Is shingles causing pain to you? Searching for some home remedies for shingles? Unfortunately, there is none available at current time. However, certain medications are available to help ease the symptoms caused by shingles. While they do not get rid of the shingles virus in any way, they actually provide relief for this agonizing condition especially when given early treatment.
Shingles is a rather common skin rash condition caused by herpes virus. It causes small, fluid-filled blisters similar to chickenpox. In fact, it is the same kind of virus that causes chickenpox. Up to one million people gets shingles annually in the United States alone and those who are affected are mostly elderly people aged 60 years and above.
While herpes zoster belongs to the herpes group, the actual name of the virus is varicella zoster. Despite the name, herpes zoster is not the same herpes virus that causes genital lesions or cold sores. Once a person gets infected with chicken pox, he or she would have build up immunity to the disease and that is why there is no reoccurance of chicken pox again.
In other words, the same person would never get chicken pox twice. Even though a person can never get the disease twice, the virus is actually still in the body. It becomes inactive and remain in the nervous system especially in the nerves waiting to be triggered again. When it strikes again, it would be shingles.
So what causes shingles to come back? Shingles may get triggered when the conditions are right. Conditions due to over-stress and immune deficiency such as HIV, cancer, and chemotherapy could trigger the come back. In fact shingles can reoccur again even after the first outbreak.
Shingles can happen on any part of the body such as face, body and buttock but unlike chicken pox where the rash can appear everywhere of the body, shingles appear to be concentrated as a patch. The patch is known as dermatome and it is the result of the nerve on that part of the body where the shingle virus resides.
Remedies For Shingles To Reduce Nerve Pain
Shingles is a contagious disease that can easily spread to other people who have yet to be infected with chicken pox. But if those people ever get infected, they will be getting chicken pox instead of shingles. So it is best to stay away from anyone while you are having shingles. The virus can spread as long as there are blisters appearing on the dermatome and it usually takes roughly about one week and may last up to a month for this condition to heal completely.
So if you suspect that you have shingles, you should check with your doctor soonest possible to get remedies for shingles. Generally, early anti-viral treatments and drugs like acyclovir are required as delayed medication can cause pain such as nerve pain and other after effects down the road. Therefore, it is recommended that these treatments and drugs are applied at most 3 to 5 days after the initial occurrence of shingles symptoms.
For more information, read also how natural remedies for shingles can help. However, if what affecting you is cold sore and not shingles, you should read about getting rid of cold sores instead.
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