Friday Q&A: How Can Yoga Help with Shingles?

Supported Child's Pose

Q: A friend of mine has just learned that she has shingles (front rib area). I understand that it is quite painful. She does yoga. Please let me know what types of postures would suggest. The only reference that I found in your blog archive was the posting about Baxter’s granny’s arthritic hands, a result of the aftermath of shingles.

A: For those of our readers not familiar with shingles, let’s start with a definition from the Mayo Clinic web site:

“Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the right side of your torso. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. While it isn't a life-threatening condition, shingles can be very painful. Vaccines can help reduce the risk of shingles, while early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and lessen the chance of complications.”

For those desiring more information, see the full article on their website.

Although I have my own ideas about shingles and yoga, I actually was mentioning this question to a yoga colleague of mine, Caryn Dickman, and she shared with me her experiences with using yoga to address shingles in her own life. So I thought I’d let her share her story with you directly:

“I first dealt with shingles when I was 51 years old, 14 years ago. The first sign of shingles is the nerve pain. Mine felt like a knife being stabbed repeatedly into my organs on the left side. It went from the front midline (under the breastbone) to my thoracic spine. The rash broke out a few days later. It felt as if a million mosquitoes bit me at once. 

The nerve pain along with the blistered rash lasted for a long time. It was difficult wearing clothing and it was difficult not wearing clothes as even the air made the pain stronger. The only thing that comes close to describing it would be a very bad sunburn that itched all the time and burned all the time. 

I used my yoga practice as my medicine. I was a newbie to yoga and truthfully didn't have enough experience or knowledge to know exactly what to do. So I practiced everything I knew including taking a workshop that was quite vigorous. My attention to the movement seemed to take my attention away from the persistent nerve pain. As I was aware that my organs only "felt" like a knife was going through them and there was no real knife to worry about, I used this information to calm myself down. I kept repeating, “there are no real knives” and so on some level this pain isn't quite "real." I was then able to use the breath practice to calm myself enough to feel relief while practicing.

In the years since, I have repeatedly had the nerve pain and sometimes the outbreaks return. With more knowledge and experience I realize the nerve pain comes up when my immune system is compromised. Of course, stress plays a tremendous role, too. So now when it comes up (and it has come up this week), I find myself returning to my mat a lot. However, now I am aware that poses that are more restorative and can aid in boosting my immune system are of greater importance than anything else I can do for myself. So Legs up the Wall (Viparita Karani), Queen’s pose (Supta Baddha Konasana), and Supported Child’s pose (Balasana) are the staples of my practice while I'm having flare-ups. 

Legs Up the Wall Pose

Queen's Pose/Reclined Cobbler's Pose

Supported Child's Pose

I also still use the breath practice, breathing into the pain to help alleviate the gripping force when it gets very intense. It takes persistence and faith that I can turn myself over to my practice. It may take a bit before I feel the relaxation effect kick in, but it is there if I just wait for it.” 

I asked Caryn if she had noted anything that aggravates her symptoms when she is in a flare, and she mentioned that nowadays she has to avoid vigorous practices when the symptoms return, especially if they heat her body up. That tends to make her symptoms worse. 

Thanks so much for your help, Caryn!

Note from Nina: By chance, the three poses that Caryn mention make up our Mini Restorative sequence. See Featured Sequence: Mini Restorative Practice for instructions. See Reclined Cobbler's Pose: The Video! for a video of Baxter teaching this invaluable pose. 

—Baxter

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