

The reason for shingles is unclear. But it may be due to lowered immunity to infections as you grow older. Shingles is more common in older adults and in people who have weakened immune systems.

Varicella-zoster is part of a group of viruses called herpes viruses, which includes the viruses that cause cold sores and genital herpes. Because of this, shingles is also known as herpes zoster. But the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles is not the same virus responsible for cold sores or genital herpes, a sexually transmitted infection.

Are you contagious?

A person with shingles can pass the varicella-zoster virus to anyone who isn’t immune to chickenpox. This usually occurs through direct contact with the open sores of the shingles rash. Once infected, the person will develop chickenpox, however, not shingles.

Chickenpox can be dangerous for some people. Until your shingles blisters scab over, you are contagious and should avoid physical contact with anyone who hasn’t yet had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine, especially people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and newborns.

Risk factors

Anyone who has ever had chickenpox can develop shingles. Most adults in the United States had chickenpox when they were children, before the advent of the routine childhood vaccination that now protects against chickenpox.

Factors that may increase your risk of developing shingles include:

• Being older than 50. Shingles is most common in people older than 50. The risk increases with age. Some experts estimate that half the people age 80 and older will have shingles.
• Having certain diseases. Diseases that weaken your immune system, such as HIV/AIDS and cancer, can increase your risk of shingles.
• Undergoing cancer treatments. Radiation or chemotherapy can lower your resistance to diseases and may trigger shingles.
• Taking certain medications. Drugs designed to prevent rejection of transplanted organs can increase your risk of shingles — as can prolonged use of steroids, such as prednisone.

Complications

Complications from shingles can include:

• Postherpetic neuralgia. For some people, shingles pain continues long after the blisters have cleared. This condition is known as postherpetic neuralgia, and it occurs when damaged nerve fibers send confused and exaggerated messages of pain from your skin to your brain.
• Vision loss. Shingles in or around an eye (ophthalmic shingles) can cause painful eye infections that may result in vision loss.
• Neurological problems. Depending on which nerves are affected, shingles can cause an inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), facial paralysis, or hearing or balance problems.
• Skin infections. If shingles blisters aren’t properly treated, bacterial skin infections may develop.

NHS information about Shingles

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/shingles

Acupuncture Treatment

For more infomation and acupuncture treatment contact Hannah on:- https://www.southwellacupuncture.co.uk/contact/