One of the more painful diseases that a person can encounter in their life is the shingles disease. This painful and irritating disease can cause severe itching and pain. So, what causes shingles?
Shingles is a dormant virus that is usually left over from childhood. The herpes zoster virus causes the chicken pox when people are children, however after that it can lay dormant for years in someone. When encountering a high level of stress or if there are immunological compromises, the virus can reactivate as shingles.
The shingles virus is an inflammation of the nerve’s in ones body. This causes extreme pain and itching along the nerve endings, which usually affects the arms, legs or torso. Shingles are also contagious as well, which during certain flareup times someone would want to stay away from people that have not had the chicken pox or anyone else that could be affected.
There are several different treatments for shingles also. Ranging from shots to creams and other medicines, shingles can be treated, however there is no absolute cure as of yet.
