Shingles and Chiropractic Care: What You Should Know
Shingles is a painful condition that results in scaly, blistering rashes. While it’s rarely life-threatening, it can be extremely painful, and it may significantly disrupt your daily routine. So, in this article, we’ll take a closer look at shingles and demonstrate how chiropractic care can be an excellent treatment option for this issue.
All About Shingles
Shingles sufferers can present with a variety of symptoms. Most commonly, however, those who contract shingles will develop red, blistering rashes on their trunk.
This issue is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, varicella zoster.
When a person is exposed to this virus early in life, they usually present with the classic symptoms of chickenpox, which are quite similar to shingles. Then, once they recover from the issue, they usually don’t have any problems for many years.
However, the virus is still present in their system. It sits deep within the tissues of the body, waiting for the right opportunity to replicate and cause symptoms.
Then, when a person is under significant stress, has a compromised immune system, or the virus is able to spread for another reason, the person develops shingles.
Shingles Complications
Most people with shingles experience symptoms for a week or two, then return to normal with no further symptoms.
However, in rare cases, some people will experience a condition known as postherpetic neuralgia. Postherpetic neuralgia causes debilitating nerve pain that can last for months or even years after the initial shingles symptoms have cleared up.
Shingles Treatment
Unfortunately, we have yet to develop a way to completely destroy the virus that causes shingles. Therefore, shingles can never technically be cured.
That being said, there are a number of treatments that can help the person fight off the issue with his or her own immune system.
For instance, many medications, such as antivirals, pain meds, creams, and other options can work with your immune system and help you recover more quickly.
When it comes to postherpetic neuralgia, doctors may recommend a nerve block or similar treatment to address the condition.
But these options pose risks of side effects. As anyone who has ever taken a medication can attest, any medication can lead to symptoms within the GI system and in many other areas of the body.
Apart from medication recommendations, people are often instructed to simply wait until the virus is dealt with by his or her own immune system, with no treatments provided.
Interestingly, chiropractic care may help to boost the ability of the immune system, improving healing and decreasing symptoms for these patients.
Chiropractic Care and Shingles
So, why would chiropractic treatments help with shingles symptoms?
To answer this question, we need to briefly discuss the nervous system.
The nervous system has connections with every single tissue in the body. The central nervous system, composed of the brain and spinal cord, oversees all of these processes. Specifically, the brain receives inputs from tissues, decides what to do about this information, then sends out signals to tissues about how to respond.
The spinal cord acts as a major highway in which this information is dispersed to the appropriate areas.
When the spine is out of alignment, due to weak musculature or another issue, it cannot effectively send or receive information. Therefore, healing is often delayed when people have subluxations in their spines. These patients tend to experience higher levels of pain and worse symptoms when they are dealing with an ailment.
Are you or a loved one experiencing shingles symptoms? Have traditional treatment methods failed to provide relief? If so, you should consider seeking chiropractic care! Our team at Anchor Health Chiropractic, your go-to Noblesville chiropractor, is here to help. Book your appointment today!
