A few simple tips for people suffering from shingles

Perhaps you thought that you were off the hook when your chicken pox cleared up way back when. Unfortunately, the very same virus can come back — with a vengeance — as shingles.

Today, antiviral drugs and good home care can ease the pain and discomfort.There are a number of simple strategies that you can employ to help you get through a case of shingles. Try the following:

• Don't scratch (no matter how much you want to). If you break the blisters, you run the risk of infection. Keeping the blistered areas clean with soap and water will fight bacteria too.
• Cover your blisters to protect them. Loosely place gauze over the area during the day. While you sleep, gently wrap a wide elastic sports bandage around the gauze dressing to keep it in place.
• Apply cold, wet compresses or ice packs to itchy areas, or soak in a lukewarm bath laced with an Aveeno oatmeal or a cornstarch product. Just stay away from heat, which can intensify itchiness.
• Wear loose, breathable apparel. This will keep your clothes from rubbing against your irritated skin.
• De-stress to decrease PHN pain. Post-herpetic neualigia, or PHN, is a possible consequence of shingles. It is a condition where pain persists after the rash is gone. Studies show you'll calm down and reduce your pain simultaneously by practicing meditation, deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation. You can also visit a skilled practitioner of hypnosis, biofeedback or acupuncture; they can help you achieve similar results.
• Stay away from people who haven't had chicken pox. Your shingles are not contagious, but the fluid-filled blisters do contain the chicken pox virus. Children and adults who have never had the varicella virus or the chicken pox vaccine could become infected.

•  You might lower the volume on your pain with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This technique delivers low-level electrical pulses to nerve endings via electrodes on your skin, thereby stimulating production of endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers.
• If your pain is so severe that it’s affecting the quality of your life, consult your doctor about an epidural block, injections of local anesthetics or steroids into the membranes surrounding the nerves in your spinal cord.
• Injections of antiviral drugs plus steroids are another effective option for difficult cases.

Like chicken pox, shingles is a condition that most people will suffer from at some point in their lives. However, that knowledge doesn't make you feel any better when you're covered in itchy spots and blotches. Follow these tips to help ease the pain of shingles, and be sure to contact your doctor if the pain is overwhelming.