How To Reduce Post Shingles Pain

Rebooting The Nervous System

Its like restarting a computer, Dr. Rosenquist says. When its running slowly or acting weird, you restart it. We are trying to turn that nerve off. When it comes back on, hopefully, it will send an appropriate transmission as opposed to a pain transmission.

Treatmentoptions for PHN patients include:

Patientswith refractory PHN rarely need opioid pain medication. However,you should be evaluated by a physician. We cant make a blanket statement abouttreatment. It is individualized, she says.

Other Medicines For Postherpetic Neuralgia

Your provider may recommend skin patches that contain lidocaine . Some are prescribed and some you can buy on your own at the pharmacy. These may relieve some of your pain for a short time. Lidocaine also comes as a cream that can be applied to areas where a patch is not easily applied.

Zostrix, a cream that contains capsaicin , may also reduce your pain.

Two other types of prescription drugs may help reduce your pain:

• Anti-seizure drugs, such as gabapentin and pregabalin, are used most often.
• Drugs to treat pain and depression, most often ones called tricyclics, such as amitriptyline or nortriptyline.

You must take the medicines every day. They may take several weeks before they begin to help. Both of these types of drugs have side effects. If you have uncomfortable side effects, do not stop taking your medicine without talking with your provider first. Your provider may change your dosage or prescribe a different medicine.

Sometimes, a nerve block can be used to temporarily reduce pain. Your provider will tell you if this is right for you.

How Is Postherpetic Neuralgia Treated

Treatment for postherpetic neuralgia depends on the type and characteristics of pain experienced by the patient. Generally, there is not a single treatment of postherpetic neuralgia that relieves pain in all people. In many cases, it takes a combination of treatments to reduce the pain, and ensure patient comfort.

Possible pain management options include:

Non-drug treatments for postherpetic neuralgia include:

• Acupuncture. The Chinese art of pricking the skin or tissues with very fine needles.
• Moxibustion. A form of heat therapy in which dry plant materials called moxa are burned on or very near the surface of the skin. The intention is to warm and invigorate the flow of Qi in the body and dispel certain pathogenic influences.
• Relaxation techniques. These can include breathing exercises, visualization, and distraction.
• Heat/Cold Therapy. Depending on the patient, hot or cold packs may help reduce pain.
• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. The stimulation of peripheral nerve endings by the delivery of electrical energy through the surface of the skin.
• Spinal cord stimulator. The electrical stimulation of the posterior spinal cord to block nerve impulses.

In some cases, pain treatment for postherpetic neuralgia brings complete relief. However, most sufferers still experience some pain, while some may not obtain any relief. Although some people must live with postherpetic neuralgia the rest of their lives, the condition often disappears on its own within five years.

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Body Pain When Sneezing

Sneezing looks like such a benign pain, however anybody who has ever had painful sneezing will inform you that its anything however. Sneezing is a natural response of your body against bacteria and viruses. Anything that enters your nose may set off the bodys reflex to sneeze, which forces whatever entered to leave the nose often through a violent sneeze.

A sneeze is a procedure that consists of many actions. An inflammation to the nose signals your throat, eyes and mouth to shut. Then the chest muscles agreement and throat muscles unwind. Air is displaced of your mouth and nose to clear the passage. So if its a natural occasion, why does my body hurt when I sneeze?

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Help Is Available For Phn

Fortunately,early treatment for shingles can lower your chances of getting PHN.

For some people, the pain becomes refractory, or resistant to treatment, explains Dr. Rosenquist. So we want to treat shingles as fast as we can ideally as soon as somebody feels a tingling or burning sensation, even before a rash develops.

Sheadds that whenever nerve pain is involved, some people respond to treatment andsome dont.

However,medications taken orally or injected that can target the affected nerves may beable to stun the nervous system into behaving properly. That meanstransmitting the appropriate signal to the brain.

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Clinical Efficacy Of Gabapentin Extended

In an 11-week study performed by Sang et al, 452 patients were randomized in the US , Russia , and Argentina in order to assess the analgesic efficacy of gabapentin extended-release 1800 mg taken once daily at bedtime in patients with post-herpetic neuralgia. Eligible for inclusion were generally healthy adults with post-herpetic neuralgia of 6 months to 5 years duration following resolution of the herpes zoster rash and a baseline daily pain intensity score 4 on an 11-point Likert scale. Key exclusion criteria were concomitant use of analgesics and an insufficient analgesic response or inability to tolerate doses of gabapentin 1200 mg/day or pregabalin 300 mg/day. The primary endpoint was the mean change from baseline in average daily pain intensity score via baseline observation carried forward scoring. At the end of ten weeks of active treatment, the BOCF change in average daily pain intensity score was 2.1 and 1.6 for gabapentin extended-release and placebo, respectively .17 This study showed that participants who were given Gralise 1800 mg daily had a statistically significant reduction in average daily pain intensity scores compared with placebo , reduced sleep interference due to pain, and a greater percentage of participants reporting being much or very much improved on the patient global impression of change .17

Oral Care With Shingles

If you have developed new or have healing shingles blisters in the mouth, maintain proper oral hygiene so the ruptured blisters dont get infected. Be careful not to irritate the blisters with your toothbrush, which may slow healing and make them more painful. However, keep brushing your teeth and flossing daily. Your dentist may recommend an antibacterial mouthwash to keep your mouth clean to promote healing.

Specific treatment for shingles will be determined by your healthcare provider based on:

• Your age, overall health, and medical history
• How long the shingles have been present
• Extent of the condition
• Your tolerance for specific medicines, procedures, or therapies
• Expectations for the course of the condition
• Your opinion or preference

There is no cure for shingles. It simply has to run its course. Treatment focuses on pain relief. Painkillers may help relieve some of the pain. Antiviral drugs may help lessen some of the symptoms and reduce nerve damage. Other treatments may include:

• Creams or lotions to help relieve itching
• Cool compresses applied to affected skin areas
• Antiviral medicines

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Treatment Of Pain After Shingles

Treatment for people with PHN may include:

• Nerve blocks: Local anesthetic or alcohol injected directly into the nerve affected
• Thoracic epidural injections: Local injection in the space around the spinal cord
• Antidepressant medications: Such as amitriptyline
• Membrane stabilizers: Such as gabapentin
• Capsaicinapplication: Topical cream applied to the affected area

Who Gets Postherpetic Neuralgia

About 1 out of 5 people who have shingles will have these sharp, ongoing pains afterward. Certain things can increase your chances of getting it:

• Age: Most people who get postherpetic neuralgia are older than 60.
• Gender: Women seem to get it more than men.
• Early symptoms: People who have numbness, tingling, or itching before a shingles rash even appears tend to get the lingering pain later.
• Pain at the start: If you had severe pain or a rash during the beginning of your outbreak, you have a greater chance of the neuralgia later.
• Other health problems: People with ongoing conditions that can weaken the immune system, like HIV and cancer, seem more likely to get it.

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Treating The Pain Of Phn

Exactly how best to deal with the pain is a difficult question. Rice led a research team that looked at 35 clinical trials of various treatments. The findings appear in the July issue of the free-access online journal PloS Medicine.

“The most important thing to realize is these are painkillers,” Rice says. “You are treating the pain, not the disease itself. And this is due to permanent nerve damage. It is like a stroke. We can’t make the nerve damage better, but we can treat the disability. And for PHN, pain is one of those disabilities.”

What helps? Rice’s team found good evidence supporting:

Who Is At Risk For Postherpetic Neuralgia

A case of Shingles is one thing, but postherpetic neuralgia is yet another matter entirely. Shingles pain can be combatted by treating the condition with antiviral medication and topical painkillers. For most people, the pain goes away with the infection.

Yet when the pain persists long after the rashes have gone, its a sign that a person may be suffering from postherpetic neuralgia .

The same rules apply the weaker your immune system, the greater the risk of postherpetic neuralgia. It doesnt have to be a matter of age. Certain illnesses can weaken your immune system. Procedures such as a recent organ transplant can take a toll on your body and force you to take immunosuppressant drugs to minimize the chance of transplant rejection.

There are unknown factors, too. Some people get postherpetic neuralgia others dont.

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How Is Shingles Prevented

The best protection against shingles is vaccination. Chickenpox vaccine should prevent you from getting the virus, and so decrease the risk of both chickenpox and shingles. Shingles vaccine reduces the risk of getting shingles and its complications you may still get shingles, but the symptoms are usually less severe and post-herpetic neuralgia is less likely. In New Zealand there are 2 brands of vaccines that protect against shingles Shingrix and Zostavax. These vaccines differ in the way they work, their cost and how they are given. Read more about the differences between Shingrix and Zostavax.

Soak In A Colloidal Oatmeal Bath

This DYI option hasnt been tested for shingles specifically but experts say it may provide some skin relief while your rash is still acting up. Colloidal oatmeal is made by grinding oats into a fine powder . A study in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology found that this natural remedy has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which can make it helpful in treating irritated skin. Add colloidal oatmeal to a bath of cool or lukewarm water and soak for about 10 minutes, once per day, for as long as your rash lasts.

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Why Does Postherpetic Neuralgia Happen

Postherpetic neuralgia starts out with a very familiar illness: chickenpox. The virus that causes it is called varicella-zoster. Once chickenpox has run its course, the virus âhides outâ in your nervous system.

Doctors arenât sure exactly why, but sometimes the virus reactivates decades later and travels along pathways to your skin. A painful, blistering rash can erupt. Thatâs shingles.

In some cases, shingles can damage your nerves so that they canât send messages from your skin to your brain as they usually do. That scramble of signals can trigger the ongoing pain of neuralgia.

If the pain lasts more than a year, it can become permanent.

How To Treat Nerve Pain Caused By Shingles

This article was medically reviewed by Luba Lee, FNP-BC, MS. Luba Lee, FNP-BC is a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner and educator in Tennessee with over a decade of clinical experience. Luba has certifications in Pediatric Advanced Life Support , Emergency Medicine, Advanced Cardiac Life Support , Team Building, and Critical Care Nursing. She received her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Tennessee in 2006.There are 31 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 84% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 91,132 times.

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What Causes Postherpetic Neuralgia

Postherpetic neuralgia begins when the virus that causes chickenpox affects an individual. After having chickenpox, the virus remains in the body forever. The virus can reactivate, usually decades later, and produce shingles lesions. The reactivation of the virus is thought to be due to stress on the body from either another infection or if the patients immune system is compromised that allows the virus to escape the nerve cells.

The nerve fibers damaged from the chickenpox virus are unable to transmit normal sensation messages from the skin to the brain. Instead, the sensation messages become confused and exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating, pain that can last months or even years. However, postherpetic neuralgia does not occur in everyone who suffers from shingles.

Pain Management For Postherpetic Neuralgia

Postherpetic neuralgia is a complication of shingles, which is caused by the chickenpox virus. The condition affects nerve fibers and skin, causing a burning pain that lasts long after the rash and blisters of shingles disappear. There is no known cure for postherpetic neuralgia, but the pain management experts at Novus Spine & Pain in Lakeland, Florida can help you manage the pain.

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Spinal Cord Or Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

These are often used to treat several different types of neuropathic pain. Electrodes are placed underneath the skin along the affected peripheral nerves. Before using this technique, doctors will do a test using a wire electrode to get a sense of how the patient will respond.

After the electrodes have been placed above the peripheral nerve, a weak electrical current is sent to the nerve. By stimulating a sensory pathway that doesnt cause pain, experts believe that this electrical signal to the brain can trick the brain into turning off the painful signal, bringing relief to the patient.

Natural Remedies For Shingles

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. The varicella zoster virus causes this viral infection. Its the same virus that causes chickenpox.

If you had chickenpox as a child, the shingles virus lies dormant in your body. The virus can reactivate later in life and cause a shingles rash. The rash can occur on any part of your body but typically only affects small sections.

Pain is usually the first symptom of shingles. The rash and fluid-filled blisters form within a couple of days after the onset of pain. Some people with shingles also have a fever, sensitivity to light, and fatigue.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , about 1 in 3 people in the United States will develop shingles at some point in their lifetime.

The shingles virus can last between two and six weeks. Shingles isnt life-threatening, but some people experience postherpetic neuralgia. This is when nerve fibers become damaged, causing shingles pain that lasts for weeks or months after the rash clears.

Theres no cure for shingles, but your doctor can prescribe antiviral medication to help shorten the duration of the virus and reduce symptoms.

Although an antiviral is an effective treatment for shingles, its not the only option. Several natural remedies may also reduce pain and discomfort.

Dry your body completely and then wash your towel to avoid spreading the virus to others.

• orange and yellow fruits

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Truewell retains a 30-Day money-back guarantee on all Truewell auto-ship products. If you, the buyer, are unhappy with the product for any reason â even if youâve used the full supply of the supplement- you can return the empty bottle for a full refund of the purchase price less shipping and handling. To obtain your refund, you must do the following: Call us at 1-800-689-1037 . You will be given a Return Merchandise Authorization number. To receive your refund, you must postmark your return within 30 days of purchase. Be sure to clearly write the return merchandise authorization number on the outside of the box. Our shipping department is NOT allowed to accept any packages without an RMA number. You pay for return shipping.

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When Should I See My Doctor

See your doctor as soon as possible if you are experiencing any symptoms of shingles. Starting treatment with antiviral medicines within 3 days of the rash appearing should reduce the severity of symptoms and the risk of further complications, including post-herpetic neuralgia.

See your doctor straight away if you have symptoms of shingles and are experiencing the following:

• symptoms that affect your eye area
• a temperature of 38ðC or higher

You should also see your doctor if you are pregnant, or have a weakened immune system due to medicine that suppresses the immune system, or a condition that weakens your immune system.

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