TCM for Shingles / Herpes Zoster Virus

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Shingles often arises in immune-deficient patients, the elderly, and people taking immunosuppressant drugs. Having shingles is a horrific experience. If a patient suffers a severe case, they will likely never have shingles again and do not need to be vaccinated against it. In the coming years, we can expect to continue to see our clinics fill with more and more patients struggling with a wide range of issues related to their compromised immune systems.

Case history (shingles)

A woman in her mid-thirties came to me with a patch of shingles on the back of her neck. To immediately stop the burning and itching, I topically applied a combination of toxic herbs and sesame oil to the lesion and gave her some of the mixture to reapply at home. Weeks later, when the scabs had fallen off, I lightly seven-star hammered the area to complete the treatment. Interestingly, this episode of shingles was the first indication of a compromised immune system. A healthy, thirty-year old is unlikely to contract shingles; usually, it only occurs in people who are elderly, weak or immunocompromised. Twenty years later, I cupped her Toxin Areas and bled the site of the original shingles outbreak (1010.07 All Pivot) for nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy. Her treatment for breast cancer was effective and she returned to her activities as a teacher and mother.

Shingles/Herpes Zoster Treatments

Seven-star hammering for shingles

Caution: never hammer and cup an area with blisters, as this would spread the virus. Shingles and herpes are wet-heat toxins. The virus hides in nerve endings and then emerges when the patient gets stressed and when their lifestyle is out of balance.

Optimally, for shingles outbreaks anywhere on the body, the Toxin Areas may be hammered and cupped. The local area may be seven-star hammered, but only once the scabs have fallen off, to ensure the hammering of the new, fresh, pink skin while it is still visible. If visible indications of the shingles outbreak have cleared and there is still post-herpetic pain, you can seven-star hammer an area the size of a grapefruit (for patients younger than fifty) or up to the size of an orange (for older patients) in the areas of nerve pain.

Hammer hard enough to be effective; otherwise, you will cause pain but will not have good results. (If you are hammering tissue that is directly over bone, you need to hammer a lot more softly!) For herpes outbreaks near the eye, you may hammer up to the edge of the eye orbit and eyebrow. To draw the toxins out, try to cup after hammering the area. It may be difficult to get the cup to stay on and will likely pull a portion of the eyelid into the cup. Making sure that the majority of the cup is pulling from skin over bone, this should not be a problem, though residual color from the cups will tend to spread into the upper and lower eyelids. Cups done in this manner only need to be retained for 30 seconds to one minute.

Though local hammering is even more painful than hammering the Toxin Areas, it allows the toxins that are lodged in the nerve endings a way to escape, thus preventing postherpetic neuralgia, a gruesome aftermath of shingles. The same treatment is also a fantastic way to end repetitive herpes outbreaks. The herpes virus is still likely to reside in the spinal cord, but it will no longer live in the habituated distal areas. Remember, never hammer a herpes blister; wait for the scab to fall off, as you will then see pink skin indicating the proper location.

Whether the treatment is for shingles or herpes, there are places where cups cannot be applied, such as within the hairline or eyebrow. In these areas, simply seven-star hammer and then swipe with a sterile gauze pad. The patient should feel immediate relief with the first swipe. When hammering and swiping, always wear gloves so your skin will not make contact with the “dirty” blood. Blood products must be disposed of properly; flush them down the toilet or place them in a doubled Sharps bag. Never seven-star hammer the genitals.

Needle & Bleeding Points

• DT.01-DT.02 Toxin Area, bled and cupped if there are no lesions in the area. Bleed and cup the pink areas of previous outbreaks as soon as the scabs have fallen off.
• 88.17-88.19 Four Horses, A.04 San Cha Three, needled bilaterally needled.
• 99.08 Ear Apex, bled.
• 11.26 Control Dirt bled only if there is a dark vessel on the back of the thumb.
• 77.14 Four Flower Outer (Tung’s ST40)*, bled. Alternately, look for dark vessels to bleed on the Gallbladder and Stomach channels.

Additional treatments:

• GB34 Yang Ling Quan, SJ5 Wai Guan, needled bilaterally needled.
• 77.27 Outer Three Gates, bilaterally needled.

Shingles outbreaks on the face:

• Tai Yang (Extra Point) and/or 99.08 Ear Three (Apex), bled.

For post-herpetic pain:

To release the virus from the nerve endings, seven-star hammer, but never before the scabs have fallen off. This treatment is excruciatingly painful but nothing as torturous as continued post-herpetic pain that can last up to one year following a shingles outbreak. Patients suffering in this way typically experience a significant change in their pain level as soon as the hammering is done, when it is done properly. See prior commentary.

Supplements:

Vitamin D3/K2 supplementation is necessary to address autoimmune diseases. Prescribe a loading dose of 60,000-70,000 units daily for 30 days, then reduce it to 10,000 units per day for another month. Patients should stop taking Vitamin D3/K2 for two weeks before they are tested (with the Vitamin D 25-OH test) so they won’t get a false reading that measures the supplement ingested and not their blood levels.

Omega-3, emulsified turmeric, CoQ10, glutathione, L-glutamine, Calcium/magnesium. Calcium/magnesium will loosen the stool unless magnesium glycinate is used. Because L-glutamine is constipating, they can be combined to balance each other.

Herpes outbreaks are common in diabetics and alcoholics because the virus responds to out-of-control blood sugar (wet heat toxins). Patients must entirely avoid alcohol, caffeine, hot/spicy foods, and excess sugar. They should take calcium citrate 1000mg/magnesium citrate 500mg daily and double this amount during an active outbreak to bowel tolerance. (If they begin to have watery stools, decrease the dose.)

In the past, I have prescribed PRX antiviral formula from Theramedix with Ultra Vir-X from Biotics Research. Many other excellent antiviral products are available now.

Formulas:

• Long Dan Xie Gan Tang (Gentiana Drain the Liver Decoction) with San Shen Er Miao San.
• Xian Fang Hou Ming Yin with Quan Xie (scorpion) and Gua Lou (the whole fruit or the skin).
• Xiong Huang (realgar) mixed with vinegar or wine. Dr. Lee mixed equal parts Xiong Huang powder with Liu Huang (sulfur), added sesame oil to make a paste, and applied it externally, covered with gauze. This formula immediately takes the burn and itch away, but it is highly toxic if inhaled, so the practitioner mixing the paste must wear a mask and the patient applying it must be informed. I have used this paste with great success in severe cases.
• If the herpes includes the roots of the nerves, 0.5 cun Quan Xie (scorpion) may be swallowed in capsules, three times daily. For severe pain, use Wu Gong (centipede) with Yan Hu Suo. Scorpion (1.5–2 cun) and centipede (1–2 pieces) are very effective in stopping pain and are good for severe sciatica or trigeminal neuralgia.