9 Treating shingles and oral and genital herpes

Shingles

Shingles is an infection of a dermatomal or cranial nerve by the herpes zoster virus. The herpes virus establishes a latent infection in the nerve that lasts for the life of the host and may become active at times of stress or immune system compromise (Steiner 2007). The pain usually begins during the viral prodrome and can last up to 3 weeks before red raised lesions and blisters break out along the course of the nerve. Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) is part of the same family of viruses and causes “cold sores” or lesions around the mouth. Herpes simplex virus (HSV2) lies dormant in the genitals and causes recurrent outbreaks of lesions in the genital or anal area. All are related to the varicella or chickenpox virus and the Epstein–Barr virus is included in this class of viruses (Liu 2006).

Herpes zoster, or shingles, is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV) and may be found in individuals of any age. It is more common in immunocompromised HIV-AIDS patients and bone marrow transplant recipients and in the elderly who have an 8–10-fold increase of incidence compared to those under age 60, presumably due to reduction of T-cell mediated immunity seen with aging. Diabetes mellitus, surgery, spinal anesthesia, malignancies, and conditions associated with immune suppression such as steroid therapy, and immune-suppressive agents serve as predisposing factors and triggers for the appearance of VZV or shingles (Steiner 2007).

One frequency has been found to treat shingles and both oral and genital herpes. The frequencies, 230Hz on channel A and 430Hz on channel B, were discovered among Dr. Van Gelder’s papers with the general description of being useful for viruses. When a patient came in with oral herpes in 1997 requesting treatment the frequency was used to determine if it would reduce the pain or change the normal course of the infection. The patient’s pain was gone within 20 minutes although the treatment continued for an hour. The pain never returned and the blisters were gone the next day. The following week another patient presented with oral herpes and had the same response but it took two treatments in two days to achieve a permanent result. In subsequent years numerous patients with genital herpes and oral herpes have both responded in exactly the same fashion. Neither frequency by itself creates this effect; both frequencies must be used as a combination delivered simultaneously.

The following month a patient presented with symptoms of nerve pain but no mechanism of injury that would create nerve pain. He stated that he woke up in pain and had no idea what he had done to cause it. When the protocols for inflammation in the nerve did not reduce the patient’s nerve pain, the frequency that had reduced the oral herpes virus was used on the chance that the frequency might be useful for the herpes virus in general and that the real cause of the pain might be shingles. The nerve pain started dropping immediately, was eliminated in 15 minutes, and the patient was treated for 60 minutes because he was sleeping and seemed too peaceful to be disturbed. He called the next day saying that the pain stayed down for about 8 hours and gradually returned but at a lesser level. He requested another treatment. He had the same response. The pain was eliminated in 15 minutes, the patient fell asleep and he was treated for an hour. He called the next day saying that the pain had been quiet over night and had come back at a much reduced level and asked if he could be treated again. He was treated for an hour on the third day. The mild pain was eliminated in 5 minutes; the patient fell asleep for an hour while being treated. And this time the pain did not return.

The next time a patient came in with dermatomal nerve pain and had no history of injury or activity that would explain nerve pain the shingles/herpes frequency was used and the exact same response occurred. The pain was eliminated in 15 minutes. The patient was treated for an hour because he slept for an hour. The pain relief lasted about 6 hours after the first treatment, overnight at the second treatment, and became permanent after the third treatment. The pain returned at a much reduced level each time it was treated. One hour of treatment three days in a row prevented the blisters from breaking out and aborted the attack of what was presumed to be shingles in the prodrome.

If the vesicles of shingles have already appeared as either a rash or as blisters along the course of the nerve root the same frequency, 230 / 430, and treatment protocol are effective but the effect is not as dramatic. The pain is eliminated within 30 minutes and 3 hours of treatment within 3 days dries up the blisters, reduces the pain when it reoccurs and shortens the course from approximately 4 weeks to 3–5 days. The protocol has been modified by some practitioners to treat with 230 / 430 for 2 hours on one day only and the results have been similar. Pain is eliminated; blisters dry up and rash disappears in 3–5 days. No cases of post-herpetic neuralgia have been reported following treatment with FSM for shingles. Some practitioners have used this frequency to treat the aching and fatigue caused by recurrent episodes of Epstein–Barr virus.

This frequency combination is and has been so effective that it has been used to make a tentative diagnosis. The frequencies for reducing inflammation in the nerve (40 / 396) that are effective in dermatomal nerve pain will not reduce nerve pain caused by the herpes virus and may actually increase herpes generated pain. If this frequency, 230 / 430, takes away dermatomal nerve pain, or burning pain at the mouth or genitals then it is almost certain that the pain is being caused by one of the family of herpes viruses. There are hundreds of case reports describing positive effects from FSM practitioners around the US, the UK and Australia. The patients are always blinded to the frequency being used. No other frequency combination has been found that creates this effect. No patients with symptoms related to this virus have been found who do not respond to it. Controlled trials have been designed but none have been funded or carried out.

The immediate pain reduction and lasting pain relief suggest that something is happening to interfere with either viral structure or replication. The mechanism for this effect is unknown. Several mechanisms have been proposed but none have been tested. The herpes family of DNA viruses has a double stranded DNA molecule located within an icosapentahedral capsid surrounded by an amorphous protein material which is in turn encapsulated by an envelope that consists of polyamines, lipids and glycoproteins. The glycoproteins give the virus its distinctive properties and provide the antigens to which the host immune system can respond (Steiner 2007).

It is possible that some part of the viral capsid, the crystalline structure of the viral polymerases or the glycoprotein envelope, resonates at the frequencies created by 230Hz and 430Hz in an interferential field and is disrupted by the resonance. The frequencies found in the interferential field created by 230Hz and 430Hz would include coherent frequencies of 230Hz, 430Hz, 660Hz, and 200Hz. Any or all of these frequencies may participate in the observed clinical effect. When the frequency combination encounters the viral structure it is possible that it resonates with either the capsid membrane or glycoproteins in such a way as to dismantle it or change its structure in such a way that it cannot maintain its relationship with the nerve. It is also possible that the frequency resonates with the nerve in such a way that it makes viral attachment impossible, releases the virus into the circulation and makes it available to be dismantled by the immune system. This mechanism seems less likely because of the speed of pain relief and the length of pain reduction but it is possible.

Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is more difficult to treat and does not respond to the protocols for shingles. The virus is gone within weeks of the active infection and the neuralgia may be caused by viral damage to the nerve. The treatment for PHN is focused on inflammation, calcium influx into the nerve and scar tissue between the nerve and the surrounding fascia, and reduction of central amplification created by deafferentation of the peripheral nerve. Thoracic nerve roots have sympathetic involvement which complicates PHN symptoms and treatment. The protocols for neuropathic pain discussed in Chapter 3 may be useful in PHN but it can be challenging to treat.

Shingles diagnosis

Shingles should be suspected when the history includes moderate dermatomal pain in any nerve root or pain in the head and scalp with no mechanism of injury that would account for it. Patients may rationalize the cause of the pain as being from some unusual activity such as working in the garden or carrying and lifting suitcases or “turning the wrong way”. However, the pain is generally more severe than would be reasonable for any injury that would have been caused by some trivial activity.

For example a recreational weight-lifter thought he had a severely painful shoulder injury from lifting 40-pound suitcases because he woke up in pain after flying to his vacation destination and carrying the suitcases in the airport. It is not reasonable for someone who can repeatedly lift 180 pounds over his head to have level 7/10 pain created by lifting a 40-pound suitcase twice in one day. In this example, a sensory examination with a pin wheel revealed nerve hyperesthesia in the C4 and C5 dermatomes located on the shoulder. A simple sensory examination for sharp performed with a pin, a pinwheel or a sharp object like a paper clip will show the nerve to be irritated, hypersensitive and painful. If the history does not include a mechanism of injury for the disc or a traction injury that seems reasonable, then a treatment trial of 15 minutes with 230 / 430 can be used to confirm the suspicion. The treatment has been found to be effective enough that it may be used for differential diagnosis. If 230 / 430, the frequency for shingles and herpes virus, takes the pain away then the pain is caused by shingles until proven otherwise. The frequency is not useful for any other condition.

The majority of shingles cases in the elderly occur in thoracic nerve roots although any dorsal root ganglion may be involved (Bradley 2000). Thoracic nerve pain may present as abdominal pain or chest pain and may be mistaken for pain of visceral origin. A sensory examination for skin hyperesthesia, the first sign of nerve irritability, is a simple way to determine neural involvement and may avoid expensive and invasive diagnostic testing aimed at discovering a visceral cause for the pain.

Patients who have a history of oral or genital herpes are usually aware of the sensations experienced in the prodrome. These are usually described as burning or itching and there will be some local redness and swelling in the skin over the impending vesicle. If the diagnosis is uncertain, it may be prudent to wait for the lesion to erupt and culture it to determine if it is bacterial or viral or a 30-minute treatment trial with 230 / 430 can be done. After 10 years experience using this frequency in hundreds of clinical settings in several countries, it has been said that if the lesion is caused by the herpes virus treatment with 230 / 430 will change the pain and the course. If the frequency doesn’t relieve the pain then a culture or reassessment is required to determine the source of the lesion.