Shingles And How To Treat It

At a base level, shingles (also known as Herpes Zoster) takes place when a nerve area becomes infected because of the varicella-zoster virus. Though it can be highly painful and quite unattractive, it frequently starts to ease up after a couple weeks and is often gone inside of a month.

A skin condition that’s unattractive, irritating and painful; does this sound familiar? Indeed, that lovely little aforementioned varicella-zoster virus is in addition responsible for the common childhood terror, chickenpox.

In fact, anyone who has experienced chickenpox previously will maintain the generally dormant varicella-zoster virus in their nervous system for the remainder of their life right up until it becomes active on occasion once more. This suggests individuals with the dormant virus could also be susceptible to shingles, and since many of us caught chickenpox in our childhoods, it is no real surprise that 1 in 5 are afflicted by shingles at some stage in our lives.

Shingles Symptoms?

So, just how can you spot it? Well, shingles symptoms are rather straightforward and usually involve the following:

* First of all individuals with shingles will experience a constant burning sensation in an area of skin that can become really tender to the touch. The discomfort will gradually become continual although on some occasions it may be expressed as sporadic sharp stabs.

* A few days after the pain has began, the most apparent of shingles symptoms will show up when a rash forms, most frequently around the upper body or face (typically around the eyes). The rash will gradually turn into blisters which are quite irritating and itchy. Eventually the blistered sites will become dry and scab over prior to subsiding.

Shingles Treatment?

For all those unfortunate enough to experience this issue, the good news is the fact that there are quite a few different forms of shingles treatment readily available that will alleviate both the pain and visibility of the condition.

For starters, your GP may prescribe you antiviral medication that will restrict the spread of shingles over your body; although that is a lot more typical in severe cases. It goes without saying that it is really a case of the earlier the better for the use of these kinds of drugs.

Without question regular painkillers and anti inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen will certainly alleviate a number of the painful shingles symptoms.

Finally, there are also several methods of shingles treatment that can be carried out at home. For instance, steer clear of tight fitting clothes that can rub and irritate areas of skin affected by shingles. And if you recall from childhood battles with chickenpox, a lathering of chamomile lotion can certainly alleviate itching.

Unfortunately, shingles can’t be prevented aside from by attempting not to get chickenpox in the first place. As we’ll all recall, this is much easier said than done!

Are you suffering from shingles symptoms? For comprehensive information on shingles treatment, be sure to visit patient.co.uk.