Dealing With Shingles in Lewes & Newark, DE
If you’ve had chickenpox at any point in your life, you are now at risk for dealing with shingles. Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and can occur anywhere on the body. It often looks like a stripe of blisters and can be reactivated many years after having the chickenpox. While shingles isn’t life-threatening, it can be painful and difficult to deal with. There are ways to lower your risk of shingles and lessen the chance of complications with shingles.
Dealing with Shingles
Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once you’ve had chickenpox, that virus stays in your system for years and stays inactive. It can be reactivated years later for no real known reason. It’s thought that it could be due to a weakened immune system as you get older, but there isn’t a known reason for how or why shingles gets activated.
There isn’t a cure for shingles, but there are ways to treat shingles and lower any risk you may have for complications. There are antiviral drugs like acyclovir, famciclovir, or valacyclovir that can help speed up the healing process if you start treatment early enough. It’s important to try and relieve pain by taking a cool bath to relieve itching or pain and try to lower how much you deal with in your life.
It's important to try and prevent shingles by getting a shingles vaccine. This vaccine is recommended for adults over 50 and doesn’t guarantee that you won’t get shingles but helps decrease your chance. It can also help reduce the severity of shingles and make it easier to treat.
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