Herpes and Chiropractic

Wait!   Herpes and chiropractic?  You thought chiropractic was for BACK PAIN, didn’t you?  Well, it’s NOT!  While reviewing statistics on my blog, I noticed that someone used “herpes and chiropractic” as their search criteria.

Sadly, some folks (including lots of chiropractors) think it is.  Over the decades lots of lazy chiropractors have taken the easy road and succumbed to back pain because lots of folks DO seek a drugless, nonsurgical way of dealing with their back pain.  Oh yeah, that’s where the easy insurance money is, too.

But, chiropractic is about much more than mere back pain.  It’s about helping you have MORE LIFE!  It’s about helping your body (hence YOU) functioning at a higher level and with much more ease.

OK, back to herpes.  If you’ve ever known someone with herpes (genital herpes or shingles) you know that it is made worse with stress.  In fact, stress is usually the reason it expresses itself.  We don’t need to get into the epidemiology of herpes. Everyone agrees that once you’ve got it, you’ve got it.

However, you CAN keep it from ruining your life.  You CAN control it somewhat by controlling how you and your body deals with the stress in your life.  That’s where chiropractic comes into play.  Conservative chiropractic care that deals with your autonomic nervous system, specifically your parasympathetic nervous system, helps keep your body calm under stress and helps you manage the effects of stress on your health.

BUT, don’t wait until you have an outbreak of herpes to go see your chiropractor. Find a chiropractor you can see weekly.  You might not get adjusted every week.  But, you should get checked.  It may be your best insurance for avoiding untimely bouts with herpes.

Shingles and Chiropractic

So, can chiropractic cure shingles?  Of course not.  But, neither can Medicine.  There is no cure for shingles, a condition that causes extreme pain to those afflicted.

Shingles is a condition where the Chicken Pox (herpes zoster) virus settles into a person’s nerve root and causes no problems until activated, usually by stress.  Once activated, the entire nerve is affected causing extreme discomfort and pain.  Unfortunately, there’s little that can be done to alleviate the problem other than try to lessen the symptoms.

However, many sufferers of shingles have found that finding ways of reducing and dealing with stress keeps the virus from becoming active.  One of those ways is getting adjusted by their chiropractor on a regular basis.  Chiropractic adjustments help balance stress on the nervous system.  Reducing that stress helps prevent shingles outbreaks and helps your body recover quicker when there is an outbreak.

If you suffer from shingles, I encourage you to find a wellness chiropractor whose focus is on the upper cervical spine.