So let’s take my Chicken Pox tirade to the next level: let’s talk about Shingles!
In the past year, two of my friends and a friend’s husband have gotten shingles. All three of these people are in their forties! Before last year, I’d never known ANYONE who’d had Shingles! I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence, but I was still shocked to learn that it is the (frankly, stupid) Chicken Pox vaccine that is the root of the problem! You can read all about the link between the Chicken Pox vaccine and the rise in Shingles in the following article by homeopath, Begabati Lennihan.
Why the Shingles Epidemic?
I don’t remember anyone getting shingles when I was growing up – do you? Shingles is a painful and/or itchy skin condition caused by the same virus as chickenpox, which can lurk in the body for decades, typically appearing after age 50 when you’re stressed or immune-compromised. The rash itself is bad enough, but what’s worse is the pain that sometimes lingers (called postherpetic neuralgia). Clients have told me the pain can be incapacitating.
Why are so many older people getting shingles all of a sudden? It’s because of the chickenpox vaccine, produced in 1995 and becoming pretty much mandatory and universal in the next few years. Before 1995, kids would get chickenpox (a mild disease) and acquire longlasting immunity, which would get a natural boost as older people came in contact with kids with the disease. As you may know, natural immunity from actually getting a disease lasts much longer (and tends to be more effective) than the acquired immunity from a shot.
Now, even if older people had chickenpox before 1995, their natural immunity is not getting the boost from hugging a grandchild with chickenpox, because there just aren’t kids with chickenpox any more. People who did get the vaccine are also at risk, because it introduced the live virus.
Such is the conclusion of Dr. Gary Goldman, who studied the higher rates of shingles since the 1995 universal chicken pox vaccination campaign. His research (independently corroborated by the British Public Health Service) is reported in The Chickenpox Vaccine: A New Epidemic of Disease and Corruption.
Preventing and Treating Shingles
Simple topical treatments include honey or lysine cream (such as Super Lysine Plus) rubbed on the outbreak. Lysine is an amino acid that kills the virus because it competes with the amino acid arginine for the same uptake pathways; take lysine internally too (two 500 mg capsules three times a day).
Herbal treatments include the wonderful antiviral herbs echinacea, garlic, pau d’arco and astragalus. These herbs can also be used to keep your immune system strong to ward off shingles and other viral attacks.
Homeopathic remedies include Rhus tox. (the poison ivy remedy, especially for shingles with little itchy fluid-filled blisters that look like poison ivy) and Arsenicum (for burning pains, especially for someone in an Arsenicum state, i.e. anxious about finances, health and other survival issues).
Honestly, there are many possible remedies for shingles. If one of the following remedies has worked well for you in the past, or if you have received it as a constitutional remedy, try it for your shingles: Apis, Graphites, Lachesis, Mercurius, Nat. mur., Sepia, Sulphur or Thuja. Dissolve a couple of pellets of the 30c potency in your mouth 2 to 4 times a day depending on the severity of your symptoms.
For prevention, tai chi! A UCLA study showed that older adults could double their immunity to shingles by practicing tai chi. This is a great example of a natural healing modality with side benefits instead of side effects: tai chi also helps balance and strength in older adults. (Personally I’m such a klutz that I can’t follow the elaborate movements of tai chi and I feel I get the same results with chi gong.)
Finally, if you do get shingles, you’ll need to heal the affected nerve. Take essential fatty acids high in Omega-3s and a blend of cell salts called Nerve Tonic by Hylands. If you can’t find it, use Calms Forte instead (a similar formula found in every health food store and even in drug stores, hooray!)
So Should I Get the Shingles Shot?
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