What causes shingles?

What causes shingles has been studied and researched for some time now and the results of these studies are easily available today.

Shingles virus is responsible for causing the disease. The virus is called the herpes varicella-zoster and is a part of the herpes virus family. This group of viruses consists of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) that are responsible for developing cold sores, fever blisters, and genital herpes, and also the Epstein-Barr virus that causes infectious mononucleosis.

What causes shingles also causes chickenpox. Herpes Zoster is responsible for the condition of the chickenpox. In case of shingles, however it is more of the case of reinfection than first appearance as in chickenpox. People who have suffered from chickenpox earlier in life are the risk-group for developing the disorder. Shingles causes for the virus to reactivate. First, right after you had chickenpox, Zoster lays inactive deep in your nerve roots. After some time it may boost back up again. This reactivation of the virus is what causes shingles.
The typical duration of the shingles episode is 2 to 4 weeks. First, a tingling sensation in the affected area is experienced, than pain and finally the rash.
Any part of the body, such as arms, legs, face and eyes may be affected, but chest and abdomen are the most common ones. There are a number of symptoms that are common for shingles. The most disturbing one is excruciating pain. Some experience a dull continuous pain; others describe it as burning sensation. Stabbing pains are also possible.
The symptom that is usually the second one to appear is the rash. It happens about two to three days after the pain occurs. The rash spreads on one side of the body and then settles on the area of the affected nerve. Typically the rash first appears in a shape of red blotches and then quickly evolves into itchy blisters. They look a lot like the chickenpox blisters. Typically they bloom for about a week, and then turn yellowish and dry out. In some cases, scarring of the skin has been documented.
Sometimes post herpetic neuralgia has been experienced by those suffering from shingles. Neuralgia is the severe nerve pain. In some cases, when the nerves were damaged, the pain lingered for a very long time for months or even years after other symptoms have disappeared.
There are also additional symptoms that are usually not as severe as the ones described above. They are: confusion, fatigue, fever, headache, memory loss, upset stomach, and abdominal pain.
There are several effective treatments that help to fight with the causes of shingles. They include painkillers, such as ibuprofen to relief the pain. If severe pain emerges antidepressants may be prescribed. The ones that are most commonly used are amitriptyline, imipramine, and nortriptyline.
If the patient suffers from seizures, anticonvulsants are used. However, these drugs can also be used to treat and control nerve pain.
Antivirals can help to stop the virus from reproducing, they, however, do not kill the virus completely. Antivirals can relieve the symptoms, especially if taken early, within 72 hours of the appearance of first rash.

What is shingles?

What is shingles is a question that people suffering from this condition seek the answer to. In answering this question it is essential to first understand what does shingles look like and how do you get shingles.

What is shingles? Shingles is a painful rash that usually needs several weeks to go away and usually appears on one side of the body or face.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox virus. What are shingles can be explained by looking into how the virus activates. Once someone has had the chickenpox virus and has recovered from it, the virus remains in the body, but it stays inactive. Years later, in some people, the virus may reactive, but this time the person will not get chickenpox but will get shingles instead. Shingles virus spreads along the nerve it affects and causes skin rash in the same area along with the pain.

If it impossible to catch shingles from an infected person, you can only get shingles if you had the chickenpox virus before. However, it is possible to catch chickenpox either from contact with a chickenpox infected person or shingles infected one, if you haven’t had chickenpox before.

What is shingles is a tricky question. It is not yet completely understood what causes the reactivation of the chickenpox virus, therefore the cause of shingles is not yet clear. There are reasons to believe, nonetheless, that immune deficiency, caused by such illnesses as cold, for example, may trigger for the virus to activate.

People who have cancer or those whose immune system is weak in general are also a high risk group for developing shingles. Opposed to people whose immune system is healthy, people who have AIDS and have taken immune suppressive medication or have received radiation treatment of chemotherapy for treating cancer are more likely to be diagnosed with shingles as well.

It is more common for people over 50 to develop shingles, although in some rare cases it is possible for younger people to get it too. This can be explained by looking into the lifestyle of an older person. Some things may change as we age that may contribute to the weakening of the immune system.

What do shingles look like? Shingles is a rash that first begins with red bumps that later on become fluid-filled blisters. After some time these blisters become cloudy, pop open and crust over.

However, the rash is not the only symptom. Prior to rash, such a symptom as pain occurs. Pain can be burning or tingling and typically is severe. In about 2 to 3 days after the appearance of the pain rash occurs.

It takes about five days for the rash blisters to complete the cycle of appearing, blooming, and crusting over. It may take for the skin up to 5 weeks to completely heal and come back to normal.

Treatment of shingles requires antiviral medication. Such remedies as lotions, pain killers for relieving the pain, corticosteroids, and antibiotics for treating the infection that may occur if the blisters get bacteria are used.

There is a way to prevent shingles. A vaccine named Zostavax has been developed in order to do so. This vaccine, however, does not guarantee that you will not develop shingles it certainly reduces the odds.