Effective Home Treatments & Natural Remedies for Shingles

My shingles episode started after Christmas 2018. My first trip was to the ER. They gave me Acyclovir, which in 24hr made the skin peel off my hands and a red rash. Threw that away. My next thought is EC and started reading.

1. I put paste of ACV and baking soda on the lesions. They dried in one day.

2. Then started dealing with nerve pain, my regiment was: 16 units of Vit E, Maca for nerve pain, Liposomal Vit C 6000-10000 daily for 1 month, B12 microlingual 5000 morning and night. Magnesium increased for 2 weeks, increase folic acid for 3 weeks. Increase Vit D to 4-5000 daily, as I was really low on that.

When I researched the cause of Shingles, I realized the foods that were high in arginine. I was eating chocolate, grapes, nuts, all in one week and was low in lysine at the same time. Once I found out the correlation between arginine and lysine, it was very important that Lysine keeps the shingles at bay from reoccurring.

I also started, acupuncture and chiropractic visits, that also helped with pain. I never had any itching, as I caught the lesions early and dried them up. The acupuncture visits also provided herbal medicines that helped with pain. It's also very important to continue to stretch and walk if at all possible. Even simple short yoga workouts help with pain. I was sleeping on the hard floor for 10 days because the pain was so exhausting, until my acupuncturist helped relieve most of the stinging pain in my leg.

Thank you EC for being a source of knowledge.

I got shingles a few weeks ago. Initially, I thought the pain was residual from a back spasm I had in the same area, but when it didn't resolve, I took a look and sure enough there was the rash. I got on the antiviral, but had known from this wonderful site that ACV would help with the burning and itching. I dabbed it on with a cotton ball and sprayed it on my back where I couldn't reach it. Instantly the burning subsided! The next stage is the nerve pain which I still had deeply after the rash had cleared. I had also learned from this site that Cayenne pepper mixed with aloe lotion Would help. After days of hoping the pain would resolve on its own I decided to try it. The first application didn't make much difference, but the second and third did. In fact, after the third application, the pain was completely gone! So easy and so worth it . Thank you Earth clinic!

My boyfried had what we think to be shingles. That is when I discovered Earth Clinic. I fixed him a bottle water with ACV (apple cider vinegar), cayenne pepper (3 good size shakes) honey to taste. had him drink this 3 times a day and mixed cayenne pepper with ACV (heavy on cayenne) took cottonball and put it on him everywhere, three times a day and shingles were gone within 3 to 5 days. It made him a believer. Now we both drank ACV as a often as we can.

I have a previous posting on Apr. 11, 2009 (day 3 of my attack), which is currently logged under ACV+Cayenne. It would be helpful if you started there. This is an update, ten days later, and should be tremendously useful if you are debating whether to try a natural remeby for Shingles, specifically Apple Cide Vinegar.

Ten days ago, with a bad shingles rash and moderate deep pain, I turned to Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) and Cayenne. I had already been on western meds, specifically valtrex & prednisone, and I had no sense that they were doing any good.

Almost immediately, the pain (but NOT the rash) went away. I continued swigging about half a shot glass of ACV sprinkled with Cayenne, three times a day, and used the same mixture topically a few times daily as well.

After a week, I felt I was completely cured, with the exception of the rash, and dutifully forgot about everything. After all, the smell and taste of ACV don't set the world on fire and aren't powerful motivators to hang in there once cured!

I realized yesterday that, during the past three days, the pain was back and had been for a couple of days now. Particularly, at night, I'd say the pain (in my case deep nerve pain) was perhaps a 7-8 out of 10 (the first time I had shingles it was a 10 out of 10, many times, so I know the scale!).

I had been lazy and listened to all my friends, including several doctors, saying 'It's the Western meds, dummy', and I figured I was in good hands once it stopped. Also, since the rash was taking forever to disappear, receding glacially, but no longer hurting, I felt that I didn't the ACV/C and it was probably an old wives tale anyway.

Boy was I wrong.

This is what I've learned:

1. A virus isn't over when you say it is. It's over when it decides it's run the course.

2. In going back on ACV, the topical pain (which had come back a bit in the past couple of days), stopped on the spot. Taking it yesterday AM, the topical cleared up immediately and the pain stopped throughout the day. Night was a different matter.

3. Two nights ago, the pain was terrible through the night. Last night - the first night since I had been back on ACV - the pain was gone until 5:58am (I went to sleep at 10pm, so I had 7 solid hours).

4. I finally got out of bed around 7:30, with a deep pain in the left side of my lower back. Within 10 minutes of taking ACV internally and topically, the slight itching was gone and the internal pain had gone from a 7/8 to a 2/3.

Everyone's disease and progress is different, and anecdotal evidence for me does not mean a hell of a lot in your case. But I wanted to give as much detail as possible so that you could see exactly how ACV has impacted what I'm going through.

I am dissapointed that the rash is only abating slowly, but - if I had to choose between reallybad, debilitating pain and the side effects pain and sleeplessness produces, and a rash, which in my case is under the shirt/pants and not visible, I'll take the rash anyday!

Count me as an ACV believer. Not once - but twice - in the same illness! Good luck with your shingles!!

Gene

This is my second shingles attack, folks! First one lasted 60 days and was the most unbelievably painful thing I had ever experienced. Interestingly enough, 100% of the shingles was sub-surface, with no redness, raised areas or pustules. The deep pain was beyond words.

Now, four years later, in a period of incredible stress, I've got the damned thing again -- this time, with a left leg and the front/back of the left side of my torso covered in mega-patches of fiery pustules. Pain inside (emanating from the locus deep inside the nerve) and out.

Then, a friend of a friend mentioned ACV and I went surfing and found your site.

Last night (day 3), I covered the sores with ACV&Cayenne, and took two half shot glasses of ACV mixed with Cayenne. Within about an hour the pain - inside and out - completely went away. Yes, completely, and I had what seemed like one of the best sleeps I had had in a long time.

This AM thru noon, I felt great, but this early afternoon I'm still a little shakey -- a slight twinge here, a slight twinge there. And the pustules are still there, but not increasing in size (and, as I write this, only a very, very, very occasional itch/pain from my little read friends.

I am going to keep this up, and have absolutely no doubt that this will do the trick. In fact, I'm going to apply your ACV/CP elixer as soon as I press 'send'.

Just realized I'm having a shingles outbreak on my inner thigh. Haven't had one in 10 yrs. Immediately took 1000mg of L-lysine and Vitamin C. Put apple cider vinegar on a cotton ball and put it on the rash for a few moments. Will come back to update.

9/7/15 UPDATE: Since 9/3 I've been taking 500mg L-lysine twice a day and using Apple Cider Vinegar on the rash twice a day on a cotton ball for a few seconds. Can say the rash is drying up! A few minutes after using ACV the pain and itch goes away for most of the day. It's working!

I had to tell you my experience curing shingles. Organic apple cider vinegar on a cloth compressed onto the area. I also took L-Lysine. My doctor was blown away! No thanks Big Pharma. Thanks to this community! Keep in mind that is what worked for me. Everyone is different.

Hi all. Just finished a recent bout with shingles and thought I would share here in repayment for the great advice I have read here over the years.

I have had shingles a few times before and found the apple cider vinegar treatment (swabbing lesions with cotton soaked ACV) has worked for me. In fact, even treated my son when he had chicken pox that same way and lessened his time spent with that awful childhood illness.

This last time was different for me however. Instead of having shingles in a 'convenient' location, grouped together on my back or leg where I could treat with ACV, dry and then coat with an OTC anti itch cream and then cover with a bandage... No, this time they appeared on my foot. And like many here didn't recognize it as shingles - thought I had some nasty spider bites. After a day or two as they were spreading, realized well into the problem that this was a new location for shingles.

Maybe waiting a day or two to treat with ACV made it less effective than it was in the past. I was able to soak my foot a few times a day in a small foot bath of ACV and that helped with current lesions. However, having it on my toes made it difficult to keep the lesions from spreading and multiplying. One area would sprout a lesion and then go thru its stages and break as it was rubbing against another toe and then that toe would have a lesion (or two) the next day.

Then I remembered this site and read thru the comments here again for another clue as to what to do. The clue was the amino acid Lysine. The lack of the amino acid in one's diet is considered to make one liable to viruses such as shingles.

I had an older bottle of bee pollen in my cabinet. Bee pollen is a 'complete food' and contains all aminos. I took three tabs immediately and then 3 every 12 hours. (Why that time? Made it up - thought it would take that long to get thru my system.)

So, will keep up with the Lysine intake and of course, keep a supply of ACV on hand in case of future outbreaks.

My mother has a very bad case of shingles and crushed aspirin in a moisturizer lotion is helping ease the incredible pain. Thank you! It needs to be reapplied every few hours but is definitely helpful. Has anyone ever tried BHT for shingles? I am wondering if that will stop the virus from replicating. Such a difficult battle for the elderly once they have this virus in their system. Looking for advice. Thank you.

If the coconut oil doesn't work for shingles, try ground up aspirin mixed into a water-based cream. The cheap uncoated aspirin that dissolves quickly in water works for me.

It not only gives quick pain relief, it slows viral replication when applied topically because the localized concentration is much higher than you can get from taking aspirin orally at the highest recommended dose according to these studies below.

Aspirin is antiviral.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1594261

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11273312

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11703529

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9812322

Art

I can second Lisa's reply. BHT is extremely effective for shingles and can cause pain reduction in hours when used topically.

If you have shingles and want to test this, apply 10-15% BHT by weight dissolved in refined coconut oil (the most stable preparation, shelf-life-wise) to only one side and leave the shingles on the other side untreated. The untreated side is then a control. The BHT from the treated side will distribute to the other side (and through the palm of your hand in applying the BHT/oil solution), but it will take sufficient time for you to see a blatant difference.

I had a case of shingles (Chicken pox virus) about 35 years ago, since then I have taken melissa oil, vit c, lysine, and b5 when the old pain flares up. (also what I used when I got the shingles long ago.)

About a year ago, I did a course of BHT - 1/4 tsp once a day for several months. I think it is finally cured and I have not had a flare up since. I will be doing another course just to keep it in check, and also as a coronavirus prevention (cure). I have not had to take the other supplements because it has not been a problem.

I disagree with Oscar on the B12 issue. The synergy between BHT and B12 was independently conformed by Ward Dean decades ago. BHT is lipid-soluble, B12 is water-soluble, so they work in different compartments in different ways. But both are classified as antiviral (catabolic, aerobic, acidifying) by Emanuel Revici's metabolic schema.

I had a shingles outbreak in my 40s due to allergic/toxic exposure to urethane adhesive. Trigeminal outbreak, two of three nerve paths, which responded quickly to BHT and B12. At 24 hours, the redness was dramatically reduced. By 48 hours, it was almost natural skin color. BTW, my outbreak was highly atypical in not being in any way painful. No pain, no itching, no neuropathy, only skin lesions. I had natural chicken pox as a child, so this outbreak was likely shingles. It was diagnosed as shingles by visual inspection by MD. And no shingles outbreaks since despite 25-30 years of aging.

I have used black salve successfully on many different skin lesions, as well as moles. Two years ago I had an initial, very painful outbreak of shingles on my chest. After several days of suffering I decided to try black salve on the blisters. At first it hurt like heck, but it hurt anyway. By the next day the pain and itching were gone. It took a long time to heal completely, and a couple more spots appeared in the area along the way (which I treated also), but the pain was gone and it eventually healed nicely. I still have scars, but no more problems since.

I haven't seen any other postings for using it on shingles, so I thought someone might find it helpful.

I had shingles and the medication the dr gave me was not effective so I used tepid black tea to dab on the blisters and it cleared it up in a couple of days. I use the cut side of a slice of lemon to cure corns. Use it every time you think of it over the day. Soon gone forever.