Shingles

Shingles is a kind of acute herpetic skin infection caused by perpes zoster virus. Its clinical characteristics are:

Mostly occurs in spring and autumn.
Prior to the onset of the disease there is a slight fever, fatigue, anorexia and general malaise accompanied with pricking pain, burning sensation and itching on the local affected skin.
At the beginning, erythema appears on the affected part of the skin, followed by crowds of red papules, which will become clusters of blisters quickly. Generally, there are red halos around them. Among the groups of the clusters there is still normal skin. Herpes zoster mostly occurs on the waist, chest, head and neck and along one of the lateral nerve distributive area in a belt-like arrangement.
There is obvious pain on the affected part of the skin, and it is even more serous for old-aged patients. After subsidence of the skin lesion, neuralgia pain may still remain.
The attack of shingles is quick and abrupt. Once the patient is recovered, there will not be any recurrence.

Shingles, also called "herpes zoster", is produced by a virus which causes chicken pox called varicella-zoster that remained dormant in the sensory nerves since the childhood. It is an opportunistic infection during a period of weakened immune system such as stress or the use of corticosteroid, immunosuppressant or anticancer drugs or following a surgery.

The virus affects the course of a nerve producing severe pain and small yellowish blisters on the skin. Often the affected areas are the abdomen, back, face and chest and the blisters form scabs which eventually drop off and the pain can persist for months. This is known as "post-herpetic neuralgia". Rare recurrence after recovery is also one of the characteristics.

In US, a few people in 1,000 suffer an attack every year. It mainly affects people over 50 since the competence of the immune system declines with age.

There are three major type of shingle types. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, they are treated differently.

Excessive Heat Type: The main symptoms and signs include groups of papular eruption at the affected part with pain and heat sensation, accompanied by restlessness, thirst, bitterness in the mouth, red tongue with yellow fur, and taut and rapid pulse. Therapeutic principle is to remove pathogenic heat from blood.

Damp-heat Type: Major symptoms and signs include erythema, pain, burning sensation and clusters of blisters at the affected part. Sometimes the blisters may rupture and fluid may ooze out accompanied with restlessness, dryness of mouth and red tongue with yellow and thick fur, slippery and rapid pulse. Therapeutic principle is to clear away heat and promote diuresis

Stasis Type : Main symptoms and signs include having crust formation with some red, brown spots and pigmentation left. Sense of pain on the affected part is still obvious. Therapeutic principle is to smooth the liver to promote blood circulation and remove obstruction in the channels to relieve pain.

Since the shingles virus attacks the nerve sensors located under the skin, it not only magnifies the pain and heat signals much like shouting thru a microphone, it is often resistant to pain medications. With this in mind, we have developed a new approach which puts a strong emphasize in boosting the patient's own immune system with acupuncture to fight off or deactivate the virus thus providing a lasting pain relief, rather than numbing the pain for temporary relief.

Patient Testimonials

	Acupuncture for Shingles ... In the first 4 treatments, he began to feel a difference. After 5, he is like a new man...
	Acupuncture Relief My Pain ...After 2 sessions, I felt much more comfortable and began to reduce her Advil use. My pain spiked to 5/10 at its worst times but was gone much of the day. The extremely painful burning was cleared up after 4 sessions, returning only intermittently. The itching decreased more slowly over 8 sessions...

News and Articles

	Acupuncture in the Management of Herpes Zoster ...research suggests that simple acupuncture starting in the acute phase, within 24-72 hours of the appearance of the skin eruption, could, if combined with anti-viral medication, produce a substantial reduction in the incidence and severity of post herpetic neuralgia. ....
	Rash of pain: The anguish of shingles ...With an increasingly large patient population at risk, researchers focus efforts on uncovering new ways to prevent and treat this perplexing ailment...

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