A lady in her early forties with a diagnosis of shingles presented to the clinic for treatment.
Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox.
This lady had a stripe of blisters that wrapped around the left of her torso. She also complained of pain, burning, numbness, tingling and sensitivity to touch. She had been through a huge amount of personal stress and was not eating well.
Shingles is always caused by underlying stress which compromises the immune system. As our nerves are a means of communication, shingles is like a cry of pain which demands attention. The person usually has inner pain that has been building up over time.
As shingles is an acute condition I formulated herbs to be taken in larger than normal doses. The herbs I primarily used are a group called ‘nervines’. Nervines support and tone the nervous system. Examples of some of which I used for her are skullcap, wild lettuce, wild yam, hawthorn, motherwort, Passion flower, St Johns Wort, valerian and black cohosh.
Many of these herbs have also analgesic properties which help with the pain associated with this condition such as St John Wort, black cohosh and wild lettuce. i also included herbs to cleanse and support her liver.
I made an essential oil blend of bergamot, lavender, tea tree, Melissa in a hydrosol of bitter orange to be applied every 30 minutes to help with the pain and to soothes the blisters. I gave her a separate bottle of Echinacea to be taken in high doses for 3-5 days.
Her condition improved quickly and with a few days the pain was gone and in a week the blisters had healed. I reduced the dose of the herbs and she continued to take them for one month.
