🌿 Shingles virus – Causes, Symptoms, and Natural Healing Story
🩺 What is Shingles?
Shingles, medically known as Herpes Zoster, is a viral infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox.
Other Names for Shingles
- Medical Name: Herpes Zoster
- Telugu Names: Chappi, Aggi Chappi, Sarpi
- Common English Names: Zona, Zoster
After recovering from chickenpox, the virus stays dormant in the nerve cells. Years later, it can reactivate, often when immunity is low, causing painful, itchy and burning rashes.
🔍 Symptoms of Shingles
- 🔥 Sharp, burning pain in a specific area
- 🌡️ Red rash that turns into fluid-filled blisters
- 🩹 Itching and tingling before the rash appears
- 🤕 Sensitivity to touch
- 😴 Fever, fatigue, and headache (in some cases)
❓ Why Does it Occur?
Shingles appears when the varicella-zoster virus reactivates in the body.
Common triggers include:
- Weak immune system
- Chronic illnesses like diabetes
- High stress or emotional strain
- Excessive body heat or overexertion
📖 Case Study:
- Age: 45 years
- Affected Area: Right shoulder
- Symptoms: Severe burning, sharp pain, constant itching. No fever.
- How it started: The night after eating extremely spicy food in a restaurant
- When it started: July (Rainy season just starting in South India)
- History – Chickenpox affected age: 20 Years
🧴 External Applications & Treatments
- Sandalwood Paste – Fresh sandalwood ground and applied generously for cooling.
- Neem–Turmeric Paste – Neem leaves + turmeric + water paste for anti-inflammatory effect.
- Neem–Turmeric Bath Water – Boiled neem leaves with turmeric added to bath water.
- Coconut Oil – Applied regularly to moisturize and aid skin healing.
- Allopathic Medicine (7 Days) – Antiviral course, pain relief tablets, soothing creams for itching.
- Homeopathy – Started after the first week; initial symptom aggravation but improved later.
- Mudra Therapy – Special shingles mudra (10 mins daily) + Prudhvi Mudra (10 mins daily) for reducing body heat and gaining strength to fight with virus.
🥗 Foods & Dietary Remedies
- 🥛 Cooling Drinks: Buttermilk, barley water, more liquids including Electral water to stay hydrated.
- 🌶️ No Chillies: Only pepper used
- 🚫 Avoided During Homeopathy: Raw onion, raw garlic
- 🥒 Healing Vegetables: Bottle gourd, snake gourd, ridge gourd, greens, pulses etc.
- ❄️ General Approach: Avoided all foods that aggravates pus in body (Eg: Chana Dal, Yellow Moong dal) and all activities that increase body heat.
📊 Healing Timeline
Symptom Intensity Scale: 0 = Healed, 10 = Severe Pain
- Week 1: Pain 9/10 – Started allopathic + natural remedies. Rash forming, extreme burning & itching.
- Week 2: Pain still 9/10 – Rash started drying up, but burning & itchiness continued.
- Week 3: Pain dropped to 4/10 – Homeopathy + correct mudra started; major reduction in burning & itching.
- Week 4: Pain 0/10 – Fully healed; skin normalised.
| Week | Symptom Intensity (0–10) | Progress & Key Actions |
| Week 1 | 9 | Severe burning & itching; started allopathic medicines + natural remedies |
| Week 2 | 9 | Rash drying up; burning & itchiness unchanged |
| Week 3 | 4 | Started homeopathy & correct mudra; burning & itching reduced significantly |
| Week 4 | 0 | Fully healed; maintained cooling foods & stress-free lifestyle |
💡 Key Takeaways
- Early intervention helps prevent complications.
- Combining modern medicine with natural cooling remedies can speed up healing.
- Diet control and stress management are essential to prevent reactivation.
- Healing can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months depending on severity, but with proper care, recovery is faster and smoother.
