The initial symptoms such as itching, fever, chills, headache, rash, lesions and blisters caused by shingles outbreak often go away after a week or fortnight through antiviral pharmaceutical drugs.

.

Unfortunately their disappearance is only a beginning of a journey in a new kind of misery and discomfort for the patients. The name of this malady is post herpetic neuralgia- a very painful condition.

The patient experiences excruciating pain that usually exacerbates at night. It is not that you only keep tossing in the bed from side to side. You have to sit up and lie down, sit up and lie down. The only relief you can get is from painkillers. The fear of their side effects also keeps haunting you.

But there are natural home remedies that surely provide relief from shingles pain. But let us remember they cannot provide instant relief like painkillers.

While you may have to pop up painkillers quite frequently to keep your pain at bay, you should aim at getting lasting relief by strengthening your immune system through the use of nutritious, natural products combined with physical exercises and healthy lifestyle.

We have often heard that our food can be a powerful medicine provided we have patience and faith in its effectiveness.

Here are just two of the several natural products whose effectiveness matches out the staple, off-the-cuff prescribed antiviral medication with its painful side effect.

1. Papaya and pineapple

Papaya and pineapple are delicious fruits. They are rich in proteolytic enzymes, generated by our pancreas. They assist us in digesting proteins. Although their supplements such as papain (from papaya) and bromelain (from pineapple) are easily available from health stores, but nothing beats the powerful benefits of organic, raw and fresh fruits.

A study conducted over 96 patients in Germany confirmed that proteolytic enzymes taken for two weeks produce the same pain relief as provided by acyclovir minus its side effects and heavy expenses.

2. Capsicum

A rather awesome word for the ubiquitous chili pepper that spices out food and also burns our mouth if taken raw!

An important ingredient of capsicum is capsaicin, which is considered very useful for treating varicella zoster virus that causes severely painful postherpetic neuralgia.

Since it is rather difficult to consume raw stinging capsicum daily, you can use a cream that contains capsaicin as its basic ingredient.

It has been found through various studies that capsaicin cream dissipates P, a neurochemical that causes pain and provides the much needed relief from it.

Capsaicin cream is easily available from drug or health stores. Like its parent seed capsicum, capsaicin cream may also cause burning sensation on the affected skin, but it provides relief from shingles pain as well.

Caution: Wear gloves while applying capsaicin cream.

There are several other natural and easy home remedies that not only provide immense relief from shingles pain, but also strengthen the immune system. Search and you will find them.