Effective Home Treatments & Natural Remedies for Shingles

I have been suffering with shingles for a couple of weeks now, using various treatments from this website, such as dabbing ACV with a cotton ball, which stings, but also soothes. I've also tried mixing baking powder and cayenne with a little ACV to make a paste and rubbing that on and letting it dry. That really gave me the most relief until a friend suggested colloidal silver. I was not familiar with it, but was desperate for some relief, so, after reading up on it on this site, I have been taking 1 tsp. 3 to 5 times a day, as well as dabbing it on the areas with a cotton ball. I'm also drinking ACV in filtered water, and taking goldenseal, lysine, B vitamins and Vit. C. I am finally getting some relief and some much needed sleep! The patches are no longer thick and hard, but are much softer and not as raised. Some areas have almost completely disappeared, no more lumps, just reddened skin. I'm not sure which of the treatments are making the difference, but I will continue to do all of them until this is gone! I hope this helps anyone else who is suffering from shingles!

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.

Hi, l have had shingles 3 times in 3 months but quite mildly, l use colloidal silver and keep a wet solution on at all times with cotton wool, you can put it in your eyes, l have been using it successfully for 15 years on any external infection. Sometimes l drink it for my ulcer and it helps straight away, also sore throats, eye infections. It's fantastic.

My mom had shingles and the best thing that worked for her was taking lots of Lysine and applying Salve a few times a day. I know some have been helped with ACV wraps, putting it right on the shingles, but I know that can burn.

There are different varieties of aloe. Make sure it is aloe vera baradenisis miller. You must also drain the cut leaf of yellow liquid in a large cup of fresh water after harvesting for at least 30 minutes before use.

SHINGLES

I thought this was an old persons disease, not so. The medication they gave me did nothing for the pain, so I tossed that.

Health books always start with a fast to give your system a rest. I went on a 10 day orange, grapefruit and lemon fast with large amounts of L-Lysine three times a day. I still needed something for the pain, that went on for weeks. The pain is so intense, making it almost impossible to even sleep.

Visiting my brother, I found him taking 500 mg of Niacin every morning, was he crazy! His face was as red as a beet, but he didn't seem to care. I never took anything more then 50 mg of Niacin.

I thought if he can take it, so can I. A few minutes later my face started getting hot and tingly, but to my surprise the pain from my shingles was gone, not just slightly gone, it was gone.

I found Niacin only lasted about 4 hours before the pain started coming back. Another thing I found out is that it only worked on an empty stomach in the morning. Every day the pain became less intense. After about a week, the pain was gone. So far never to return.

After suffering reoccurrence of shingles for about 20 months, I found out that it is a sign that there is a serious underlying medical problem. I worked on healing my digestive problems and as soon as the digestive system started working properly, the shingles quit reoccurring. If you keep getting shingles, look for another medical problem

Dear Waltraud,

It may be that the corn flour or oat flour are just to help the mixture thicken and stick easily to the skin. I do think that oat has something particularly helpful to skin conditions. (Thus, oatmeal baths.)

French green clay would be another dry ingredient that I think could be used to make the aloe and cayenne into a paste.

~Mama to Many~

"800mg of Folic Acid, 1500mg of Lysine and 2000mg (minimum) of Vitamin C"

WOW! This workes so well! Thank you very much.

Neem Oil works! My husband is 56 and noticed blisters last week. He had them once before in his late teens. I looked here for recommendations and found Neem Oil. I actually had recently purchased some organic cold pressed Neem oil and applied it to the blisters 2- 3x a day. Its not even been a week - today he saw the dermatologist who confirmed its already healing. My husband said its not only helping dry the blisters, but also helps with the pain. So glad I checked on Earth Clinic Website. This is so awesome. A few years ago I searched for a strep throat remedy and the Cayenne pepper gargle took care of that too!

Shingles -

Hot water made it way worse for me. Oregano oil capsules worked - at first 1 cap with each meal until some relief. Shouldn't take too long and then take 1 cap breakfast and dinner...and then drop to 1 with dinner. Oregano oil kills viruses.

Because of another underlying disease, I have Shingles every day of my life for 5 years.. The way I keep it from flaring up and causing me pain in my head is Colostrum LD Powder. I worked up gradually to 2 or 3 Tablespoons a day. This will take the pain away within an hour or two after taking it. I also take 500 to 1000 mg Lysine daily. Prevention for me is taking the Colostrum and Lysine without fail daily. If I have made mistakes (forgetting to take the above or eating arginine foods) and ended up with a severe bout of Shingles, I add in Manuka Honey from New Zealand 15+ officially graded it seems to give an extra punch when coupled with the other things.. How I get severe bouts - eating anything chocolate, eating Vanilla Bean not Vanilla flavored but the bean itself .. got to stay away from Arginine foods very important because if the Arginine fills up the pathways and is overpowering the Lysine in the pathways, you will get an outbreak of Shingles.

Trish,

I have used a topical aspirin lotion that I made myself for a friend with shingles and they found it quite helpful. The aspirin is antiviral and disrupts the replication of the varicella-zoster virus. The aspirin also acts as an analgesic to help with some pain relief and all without causing digestive upset!

Art

I used peppermint oil and it helped the shingle crust over in 2 days. This the second time I had it. The first time it was horrifying but this time it is one single shingle but peppermint oil not only helps the pain but accelerates the healing process!

Shingles was breaking out bad, was in pain and they were getting worse. Just remembered that shingles is a herpes type virus, so last time I had a cold sore, I used a tea bag on it, (heated the bag in a half cup hot water then cooled it down first) it knocked my cold sores immediately, so I thought "could it also work on shingles??" It does work!!! And it is not a painful treatment!

I just took a tea bag, put it in some hot water in a cup, then let it steep for 3 or 4 minutes, then took out the bag, let it cool down and laid the wet tea bag right on the blistered area for 5 or 10 minutes, I also took 2 or 3 lysine tablets and let them dissolve in the tea water. I also soaked paper towel in this liquid and laid it on the blisters now and then. Already, they are drying up!! There is a new separation of healthy skin now between some of them. What was a very angry painful area this morning, is now way less painful, way less red, way less swollen. There is a white area of skin around the lesions where it is healing now. I can stand to run my hand over it now and this morning, that would have been agony!

Tea bags cooled, applied and I did put some lysine in the tea water, but I think the tea bags alone would do the trick! Yeah, and no pain and it is fast fast fast!! Glad I remembered by cold sore trick. This is something I wanted to share because, I would hate for people to suffer another day, when they have tea bags right in the cabinet! You can use black tea or green tea.

I recently noticed a spot on my right eye brow. I thought it was a spider bite that had become infected, so I got some antibiotics. 2 Days later I notice small bumps and began to feel a tingling sensation. Then I knew it was shingles. I got the antiviral medicine from the Dr, but I actually started to feel worse after taking it. I did a google search and thankfully found this site. From everyone's recommendations I made a paste and the pain and sores started going away almost instantly.

Paste: 1 Tbs coconut oil

1 Tbs ACV

10 drops colloidal silver

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp DMSO

I put the paste on and let it sit for 10-15min. It burns, but it's a good burn. I think adding in aloe would help, but I didn't have any. Then rinse.

Then I mixed ACV with 10 drops eucalyptus oil and dabbed that on the sores. Again it burns, but it's more like a cooling burn.

Within 2 hours the pain was almost gone and the sores had gone down by almost half. It's been 36 hour now and some of the sores are completely gone and the others are on their way out. This really saved me some anguish. Good luck to everyone!

I found this site via Google and was very grateful for all the ideas on how to relieve the painful symptoms and rash associated with Shingles. I'm normally very healthy but had become run down about 2 weeks ago when I discovered I had a rash, then pain - after considerable research on medical and holistic websites it became obvious I had shingles, given my age, photos of rashes and a drawing that explained the nerve pain in my skin. Thanks to the ideas from this site and dietary guidance I have skirted this scourge by using the following suggested remedies - L-Lysine, Vitamin C, Multi Vitamin B, Beta Glucan (immune booster), Olive Leaf - all taken internally in large doses without delay. The tip on eucalyptus oil prompted me to use V-Vax which friends who are nurses urged me to get years ago. It was amazing - reducing the pain, redness, blisters and healing the skin on my right hip and low back. Though I like apple cider vinegar, it didn't compare to eucalyptus oil. So in gratitude to those who shared their stories, I contribute mine to help those who are similarly afflicted by Shingles. We don't need to suffer - there are remedies that can alleviate both the painful symptoms and bring us back to health sooner than later.

Dear Hisjewel and Timh,

I am following this conversation with interest and have been pondering the whole vitamin C and shingles thing.

It really struck a chord with me because I think I have had a couple of shingles flare ups recently; one was during the Thanksgiving holiday when we had company and I was very busy. I realized I had a burning pain on my skin on on side at my waist. I took aspirin (Ted says it has antiviral properties) and about 8 grams of vitamin C a day. Plus I used a topical menthol/eucalyptus salve that I make. The burning passed and I never had blisters or other symptoms.

So, shingles is caused by the varicella virus, which we have in our systems from having had chicken pox as children. So, while the acute chicken pox clears up in 10 days or so, we are left with a virus that is in us for life and flares up at some point later for some. It seems to come in conjunction with other sicknesses, times of stress, or other low immunity situations.

It makes me thing of Dave's theory of many chronic illnesses (like autoimmune) having a viral link.

The Epstein Barr Virus, which causes mono, is another that seems to flare back up or be linked to other problems later on. My children had mono several years ago. One of my sons, when he gets sick, even a cold, will start to act like he did when he had mono (extreme exhaustion.) Well, we had found that coconut oil was amazing for mono. So now, every time he is sick with anything and seems run down, I give him coconut oil and he is better fast. In fact, over the weekend he had a cough and I gave him coconut oil for it before I tried anything else, and poof! The cough was gone. I don't actually know if that is because the coconut oil was fighting a mono flare up or just because he responds well to that antiviral. But I know it works.

Sorry, I know I am rambling here and not sure how to get to my point.

The body is so complex. And I think past diseases do flare up again depending on other stresses to the body (including sickness, lack of sleep, stress, etc.) Could we completely eliminate them with more diligent use of natural antivirals? Maybe so.

Another thing I notice is that everyone is different. Here Vitamin C helped me a lot with shingles but made it worse for you, Hisjewel. I see this with my children. Different ones respond to different remedies. You learn your body (or that of your children) to know what suits you. My one son - coconut oil is the answer for him when he is sick.

I so enjoy reading what others do to heal diseases. There is so much to learn. Always something new to try. While it would be easier if there were always a one size fits all solution, it does keep it interesting that healing can be so complex.

Keep sharing and I will keep reading!

~Mama to Many~

I have shingles, taking the anti viral. But accidently found out that a paste of hydrogen peroxide mixed with baking soda stops the spreading. Or changes its course. Stopped from going up my face cold turkey. Of course then it started working down my neck. Each place you feel it breaking out, the itch, a paste of this will kill it or stop it. It also makes the blisters feel better. I had used this on cuts to heal them when nothing else would. Going to try the cayene pepper.

I'm 27 and I recently had a breakout of shingles on my leg. A day after I had the red spots the nerve pain arrived. That's when I realized it was shingles and immediately began seeking remedies. It appeared that cayenne pepper was key to suppressing the virus, according to a number of folks on earthclinic. I began looking for natural pastes around the house to mix with cayenne pepper. All I had at the time was Tahini (sesame butter). I took a tablespoon of tahini and mixed it with a whole lot of cayenne pepper, almost to the point of saturation, and applied it to the red spots. 95% of the nerve pain was gone and the red spots were no where in sight within 24hours. I've been reapplying it almost daily (usually when I feel the pain creeping up). Cayenne pepper is shingles' worst nightmare. I've been ingesting half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper every few days as well, just for good measure. And they said it takes 2-3 weeks to heal!

Dear Tabitha,

So sorry about the shingles!

I do not know how long the person who wrote the post left the cayenne in place. It sounds as if people apply it and then reapply as needed. I know a man who used cayenne to pack a bleeding wound and left the cayenne in the wound. It did not cause a problem to leave the cayenne in the wound. (And it stopped the bleeding and left the ER wondering how he got the bleeding to stop! )

I once made an apple cider vinegar/cayenne liniment to put on a sore foot and just left it on.

If you haven't tried it yet, the cayenne may burn upon contact, but that usually goes away quickly. If it bothers you beyond that, you could wash it off.

You may want to take the cayenne internally as well. I like 1/2 teaspoon in some grape juice or carrot juice a couple of times a day when I need the cayenne.

Let us know how it goes. I hope you find much relief with the cayenne!

~Mama to Many~