Helping You Alleviate Shingles (Herpes Zoster) Symptoms.

I decided to create this Blog to help people who suffer from shingles and to share some of the Remedies that helped me in this battle.

		What is shingles? What causes shingles? Shingles (Herpes zoster) is a skin rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After an individual has chickenpox, this virus lives in the nervous system and is never fully cleared from the body.
Under certain circumstances, such as emotional stress, immune deficiency (from AIDS or chemotherapy), or with cancer, the virus reactivates and causes shingles. Anyone who has ever had chickenpox is at risk for the development of shingles. It has been estimated that up to 1,000,000 cases of shingles occur each year in the U.S. The herpes virus that causes shingles and chickenpox is not the same as the herpes viruses that causes genital herpes (which can be sexually transmitted) or herpes mouth sores.

What are symptoms of shingles? How long does shingles last? Before a rash is visible, the patient may notice several days to a week of burning pain and sensitive skin. Shingles rash starts as small blisters on a red base, with new blisters continuing to form for three to five days. The blisters follow the path of individual nerves that come out of the spinal cord (called a dermatomal pattern) and appear as a band- or belt-like pattern on an area of skin.
The entire path of the affected nerve may be involved, or there may be areas with blisters and areas without blisters. Eventually, the blisters pop, and the area starts to ooze. The affected areas will then crust over and heal. The duration of the outbreak may take three to four weeks from start to finish. On occasion, the pain will be present but the blisters may never appear. This can be a very confusing cause of local pain. Is Shingles Contagious? Yes, Shingles is Contagious. Shingles can be spread from an affected person to children or adults who have not had chickenpox. But instead of developing shingles, these people develop chickenpox. Once they have had chickenpox, people cannot catch shingles (or contract the virus) from someone else.
Once infected, however, people have the potential to develop shingles later in life. Shingles is contagious to people that have not previously had chickenpox, as long as there are new blisters forming and old blisters healing. Similar to chickenpox, the time prior to healing or crusting of the blisters is the contagious stage of shingles. Once all of the blisters are crusted over, the virus can no longer be spread.

I wish you and loved ones good health, happiness and success in overcoming the shingles. Please scroll down to next posts to read more….

Although viral diseases can’t be cured, doctors can prescribe oral antiviral medications, such as Zovirax (acyclovir), Famvir (famciclovir) and Valtrex (valacyclovir), that help control the infection by hindering reproduction of the virus in the nerve cells. "Antiviral therapy may shorten the course of an episode of shingles," says Cvetkovich. "However, therapy must be started as early as possible after symptoms develop–within 48 hours–in order to have an effect."

To relieve pain, the doctor may recommend over-the-counter analgesics (pain-relieving drugs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, or prescription drugs, such as indomethacin, all members of a class of medications known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Acetaminophen is also commonly used to relieve the pain. If pain is severe, doctors may add stronger analgesics, such as codeine or oxycodone.

Doctors use other methods to alleviate pain with varying degrees of success. "One of the relatively new medications that I’m enthusiastic about is the Lidoderm patch," says Veronica Mitchell, M.D., director of the pain management center and inpatient pain service at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. "It’s the transdermal form of lidocaine and it’s been studied in the PHN population with very good results," adds Mitchell. "We prescribed the Lidoderm patch for a patient who had intolerable side effects with oral medications–and no relief–and she’s had about a 50 percent-plus improvement in pain relief. It’s one of my first-line therapies." The medication contained in this soft, pliable patch penetrates the skin, reaching the damaged nerves just under the skin without being absorbed significantly into the bloodstream. This means that the patch can be used for long periods of time without serious side effects.

Yet another method used to treat PHN is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or TENS. A device that generates low-level pulses of electrical current is applied to the skin’s surface, causing tingling sensations and offering some people pain relief. One theory as to how TENS works is that the electrical current stimulates production of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.

TENS is not for everyone. "TENS didn’t help at all," says Einar Raysor of Rockville, Md. "I found there was a problem in fine-tuning the administration of the electrical current. Low doses of the electrical current didn’t do anything for me. When the technician increased the current, it gave me a painful response. After this happened a couple of times, we dropped the treatment."

As a last resort, invasive procedures called nerve blocks may be used to provide temporary relief. These procedures usually entail the injection of a local anesthetic into the area of the affected nerves. "We have controversial results in the terms of the efficacy of nerve blocks," says Mitchell. "I do consider nerve blocks in treating PHN and I would perform them because there’s some evidence that they work, but the real efficacy is to catch and treat the patient in the acute shingles phase. As PHN presents mostly in the elderly, and the older patient often is unable to tolerate some of the medications we use, I find nerve blocks useful in these cases."

Injection directly into the spine is another option for relief of pain that is not easily treated. A Japanese clinical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that an injection of the steroid methylprednisone combined with the anesthetic lidocaine reduced pain by more than 70 percent in one patient group compared with groups that received lidocaine alone or an inactive substance.

http://www.neurologyreviews.com/feb04/nr_feb04_foramen.html

Antiviral Medication (such as acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir): For most patients with shingles, oral antiviral medication should be prescribed for 7 days. The earlier this medication is taken, the better the chance of stopping the virus from causing more damage to the nerves. Early treatment with antiviral medication can lessen the intensity and duration of shingles pain (but, as mentioned above, there is no definite proof that these medications will stop the patient from getting PHN). Once the rash has healed, the patient should stop taking antiviral medication.

Steroids(such as prednisone): Some studies have shown that early treatment with a short course (usually 1-2 weeks) of steroids can decrease the intensity and duration of pain associated with acute shingles.

Nerve Blocks: Pain specialists can inject numbing medications (called local anesthetics) directly into certain nerves to help with shingles pain. As mentioned above, these nerve blocks have not been proven to reduce the chances of developing PHN, but nerve blocks may provide good temporary pain relief for the shingles.

Opioid Medication (narcotics): Opioid medications, such as morphine, oxycodone, codeine, hydromorphone, and methadone, can provide good pain relief without side effects for many patients. In most cases, there should be no concern about developing "addiction" when these drugs are used to treat the severe pain of shingles. Patients can be safely taken off of the narcotic medication if it is no longer needed.

Tricyclic Antidepressants (such as amitriptyline [Elavil] and nortriptyline [Pamelor]): One study has shown that giving tricyclic antidepressants during the early shingles phase can help reduce the pain and help reduce the chance of developing chronic PHN pain. When used in this way, tricyclic antidepressants are not given to treat any kind of depression — they are prescribed for pain relief and perhaps to reduce the chance of getting PHN.