Herpes zoster is a very common viral skin disease among the middle-aged and the elderly, which affects the lives of many patients due to its unbearable pain.
However, some people say: [For the treatment of herpes zoster, blow the affected part with a hair dryer, twice a day for 1 minute each time, and it can be cured in 2 days.]
It sounds simple and economical, and it seems tempting to keep talking about [cure].
However, in the doctor’s view, this is a lie that harms people.
Most herpes zoster will heal itself
Most herpes zoster itself is not terrible, because most herpes zoster is self-limiting, that is to say, even if you die completely, herpes may recover in about two or three weeks.
Herpes zoster is also called [waist wrapped fire pill], [snake wrapped waist], [snake string sore] and so on, because when the disease occurs, a circle of erythema and blisters often appear on the waist, which looks very scary.
Herpes zoster and chickenpox are caused by the same virus, called [chickenpox-herpes zoster virus]. The first time a person comes into contact with this virus, nine times out of ten chickenpox will occur. After that, some viruses are still hiding in the ganglion of the person’s body and lurking. When people’s immunity is poor, they may run out again in the form of herpes zoster to dominate.
But the pain is killing me… … …
In fact, the problem of herpes itself is not very big, as mentioned earlier, it can heal itself in two or three weeks. The real terrible thing about herpes zoster is that the virus comes from the nerve, so even if herpes is cured, there will still be neuralgia afterwards, and the onset will be especially painful.
Pain, turn over pain, like fire, like acupuncture, like electric shock! The pain makes people doubt themselves. I have even seen many elderly people who think they are seriously ill and cannot eat or sleep or lose 20 kg because of this psychological burden.
Since the virus is emitted from the nerve, it is especially painful, and the older the onset age, the more severe the postharvest neuralgia. It is often painful after the skin symptoms completely subside, and a considerable part can last for as long as half a year.
Any neuralgia that lasts for more than 4 weeks is called [postherpetic neuralgia], and this long-term pain is the most painful to the patient.
Is it really useful to blow hot air with a hair dryer?
As herpes zoster is more common in the elderly, who have experienced hard times of lack of medical care, medicine and economy, and often do not like to see a doctor when they are ill, I hope it can be solved by some simple family care methods, such as [blowing with a hair dryer is good].
So is it really effective to use a hairdryer?
First of all, I would like to tell you the conclusion-not only useless, but also harmful.
Neurocorpuscles that sense pain and temperature in the human body often mix together. When we use hot water and hot air to raise the skin temperature, we will feel as if the feeling of pain becomes dull.
But this kind of dullness is transient and temporary. If there is no burn deep into the nerve, the skin temperature will gradually return to normal, and the pain will gradually recover as usual.
The key to the hot blowing of the hair dryer is that the hot air cannot kill the virus.
Although herpes is on the surface of the skin, However, the virus is deeply hidden in the sensory nerve. When the disease starts, the virus resurrects in the affected sensory neurons to form a complete virus body. Then these viruses will be transferred to the skin through sensory nerve axons, spread from one cell to another, penetrate the skin, penetrate the epidermis, and cause peculiar painful skin herpes zoster.
Therefore, it is impossible to kill or inhibit the virus and cure herpes zoster simply by blowing the skin with hot air.
However, for the folk folk remedies of blowing hot air and applying hot water to scald, what worries people even more is that it will cause scalds to the elderly.
With the increase of age, the skin of the elderly will also suffer from functional aging and decline, and the feeling of temperature may become insensitive. In addition, the mood of rushing to the doctor often causes the skin to be chapped and even large blisters to burn. Only then do they have to come to the doctor and suffer a lot in vain.
How can treatment be reliable?
The real reliable treatment method is to start antiviral treatment as soon as possible.
Although antiviral therapy is not likely to accelerate the disappearance of blisters, it can limit the nerve damage caused by herpes zoster by inhibiting the replication of the virus, reduce the occurrence rate of neuralgia after herpes zoster, or even if herpes zoster occurs, it will not be so painful and the scope of influence will not be so large.
In addition, we can also use some auxiliary methods to treat:
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Oral painkillers: This is divided into steps, simply speaking, the weak is used first, then the strong is used, the more practical is the classic old drug paracetamol, while ibuprofen is ineffective. If it is still not well controlled, it is necessary to take low-efficacy narcotic analgesics (such as tramadol) under the guidance of doctors, and very few patients even need to use high-efficacy central opioid substances.
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External painkillers: such as local anesthesia little prince-lidocaine gel, or capsaicin ointment, etc.
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Illumination: Semiconductor laser, He-Ne laser and other phototherapy.
However, the most significant effect is still antiviral therapy. If there is no antivirus, it is of little significance to use other adjuvant therapies alone.
Moreover, antiviral treatment is best started within 48 hours of rash occurrence. Therefore, it is a pity that the best treatment time is delayed once the elderly listen to rumors such as “it is good to blow the hair dryer”.