Diet taboos for herpes zoster

Currently, there are only three types of clinically recognized dietary taboos during a herpes zoster outbreak - all alcoholic drinks, spicy foods that can aggravate the inflammatory response, and highly processed foods that are high in sugar and oil. There is no unified evidence-based basis for the various "fat food" taboos spread on the Internet, and there is no need to blindly follow them all. As long as you are not allergic, you can eat them normally.

I just met a 62-year-old aunt in the clinic last week. She had shingles on her left waist for almost 10 days. When she came in, her face was sallow and she said the pain kept her awake all night. When asked about her diet, she drank white porridge and boiled vegetables every day. She didn't even dare to touch eggs. She said that neighbors in the community said it was a "snake wrapped around the waist". Eating hairy things would make the rash grow longer and more, and it would kill her if it wrapped around her waist. It made me angry and funny. My immunity is weak as I get older. I don’t eat this or that, and my nutrition cannot keep up. The virus is cleared slowly, and of course my neuralgia cannot be cured.

Let’s first talk about why we should stay away from alcohol, spicy food, high sugar and oil content? In fact, the reason is very simple. The essence of shingles is the chickenpox-zoster virus lurking in your ganglia. It comes out to act when your immunity is low. The entire attack period is accompanied by varying degrees of nerve and skin inflammation. Alcohol and irritating ingredients such as chili pepper and Sichuan pepper will directly dilate blood vessels and increase the excitability of nerves. You can still tolerate the pain, but after a spicy hot pot meal, the inflammatory factors will run faster and the nerve pain will double. You are completely asking for trouble. Foods high in sugar and oil, such as milk tea, fried chicken, and cream cakes, will increase the level of inflammation in the body. The course of the disease, which should be cured in two weeks, may be delayed to three or four weeks, and the probability of residual neuralgia will even increase. The gain is completely outweighed by the loss.

As for the problem of "hair growth" that everyone has been struggling with for decades, in fact, there is no unified conclusion in the industry. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, it is indeed recommended to avoid warm foods such as mutton, lychee, and mango during the outbreak period to avoid aggravating the damp-heat evil in the body and prolonging the rash.； However, a large amount of clinical data from modern dermatology shows that as long as you are not allergic or itchy when eating these ingredients, you can eat them normally - after all, beef, fish, shrimp, and eggs are all high-quality proteins. Only when you eat enough can you provide energy to your immune system and clear the virus out faster. I met a 28-year-old programmer two months ago. After he got herpes zoster, he ate steamed shrimps and boiled beef, plus two eggs every day. He didn’t eat anything except drinking alcohol and eating spicy food. The scabs were all gone in 10 days, and he didn’t even have any nerve pain. He was much better than many patients who drank porridge every day.

Of course, there are exceptions. If you are allergic, or if you feel the rash becomes itchy and the pain worsens after eating something during the attack, then stop for a while regardless of whether it is a "hairy thing" in someone else's mouth. Everyone's body is different, so there is no need to copy other people's experiences.

There is another little trick that many people don’t know, that is, don’t take ginseng, velvet antler, red ginseng, and astragalus in boiled water when you feel weak. Last year, I met a young man. His family was afraid that he would get sick, so they gave him ginseng tea every day. As a result, the rash that was almost gone soon turned red again the next day, and he grinned in pain. Warm and dry supplements will aggravate the inflammatory reaction. If you really feel weak, it is not too late to slowly adjust it after the rash is gone.

To be honest, the dietary taboos for herpes zoster are really not as evil as everyone spreads. The core principles are two: don’t add fuel to the inflammation, and don’t let yourself lack nutrition. You don’t have to eat porridge every day, and you don’t dare to eat anything when you see it. If you are really unsure, try taking a few bites at a time. If you don’t feel any discomfort, just eat normally. After all, building up your immunity is the best way to deal with this problem.