Help for Shingles!

So, anyone who knows me knows that I work hard to not get sick. I just did an entire post of how to keep yourself from getting sick. One of the things I talked about was reducing stress. Well friends, I did not follow my own advice and I let stress bring me down. Stress is a very common trigger of shingles, and I got a pretty severe case of it! So….sorry I have been away so long, it’s been rough. I am going to use my terrible experience to educate you on the valuable information I found out during the 25 day course of my illness.

Shingles, causes and complications

According to Mayo Clinic, Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus. This is the virus that also causes chickenpox. It is a herpes virus and is also called herpes zoster. Once you have been infected with and exhibit chickenpox, the virus never leaves your body, even after you recover from the illness, it simply lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. THis is the case for all herpes viruses. It lies there waiting for a chance to re-activate. Not everyone who gets chickenpox will get shingles, it is not really clear why some people get shingles and some don’t.

Shingles can be triggered by severe illness, stress or emotional trauma and certain medications. The virus will travel along the nerve path where it will produce tingling or painful skin where a blistering rash eventually appears. The pain and skin sensitivity can be very severe. Rarely, no rash appears, this is called zoster sine herpete.  Some people also experience fever, body aches, headache, malaise and a general ill feeling. Since the virus follows a nerve path, it usually only affects one side of the body, on one part of the body like the face, chest, back or stomach, and follows a single spinal nerve or dermatome. Rarely, the virus can become dessiminated and affect various areas of the body and internal organs, and can be life threatening.

Complications of shingles include persistent nerve pain after any rash clears up called postherpetic neuralgia, which can last months or even years. Other complications include encephalitis, eye involvement, bacterial skin infections, and Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. You can read more detailed information from Mayo Clinic.

So How Did Shingles Affect Me?

Well, this is a loaded question. It all started with pain around my urethra (uhm, let’s not give details here) and a weird lesion on my hand actually. I went to my gynecologist who thought there was a whole other common girlie issue. The pain was pretty intense nerve pain. I spent many days in the shower crying. Several days later, I got really ill in the middle of the night with severe body pain, sweating and fever. I also started developing severe nerve pain that traveled from my hand up to my shoulder. Later, the nerve pain spread to my chest and down my back, as well as to my face. Still, several days later I had severe nerve pain on the front of my thigh that radiated to the inner part of my thigh. I also developed a headache and started getting really fatigued. I was finding that I had to take ibuprofen in order to function and stay awake. I could not mentally focus without taking ibuprofen. Later in the course of the illness I developed a silver dollar size patch of blisters in my arm pit. I also had blood drawn during the beginning of the illness, on my right arm, on the side of my body that was affected, and developed a nice red streak down my arm and had to take antibiotics for a suspect infection. Within the course of the illness, my thigh swelled up and I ended up in the ER with suspect rhabdomyolysis.  It was not that, nor was it a blood clot, and they never figured out exactly what it was. The pain and skin sensitivity on the areas of my body that were affected was very intense.

So, my case of shingles was not typical. It affected numerous dermatomes. It did stay on the right side of my body, as if a line was drawn down the center of my body. Their best guess is that it was dessiminated, which is rare in healthy individuals. They also feel that I had a mild case of encephalitis starting that got knocked out by the antivirals that I took. About a week into the course of the illness I took Valtrex. We like to do the rare things in my family, so somehow it didn’t surprise me that this case baffled doctors.

So What Did I Learn About Treatment Options?

Well, I did have to use pharmaceuticals with this illness, which I prefer not to. I survived on Ibuprofen, had to take antivirals, and had to take antibiotics. During the course of my illness I did do some research and learned a few things I wish I knew before I got sick, so I am going to share them. Keep in mind, with all the the options I am going to discuss, they are beneficial for shingles as well as other types of herpes viruses.

Tagamet (cimetidine) to battle an outbreak?

Tagamet, name brand for cimetidine, an over the counter medication for heartburn and indigestion, is apparently an amazing treatment for shingles! Tagamet is a histamine receptor antagonist. T-lymphocyte suppressor cells have the H2 receptor and by blocking this receptor (using an H2 receptor antagonist such as Tagamet), the immune system can be temporarily turned up to help combat herpes viral infections, including shingles. Treatment for an outbreak, according to a study done, would be 200mg three times during the day and 400mg at night before bed until symptoms improve. This should be done during the earliest stage of shingles for the most benefit. I have attached an article that goes into more depth, you can read it here.

Why isn’t this more well known? This is a simple answer. The patent of this medication has long expired, and pharmaceutical companies are not going to invest the time and money to do the studies in order to show a drug is indicated for a certain condition when there is just nothing to gain from it. They are no longer vested in this medication. They are not going to promote a cheap over the counter medication over their more profitable options.

Olive Leaf Extract

Olive leaf extract contains a powerful ingredient called oleuropein. This compound inhibits the growth and replication of viruses. It can be used daily to suppress outbreaks of shingles as well as other herpes viruses. It also has other health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, offering protection from cancer and is also antibacterial and anti-fungal. You will have to increase your dose slowly to get your body used to it. You can take 3 doses a day during a shingles or other herpes outbreak. From the reviews I have read, this extract has proved to be a miracle suppressor of shingles, herpes type 1 and herpes type 2 viruses for many people.  You can read more here.

L-Lysine

L-Lysine is an essential amino acid required by the body. Supplementation with this amino acid is now being researched, as it is known to counteract reproduction of the herpes simplex 1 and herpes simplex 2 viruses, and since shingles is in the same family as those two viruses, it is believed L-Lysine should also be effective against herpes zoster, the shingles virus. You can read more here.  The herpes virus uses L-Arginine to reproduce in your cells, which allows it to infect your body during an outbreak. Lysine exerts antiviral effects by blocking the activity of arginine, which helps suppress the virus’s ability to replicate. You should be taking in more lysine than arginine during any outbreak. Fish, dairy, poultry and beef have a high lysine to arginine ratio.  Blackberries, grapes, blueberries, chocolate, nuts and seeds have a high arginine to lysine ratio and should be avoided during an outbreak. You might want to take daily L-Lysine as a suppressive treatment.

Vitamin C

Good old vitamin C….of course you knew this one would be on the list. High doses of vitamin C inactivate the shingles virus. This great article gives you step by step instructions on how to use vitamin C to treat shingles, read it here. Blood serum levels of vitamin C can drop during periods of stress, which can set you up for a shingles attack. Again, you don’t hear about this because vitamin C is cheap, and it offers the pharmaceutical companies no benefit.

Herbal Experts

I also enlisted the help of a local apothecary called Village Apothecary. They are very knowledgeable is using herbs for illness, and they have an entire protocol that they use for shingles. After I was done with the antivirals, I started their protocol and the nerve pain, which didn’t decrease with the antivirals, started to finally ease. I use their herbs to combat everything from chest colds to ear infections to allergies. I highly recommend their expertise.

And yes, I did continue my training during this illness. The lifting and stretching actually helped take the edge off the nerve pain. I did have to take it a little easier, but going helped me physically and mentally. My work out partner also didn’t allow me to linger in my misery (thanks for that by the way 😉 ), and the support was very much needed.  I hope you find this information useful for yourself or for someone in your life who suffers from shingles or any other herpes virus. Please share it and hopefully it can help ease someones suffering. Happy lifting!