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Shingles – Our doctor’s opinion and complementary approaches
Our doctor’s opinion
As part of its quality approach, Passeportsanté.net invites you to discover the opinion of a health professional. Dr Dominic Larose, emergency physician, gives you his opinion on the
area :
When I started practicing in the 1980s, it was no easy task to tell an elderly person that they had shingles. Everyone had heard of post-shingles pain and lesions that never heal. I am impressed with the effectiveness of current antiviral treatments. Now my patients are getting better quickly and have much less pain and damage than before.
Dr Dominic Larose |
Medical review (April 2016): Dr Dominic Larose, urgentologue. |
Complementary approaches
Processing | ||
Cayenne (post-shingles neuralgia) | ||
Proteolytic enzymes | ||
Oats (itching), peppermint essential oil (post-shingles neuralgia) | ||
Acupuncture, Chinese pharmacopoeia | ||
Shingles – Our doctor’s opinion and complementary approaches: understanding everything in 2 min
Cayenne (Capsicum frutescens). Capsaicin is the active substance in cayenne. Applied locally in the form of a cream (in particular Zostrix® cream), it would have the ability to reduce or slow down the transmission of pain messages from the nerves of the skin. The use of a cayenne cream for relieve post-shingles neuralgia is well documented by scientific studies2-5 and is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Dosage
Apply to painful areas, up to 4 times a day, a cream, lotion or ointment containing 0,025% to 0,075% capsaicin. It often takes up to 14 days of treatment before the full therapeutic effect is felt.
Contraindication Do not apply any preparation containing cayenne to open lesions or inflamed vesicles, as this will cause a strong burning sensation. |
Proteolytic enzymes. The proteolytic enzymes produced by the pancreas allow the digestion of proteins. They are also found in fruits like papaya or pineapple. Taken orally in cases of shingles, they would have a beneficial effect by reducing theinflammation and by stimulating the immune system. A double-blind clinical study involving 192 patients showed that treatment with a combination of enzymes (Wobe Mucos®, marketed in Germany) reduced the pain and the redness vesicles as effectively as conventional acyclovir antiviral therapy6. Similar results were found in another double-blind study of 90 participants with shingles7. However, these studies had methodological weaknesses.8.
oat (Avena sativa). Commission E recognizes the effectiveness of oat straw (psn) in the itch relief of the skin that accompany certain skin diseases. Oats are used externally: we put them in the bath water. Some sources recommend it for people with shingles or chickenpox9.
Dosage
Add fine powdered colloidal oatmeal to the bath water following the manufacturer’s recommendations.
You can also put about 250 g of oatmeal in a sock or in a muslin pouch and boil them in 1 liter of water for a few minutes. Squeeze the sock or pouch and pour the liquid thus extracted into the bath water. Use the sock or pouch to rub yourself.
Peppermint essential oil (Mentha x piperita). The German Commission E recognizes the therapeutic properties of peppermint essential oil for external use in the relief of neuralgia. In a case study, a 76-year-old patient who could not be relieved by any treatment saw her post-shingles pain lastingly reduced thanks to the application of an essential oil containing 10% menthol10.
Dosage
Rub the affected area with one of the following preparations:
– 2 or 3 drops of essential oil, pure or diluted in a vegetable oil;
– a cream, an oil or an ointment containing 5% to 20% essential oil;
– a tincture containing 5% to 10% essential oil.
Acupuncture. Acupuncture may help relieve post-herpes zoster neuralgia and complements pain-relieving medications well, says US doctor Andrew Weil11.
Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The preparation Long Dan Xie Gan Wan, in French “gentian pills to drain the liver”, is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat shingles.