Shingles, Herpes, Cold sores

Most people (about 90% of us) eventually get to find out what facial herpes (cold sores) are through firsthand experience. Some people are unfortunate enough to meet someone with genital herpes and so get the gift that just keeps giving. Some people strike it hard with an outbreak of shingles that wreaks havoc somewhere on their body’s skin and nerves.

All three of these problems are closely related and are caused by variations of the same virus. 

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The wicked nature of all the members of the herpes virus family is how they manage to get inside us and then just keep on living forever. It is also a fact that people can and do get well enough to stop getting outbreaks of herpes, completely.

The common factors to the successful are that they get the support they need and address the problems in their lives that were getting them run down, stressed, over-tired etc.

Support can be found in many forms but for herbal medicines I have seen excellent results particularly with using St Johns wort, Echinacea and Withania

I usually use some combination of these herbs in a liquid extract formula, starting with high doses and slowly tapering off as the signs of success are becoming sure. You can purchase these in all kinds of places including on the internet but I definitely recommend you go to the trouble of finding a good herbalist to aid you both in getting excellent quality herbs and also helping you to work through the kind of background to your health that may also need attention at the same time.

Most of my practice is based on herbal medicine but there are occasions when I will look to add some nutritional medicine support alongside the herbs. For herpes or shingles I like to increase zinc and vitamin C during the course of treatment.. I am ambivalent about Lysine, I know it has many adherents and I know it has success in the test tube but I don't see that is works well in real life.

Whenever people get a skin problem their instinct is to focus on what they can put on their affected area. Topical (external) treatments outnumber internal treatments by orders of magnitude when it comes to herpes and shingles. This is ever so slightly daft when you think about it because the problem always comes from the inside and then just explodes outwardly! Trying to fix an outbreak of herpes once it has happened is really like trying to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted.

This is not to say do nothing, delicate skin that has been broken needs care until it heals up again. I and other herbalists have found the oils of Lavender, Geranium and Eucalyptus can be remarkably relieving to the nerve and tissue pain that comes with herpes or shingles. St John’s wort can also be obtained in the form of an oil and this is a herb that has been seen to have a remarkable ability to reduce the pain and inflammation of a herpes or shingles attack.

Read my article on immunity, the healthier a person’s immune system is the less likely they will get a recurrence of herpes or shingles and the faster they will recover if they do.

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