Shingles Treatment Options

There are many people and websites that say that shingles treatment is not possible. That is not correct. While it is true that a permanent cure from the disease may not be possible since it is caused by a virus (the herpes zoster virus), and a virus can never be completely eliminated from the human body, but the symptoms of the shingles disease can definitely be treated and completely removed. When the symptoms of shingles are treated, the virus becomes deactivated and enters into a dormant mode.

Then there are also those believe that it is not necessary to treat shingles, because the symptoms tend to go away on their own in a few days. This is also not right, and that is because, though this is right, the disease tends to give rise to complications such as postherpetic neuralgia, aseptic meningitis, polyneuritis, multiple cranial neuropathies and others. And when this happens the situation can go out of control and become unmanageable. Therefore, as soon as the symptoms of shingles are diagnosed, it is necessary to seek treatment.

But treatment for the shingles disease tends to be different in the west and the east, mainly in China and India.

Shingles Treatment In The West: The most common treatment is the use of antiviral drugs that are introduced at an early stage to limit the spread of the disease and eradicate the symptoms quickly. Vitamin C is useful in this regard. And if the shingles disease has already proceeded to the postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) stage, then anti depressants and drugs to treat epilepsy are introduced. Pain reducers are also used to give relief to the patient from the severe pain that comes from PHN.

Shingles Treatment In The East: Medicine developed in the west much later – natural remedies were practiced in the east, in China and India centuries earlier, and so the east has many more varieties and offers many unique ways to treat the shingles disease. Chinese herbs such as oriental wormwood and genitian are known to have a great positive effect. Then there is also a Chinese tea that is made from costus root, ginseng, acomite, tian nin xing and ginger. Saint johns wort is another herb, which is extremely useful in the treatment of shingles – this is recognized even in the west. A lotion that is made from the leaves and flowers can heal the blisters of shingles quickly and relieve the person from the pain and the burning sensation. The use of capsaicin cream or ointments (made from red pepper extracts) is also becoming popular in the west.

Another eastern belief that is becoming popular in the west is tai chi, the ancient Chinese martial arts that also has meditative values. Western research is now saying that tai chi increases the natural immunity of the human body significantly and quicken shingles treatment on the one hand, and prevents the herpes zoster virus from becoming active again, thus stopping a repeat of the symptoms, that are quite common in most people.