What dietary taboos should you pay attention to when you have shingles?

Let’s talk about the conclusion first. There are not so many mysterious dietary taboos about herpes zoster as everyone spreads. Don’t be so blind that you won’t be able to keep up with nutrition and will slow down your recovery. The only thing you really need to avoid completely is alcohol. Everything else can be adjusted according to your own physical condition.

Last week, I met a 32-year-old programmer in the clinic. He had a ring of shingles on his waist. His mother told him not to touch any hairy things. He ate white porridge and stir-fried cabbage for ten consecutive days. When he came for a follow-up checkup, most of the blisters were gone, but the neuralgia was not relieved at all. The blood albumin was a little lower than the normal value. To put it bluntly, the nutrition was not keeping up, and the nerve repair lacked "raw materials", so the recovery was slow.

Many people always think that they should avoid this and that when they have a rash. In fact, the so-called "hair thing" is more of a general summary when the mechanism of food allergy was not understood in the early years. When it comes to the disease of shingles, it is caused by the activation of the chickenpox-herpes zoster virus, which is completely different from allergies. As long as you normally Eating eggs, milk, seafood, beef and mutton from time to time is not allergic and can be eaten normally. These high-quality proteins can actually help you improve your immunity, whether it is repairing skin lesions or relieving neuralgia. This is especially true for the elderly with underlying diseases and poor immunity, not to mention blindly eating foods that will drag down the body.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to pay attention to anything. Nowadays, many traditional Chinese medicine doctors recommend that you eat less warm and tonic foods during the acute phase, such as durian, lychee, butter hot pot, and braised mutton, which are particularly thick and warm. This is actually not wrong. If you are susceptible to If you have a body that is prone to internal heat, you will develop oral ulcers after eating two mouthfuls of lychees. However, eating these in the acute stage may indeed aggravate the redness, swelling, and burning sensation in the skin lesions. It is okay to wait for a week or two until the blisters have completely scabbed before eating. I don’t need to say hard to say that it has no impact at all. After all, everyone’s physical constitution is quite different.

Oh, by the way, we also recommend that you tolerate extremely spicy food for the time being. Last month, an aunt came for a review. She was almost recovered. She was greedy and ate chopped pepper fish head. That night, the affected area started to hurt. The red marks that had disappeared swelled up again. It took three or four days to get better. It's not that the spicy thing is "hairy", it's mainly that capsaicin can stimulate nerves, and herpes zoster itself can damage nerves and cause pain. Eating spicy food is like adding fire to the already "injured" nerves, which will naturally aggravate the discomfort.

As for alcohol, you really shouldn’t touch it at all. On the one hand, our commonly used antiviral drugs such as acyclovir and valacyclovir are metabolized by the liver and kidneys. Drinking alcohol will increase the burden on the liver and kidneys. On the other hand, alcohol will dilate blood vessels and aggravate the redness, swelling and pain of skin lesions. There is really no need to suffer more for a sip of wine.

In fact, to put it bluntly, you really don’t have to put so many dietary restrictions on yourself after getting herpes zoster. What’s more important than dietary restrictions is to take antiviral medicine within 72 hours of the onset of the disease, don’t pick at blisters to avoid infection, stay up less late and get more rest. In terms of diet, you just need to avoid alcohol, eat less spicy and oily foods, and eat normally if you don’t feel uncomfortable. The recovery speed is much faster than drinking plain porridge.