Shingles Information Resource Centre!
Shingles, commonly known as the herpes zoster virus is a late manifestation of the chicken pox virus known as varicella zoster. Although shingles affects millions of adults by the time they reach 80, it is not uncommon for younger people to develop the virus.
When the virus activates it travels along nerve fibers, usually breaking out on one side of the body into small blisters called vesicles. Within a few days the blisters rupture forming scabs. Shingles is associated with severe pain, itching, redness, numbness, and the development of a rash.
Shingles can affect the eyes. This is due to the fact that the eyes are connected to nerves that may be infected with the virus. Early diagnosis and treatment is important to minimize the symptoms and reduce the risk of complications that may compromise vision.
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Herpes zoster, colloquially known as shingles, is the reactivation of varicella zoster virus, leading to a crop of painful blisters over the area of a dermatome. It occurs very rarely in children and adults, but its incidence is high in the elderly (over 60), as well as in any age group of immunocompromised patients. It strikes 500,000 people per year in the United States. Treatment doctors recommend is generally with acyclovir. But this has its side effects and many people tend to develop immunity to acyclovir after some uses. Many develop a painful condition termed postherpetic neuralgia.
Signs and symptoms of SHINGLES
Often, the pain is the first symptom. This pain can be characterized as stinging, tingling, numbing, or throbbing, and can be pronounced with quick stabs of intensity. Then 2-3 crops of red lesions develop, which gradually turn into small blisters filled with serous fluid. A general feeling of unwellness often occurs.
As long as the blisters have not dried out, HZ patients may transmit the virus to others. This could lead to chickenpox in people (mainly young children) who are not yet immune to this virus.
Shingles blisters are unusual in that they only appear on one side of the body. That is because the chickenpox virus can remain dormant for decades, and does so inside the spinal column or a nerve fiber. If it reactivates as shingles, it affects only a single nerve fiber, or ganglion, which can radiate to only one side of the body. The blisters therefore only affect one area of the body and do not cross the midline. They are most common on the torso, but can also appear on the face (where they are potentially hazardous to vision) or other parts of the body. The causative agent for herpes zoster is varicella zoster virus (VZV). Most people are infected with this virus as a child, as it causes chickenpox. The body eliminates the virus from the system, but it remains dormant in the ganglia adjacent to the spinal cord or the ganglion semilunare (ganglion Gasseri) in the cranial base.
Generally, the immune system suppresses reactivation of the virus. In the elderly, whose immune response generally tends to deteriorate, as well as in those patients whose immune system is being suppressed, this process fails.
It is therefore most important to boost your immune system.
The virus starts replicating in the nerve cells, and newly formed viruses are carried down the axons to the area of skin served by that ganglion (a dermatome). Here, the virus causes local inflammation in the skin, with the formation of blisters.
The pain characteristic of herpes zoster is thought to be due to irritation of the sensory nerve fibers in which the virus reproduces.
Shingles Therapy
Aciclovir (an antiviral drug) inhibits replication of the viral DNA, and is used both as prophylaxis (e.g. in patients with AIDS) and as therapy for herpes zoster. Other antivirals are valaciclovir and famciclovir. Steroids are often given in severe cases.
The long term complication postherpetic neuralgia may cause persistent pain that lasts for years. Pain management is difficult as conventional analgesics may be ineffective. Alternative agents are often used, including tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and/or topical agents.
Often the same treatment given to burn victims relieves the pain of shingles. [1] One example is Vitacel GH7 - a herbal supplement.
Herbal and body-friendly Shingles attack solutions
Work with your body, instead of polluting it with "medications" and their many residual side effects. In addition to boosting your immune through the right diet (check out dr. mercola's site: www.mercola.com), no smoking and (if possible and you're not addicted) then no coffee nor black tee. Boost your immune with examples as you'll find in our Boosting immune system page.
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Shingles Prognosis
The rash and pain usually subside within 3 to 5 weeks. Sometimes serious effects including partial facial paralysis (usually temporary), ear damage, or encephalitis may occur. Shingles on the upper half of the face (the first branch of the trigeminal nerve) may result in eye damage and require urgent ophthalmological assessment.
Since shingles is a reactivation of a virus contracted previously—often decades earlier—it cannot be induced by exposure to another person with shingles or chickenpox. However, those with active blisters can spread chickenpox to others who have never had that condition or who have not been vaccinated against it.
Thanks & Ref:
wikipedia.org , niaid.nih.gov, emedicinehealth.com, NHS gov UK
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