Would you ever imagine an innocuous case of the chickenpox as a child could lead to long-lasting outbreaks of nerve pain and repeated suffering down the line? This reality is often a shock to adults who experience an unexpected outbreak of shingles, which often occurs at the worst time possible. According to the CDC, roughly 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. will develop shingles at some point in their lifetime. So if you haven’t experienced shingles yet, you very well could in the future.
Typically you will only get shingles once, but the disease has been known to be reoccurring, leading to long term nerve pain and damage. Shingles are much more dangerous than many believe, as it can cause blindness, hearing problems, brain inflammation, and in rare cases, death. Approximately 1 to 4% of people who get shingles will end up in the hospital due to complications.
Fortunately, we have had excellent success in not only treating shingles but preventing future outbreaks. Our holistic approach to addressing shingles symptoms provides long-lasting relief for even the worst cases of shingles in our patients. If you’re wondering about what causes shingles, shingles symptoms, and how to naturally address this troublesome condition, read on.
What is Shingles?
Shingles is a viral infection triggered by the same virus that causes chickenpox, the varicella-zoster virus. Once you recover from a case of the chickenpox as a child, the virus enters your nervous system, lying dormant for years only to be reactivated in times of stress or a weakened immune system.
Who Can Get Shingles?
Anyone who has had the chickenpox is at risk for developing shingles. The CDC states that If you were born before 1980, there is a 99% chance you had chickenpox as a child, even if you don’t remember it. As you age, your risk increases, but shingles have been known to present in younger people as well. Surprisingly, cases of shingles in younger people have been on the rise, though the reasons are unclear to doctors and scientists at this point.
Shingles Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of shingles usually start with a feeling of fatigue and deep aching nerve pain at the future site of the outbreak. As symptoms progress further, they can include the following:
- Pain, burning, tingling, or numbness
- Sensitivity to touch
- A red rash that presents a few days after the onset of pain
- Fluid-filled blisters
- Itching
- Fever
- Headache
- Sensitivity to light
- Fatigue
If you experience any of these symptoms, be sure to schedule an appointment with a medical professional to identify if shingles are the cause. Left untreated, shingles poses a significant risk to your health.
What Triggers Shingles?
As we mentioned above, the dormant varicella-zoster virus is what causes shingles, but there are two major factors that can trigger an outbreak.
The first is a weakened immune system. A healthy and robust immune system will keep the dormant varicella-zoster virus at bay.
The following circumstances can lead to a weakened immune system:
- Age-related decline in immune function
- Certain medications like chemotherapy drugs, corticosteroids, and anti-inflammatory medications
- Diseases like HIV and hypogammaglobulinemia
- Autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or lupus
- Procedures that require immunosuppressants afterward, such as kidney transplants and bone marrow transplants
The second factor is stress. As we mentioned in our blog, stress undermines the immune system by creating imbalances in corticosteroid levels. This imbalance makes your body more susceptible to having a shingles outbreak.
Now that we’ve addressed the cause, symptoms, and what triggers shingles, let’s examine our highly successful approach to treating and preventing this painful and debilitating condition.
Our Two-Pronged Approach to Shingles: Treatment and Prevention
When addressing shingles, we take a holistic, two-pronged approach. Our shingles protocols effectively address not only the treatment of painful shingles outbreaks but prevention as well.
Microcurrent Prevention of Shingles
The prevention of shingles is simple and is something you should be actively working on every day if you are at risk of experiencing an outbreak. By keeping your body in a parasympathetic state, you can stave off shingles outbreaks and prevent them from ever occurring in the first place.
Our shingles prevention protocol works by reducing stress and keeping the body in an alpha state. We achieve this in our patients by regularly performing vagus nerve stimulation, utilizing the alpha ear clips, and performing immune boosting protocols.
To learn how to conduct our immune-boosting protocols at home, please read our blog, Immunity the Hache Way: Microcurrent For Immunity.
Microcurrent Treatment of Shingles Outbreaks
The discomfort and pain of a shingles outbreak is something we work to address in our patients immediately. Patients often come to us because they want to avoid dangerous and addictive pain killers and want a natural way to resolve their pain.
Fortunately, we’ve developed an incredibly simple protocol that wakes up and heals damaged nerves and can be executed with any device in our Avazzia line-up. To treat shingles outbreaks, simply place your microcurrent device on the area and run a stimulation algorithm for bursts of five minutes recurrently throughout the day.
This protocol will drastically decrease the pain and, depending on the severity of the outbreak, may eliminate it entirely! We’ve heard from patients who had relegated themselves to a life of pain and suffering that our shingles treatment protocol has changed their lives.
Don’t Suffer from Shingles Another Day
Most adults assume they will experience shingles at some point in their life, but it doesn’t have to be that way! By working to prevent and treat shingles regularly with our protocols, you will be doing everything you can to avoid falling victim to the aches, pains, burning and stinging of a shingles outbreak.
We’re Here for You
Do you have questions about how you can naturally prevent and treat shingles with microcurrent therapy? Please reach out for a complimentary consultation! Our compassionate and helpful staff will walk you through the process of our holistic approach to healing and preventing this painful condition.