Hi there my name is Dr. Sarah Louie I'm the naturopathic doctor at PhysioChiroWellness
in Ajax, Ontario. This video is going to be about five natural
treatments for shingles. Before we get into those treatments, let's talk about
what shingles is. Shingles is a viral infection and the virus that's involved
is varicella-zoster, and what this virus does is when you're a kid is it
brings on chickenpox so if you've had chickenpox in the past you have
varicella-zoster within your body. Now, why don't you have chickenpox right now
or why don't you have any symptoms of this viral infection within you, it's
because the virus has gone to sleep. It's dormant inside the nervous tissue of
your body, and usually if you are a healthy individual the virus doesn't do
anything it just continues to sleep. But then in cases when you aren't feeling
very well and your immune system is lower the virus can reactivate and begin
to irritate the nerve cells that it has slept in. So what to do what to do about
this viral infection that can often bring about rashes on the body and it
can often bring very severe burning pains, well we're not too sure how the
virus can be best taken care of because we don't know exactly what
reactivates it. But what we do know is that there's a correlation between
individuals who have low immune systems with the occurrence of shingles
therefore it would be very wise to help strengthen your immune system in order
to prevent shingles from happening or to treat shingles itself. So I'm going to
give five natural treatments for shingles
that boost your immune system. Number one is exercise. Exercise is useful in
boosting the immune system because it promotes circulation and you need your
blood to flow in order to help heal your body. The thing is it's important to have
the right amount of exercise. if you've lived a very sedentary lifestyle if you
are often at a desk studying or working increasing your your exercise is going
to be beneficial for you. On the flip side if you are someone that's always
been exercising very regularly at a high intensity level, it might actually be
more beneficial for you to taper down the amount of exercise, and why is that
it's because exercise expends energy and resources of the body, and
when you over exercise you use up all the stuff that you got that could be
used to healing your body and fighting the viral infection, so having the right
amount of exercise is important. Number two is getting adequate sleep. That's a
no-brainer right but some people tend to just keep on going and what does that
tell the body when you are feeling tired and your body is dying for some sleep
but you continue to push forward and go to work continue to finish up that
project, you're kind of telling your body that your priority, that your body's
priority should be keeping you awake during work or keeping you more focused
during your project, when actually the priority should go towards resting, it
should go towards fighting the viral infection. So you know give yourself some
time, allow yourself to plan in some rest in your day so that you can feel better
Number three is reduce stress by saying no. So chronic
stress can lower your immune system, and we often run into chronic stress when we
constantly say yes to things; like yes I'll plan the event or yes I'll take
that extra shift of work or yes we can go play volleyball today, tomorrow, next
week. Saying all these yeses can really put your body in a state of stress and
what can be helpful in treating your shingles is saying no to things, and that
will help you not spread yourself too thin if you have been experiencing
chronic stress. So say no go back to tip number two and get yourself some
rest. Number four is supplement with strong
antioxidants. When you're in an infection a lot of stuff is going on. Your immune
system is trying to fight off the bad guys and in this battle a lot of free
radicals are created and free radicals are things that float around the body
and oxidize healthy tissue which is never a good thing. So it is very important
to supplement with the antioxidants that will help basically get rid of all those
free radicals so that your body doesn't become even more damaged from the battle
between the good and bad. Number five is drink reishi tea. Reishi is a mushroom
and what you can do is take the dried form of reishi and let it infuse in hot
water and drink that as a tea. Maybe weird to think that a mushroom could
help with a viral infection but it is actually really good at boosting the
immune system and even sometimes there's patients that have reported that reishi
tea can help with the pain of shingles when conventional medications have
failed to work. So those are five natural treatments for
shingles and really their treatments that boost your immune system
and when you boost your immune system those natural treatments
can actually help you in various other infections that you may encounter or may
want to prevent, so those are really in reality five ways to boost your immune
system to prevent or treat all infections. If you have any questions
comments or concerns please feel free to contact me at PhysioChiroWellness in
Ajax. Also if you find that these these five treatments aren't really doing it
for you, I'd be more than happy to talk to you about all the other natural
treatments available so that we can find the best treatment for you