Herpes Zoster - I am looking for an effective medication to relieve pain of shingles?

it either stops and clears within 24 hours or reduces the outbreak from minimal to nothing within the next few days. but i have always taken the lysine 4 x a day no matter what to make sure the lysine level is high enough to keep the shingles at bay, and you should reduce the stress level you may have which also helps. now that i am retired (a tax accountant) my stress is only that at home with an ageing family member and i still can get an outbreak, i never go anywhere for more than a day without extra lysine in the purse for this just in case moments. make sure if you feel outbreak coming, you up the dose and take 2 pills of 500mg 4 x a day for 2 days then go back to the 1 pill 4x a day and ice the infected area at least 2 x a day 3 is sometimes better. my doctor loves this program and recommends to others but of course they all want to give you pain meds or shingles relief pills, none have ever worked on me. this is the only regimen that i have found to either control it, slow it down and or get over it quickly with minimal discomfort . and L-Lysine is cheap and you probably have ice cubes in the freezer. its what i call alternative medicine. by the way, my shingles after all these years only outbreak now around or in the nose and near the lips center up or down no longer ear to ear and up into the sinus cavity. instead of 4 or more outbreaks a year its down to maybe 2. hope this is as helpful as it is easy and not costly.