Tips to Treat Shingles Rash

Tips to Treat Shingles Rash

There’s no denying the fact that shingles are a painful condition. Most disturbing physically and invariably mentally, this viral infection proves to mar the skin surface. It can be quite tough to manage and many people go overboard, trying myriad tips and cures for shingles rash. What they miss is that any skin condition is an amalgam of various factors. To get the cures for shingles rash, you need to address attack and neutralize the root areas or the viruses creating the problem. Also called the Herpes Zoster, this condition is caused by Varicella Zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox.

The rash is most common among older adults over 50. If you have a weak immune system and are suffering from stress, injury, have cancer and are getting treated, are taking steroids for other medical conditions, then you can get shingles. If you ever suffered from chickenpox as a child, then the virus can lie dormant for many years before resurfacing as the shingles rash. A pregnant woman who suffers from chickenpox, her baby can get shingles. You can get it once and never get it again after treatment, but in some cases, it can reoccur again.

A headache, sensitivity to light, feeling feverish are first signs of the rash. It infects a certain nerve area, which causes a rash that appears in a band, a strip or a small area on the side of the face or the body followed by severe pain in that area. Later you may also feel tingling, itching or pain in a certain area where the rash eventually appears. It can turn into a cluster of blisters, fill with fluid while a crust forms over the blisters. These symptoms generally subside naturally within two to six weeks but they leave scars. Let me tell you that shingles, is not fatal or life-threatening disease. But it can prove to be a very painful and an irritating condition.

Moreover, there are some nasty and prolonged complications with shingles if you ignore the symptoms and leave it untreated. In these instances, there may be severe potential hazards that include loss of hearing, paralysis, loss of vision, and brain infections too. If you suspect or if a person is suspected to be at risk of having shingles, you need to seek professional help at the earliest. Self-medication in such cases is not recommended. A proper and early diagnosis of the viral infection enables speedier and sound recovery.

An accurate diagnosis can prevent potential complexities associated with this disease. Usually, a general practitioner can help to diagnose shingles as the apparent visage of blisters is quite a typical symptom. However, in some special cases, where you suffer from recurrent rashes, the doctor may acquire a culture of the affected tissue area for examination or microscopic assessment in the laboratory. If you have a shingles rash near your eyes or nose, see a doctor immediately. The shingles can spread to your eye and cause permanent damage.

Now that you know about the fundamentals of this rash, what about its treatment? Well, there’s no specific cure for a shingles rash after someone contracts it. The infection subsides and vanishes on its own. You can treat this condition with antiviral drugs, pain medication, antidepressants and topical creams to get relief from long-term pain as prescribed by doctors. They reduce the extent or severity of the malaise and eliminate any possibilities of further complications like partial facial paralysis or postherpetic neuralgia. Remember, if you get treated within 3 days of seeing the shingles rash, then your chances of suffering from later complications reduces.

You need to remember that medications and the treatment procedures for this condition primarily aim to diminish the virus activity and reduce the pain from the infection. The treatment only reduces the discomfort and pain that stems from the affected tissue space. So, in case, you’re fretting about it, then don’t. Shingles don’t necessitate any hospitalization and you can manage most cases at home. Except for a few cases where the immune system of a person becomes hugely impaired, hospitalization becomes one of the immediate cures for shingles rash.

Tips to cure shingles rash at home

  • Avoid picking and scratching blisters.
  • Use a cold moist compress to ease distress. Apply a calamine lotion after the wet compress.
  • You can apply cornstarch or baking soda on the sores. They help sores to dry and heal quickly.
  • To clean the crusts, reduce oozing and soothe the skin soak the crusted sores with tap water or Burrow’s solution
  • Check with your doctor for topical cream recommendations to help relieve the inflammation caused by shingles.
  • If your skin gets infected, ask your physician for antibiotic creams or ointment prescriptions.

If these cures for shingles rash don’t work and the rash becomes severely infected, see a doctor immediately.

Related Reading

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Most of the dogs do not have a food fuss and may eat almost anything that you feed them. Dogs are not choosy at all when it comes to food and nutrition. Hence, it is important to make sure that the food that you are purchasing for your dog is healthy. The landscape of dog food has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent times. There is a wide variety of options to choose from in the online and offline market. Given the wide range of options that are available today, buying the best dog food might seem to be a confusing task indeed. All the commercial pet food that is available in the market today is regulated by the FDA. Therefore, most of the products do contain nutritious, healthy, and safe ingredients. But it does help to know certain basic factors you should look for while buying food for your dog. Prioritize on the nutritional guarantee The best dog food, which meets the dog’s needs adequately has a statement written on the label of the product, from the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Buy from some of the best dog food brands, such as Fromm Family Foods, Earthborn Holistic, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and The Honest Kitchen.
Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

The most important aspect when designing your kitchen is deciding on the type of cabinets. In addition to functionality, kitchen cabinets score on aesthetics as well. Once the layout is planned, you can go ahead with choosing the cabinets. If you’re remodeling your home or just the kitchen, what you need to consider are the types of cabinets that furnish your kitchen. Here are a few types of kitchen cabinets that you can choose from. Base cabinets These kitchen cabinets are mounted on the floor and they are placed after checking out the floor plan. A major part of your job in the kitchen is on these base cabinets, which hold and support the countertops. These base cabinets are combined to carve out kitchen islands. A number of base cabinets are fused/set against one another and installed on site. The base cabinets, in addition to supporting the countertops, serve as drawers to hold your cutlery and appliances. Wall cabinets Mounted on the walls, these cabinets can store everything, right from your cookware to cookbooks. In terms of design, they offer utmost flexibility. Wall cabinet kitchen is available in varying heights, multiple widths, and custom depth options. This customization helps you to fit in your stuff of varying shapes and sizes into the wall cabinets.
How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

In today’s world, where you are presented with over a dozen choices for every item you would purchase for your own kitchen, it is not surprising that you have an equal number of options for your dog’s food. However, choosing the perfect brand and formula for your dog out of a range of options in the market is not an easy job. Your pet depends on you and trusts you to make the right choice for them. Therefore, it is imperative that you do your research about the products available in the market, understand what your dog needs, know what might be your pet’s problems, and then make a sound decision. What is a sensitive stomach? Dogs are known to have voracious and large appetites. Keeping that in mind, it is normal to assume that they have strong stomachs. They can eat close to anything be it sweets, bakes, chewy gum, hard leather or even woolen socks for that matter! It always so happens that the strongest of them are prone to allergies and can develop a disorder which is medically translated as a sensitive stomach. This might be due to a sudden change in the food habits or even due an infection picked up from somewhere.
All You Need to Know about Cat Food

All You Need to Know about Cat Food

For cat owners, cat food is a hot topic. You need to think about it in different aspects. The best thing is to know which ingredients are good for cat food and which are harmful. If you are aware of this, you can get an idea about the quality of the cat food just by going through the label. It is always sensible to stick to one brand of cat food. However, you may also want to try and prepare cat food yourself. There are also various options for wet cat food as well. Cat’s love for fish is universal, so you can do without going for expensive cat food. Nevertheless, whether you buy it or prepare cat food at home, you need to ensure that the food contains enough nutrition and calories. You would need to have some idea about the ingredients that must be present in cat food and make a worthy selection for your cat. Basic ingredients present in good cat foods Cats need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy and active; they need various vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and oils. The following is a brief explanation of the basic ingredients that should be present in cat foods.