Shingles causes intense pain that comes on quickly and can linger for weeks. Starting treatment early makes a real difference.
I remember a patient who’d been coming to the clinic for a while, but this visit was different: she had shingles. That spring, I saw a number of patients come in with the same thing.
Shingles is a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, and it typically follows the path of a nerve. In Chinese medicine, we think of it as heat that has been stored in the body, sometimes dormant for a long time, coming out, often in the spring.
She was in her 30s, and the shingles had broken out on the left side of her upper back and shoulder blade, following the Small Intestine meridian and traveling down her arm along the Pericardium and Heart channels.
The lesions were red, hot to the touch, and mildly itchy, though the pain wasn’t severe. Her upper back and shoulder blade were the most affected area. She also had chills alternating with fever, mild nausea, a wiry pulse, and a thin white coating on her tongue.
Acupuncture and Chinese medicine treatment
In Chinese medicine, we sometimes describe a pathogen as being lodged in the body. For this patient, we used herbs and acupuncture together to help clear it out and restore balance.
Herbs: Xiao Chai Hu Tang (Minor Bupleurum Decoction) combined with Dao Chi San. Xiao Chai Hu Tang is a classic formula used when a pathogen is lodged between the exterior and interior of the body, a stage Chinese medicine calls Shao Yang. It helps move the pathogen out rather than letting it settle in, and it’s well suited to the alternating chills and fever she was experiencing. Dao Chi San was added specifically to drain heat from the Heart channel, since her lesions were tracking along that pathway.
Topical: Neem oil, a natural remedy from Indian medicine traditionally used for rashes and skin conditions, applied directly to cool and soothe the lesions.
Acupuncture: The point selection was simple and targeted. SJ 5 (Waiguan) and GB 41 (Zulinqi) are a classic paired combination for releasing a pathogen trapped at the Shao Yang level, which matched her chills-and-fever pattern. Du 20 (Baihui), at the crown of the head, was added to help raise and stabilize the body’s overall qi while the rest of the treatment worked to clear the pathogen. Around the lesions themselves, I used plum blossom needling, a technique that lightly taps the skin’s surface to move stagnant qi and blood locally and encourage the heat and toxin to disperse right at the site.
She felt better almost immediately after starting the herbs. The neem oil eased the feeling of heat on her skin, and the herbs relieved the internal heat and discomfort. Shingles usually lasts two to three weeks with significant pain and itching, but after just one week, the lesions on her upper back had nearly cleared. The remaining spots on her arm caused her no further trouble.
