But I thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.
I think that’s true, but I tend to agree with the thrust of the article. I had SARS 27 years ago and nearly died. Among other things afterward I came down with laryngitis for four months the doctors couldn’t explain. Got a poison oak exposure that literally caused an outbreak over most my body. And I got shingles. Had chicken pox when I was little and I think the virus was hiding those many years and got to work when my immune system was taking some time off
“But I thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.”
yep ... that’s EXACTLY why people get shingles: the chicken pox virus goes into hibernation in the nervous system until one of said infected nerves is disturbed or irritated ...
Your right it does.
This isn’t like getting covid creating natural immunity....kind of the opposite actually. Chicken pox leaves the shingles virus dormant in the system.
I got it right before Thanksgiving 2019. Stress can actually bring it on by knocking the immune system out of wack. I think that’s what happened to me. Stressed at work and about to retire at the end of 2019.
You might not think it but preparing to retire is stressful.....was for me anyway.
Didn’t completely shake it until the next February......bad juju.
“thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.”
It does! I’ve had both
“But I thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.”
Here’s my understanding. The virus remains in some nerve cells where it is normally dormant. As we age or experience stress, our immune system fails to counter the virus which it apparently normally does on a daily basis. The virus emerges as patches on the skin. My aunt eventually died because she couldn’t tolerate any of the treatments. Apparently, it was a hard way to go. My father had an outbreak while visiting family in Sweden and suffered horribly. I got special dispensation to get the vaccine because at the time the standard treatment model was to only give the vaccine after a certain age unless you met whatever the criteria were. I told my doctor I didn’t want to risk going through what my father and his sister had suffered and he made it happen for me. I have on occasion, had a horrible itchy sore which my doctor identified as shingles. It’s always in the same spot as it appears in whatever nerve is carrying the virus. It’s just one tiny spot and it hasn’t happened in the last few years. It happened when I was under terrible stress at work.
I plan on asking my doctor if I need a booster as I’m seventy now and I was fifty-something when I got the shot.
Ahhh, that is what Pharma tells you.