“Key points

Shingles is a disease that affects your nerves. It can cause burning, shooting pain, tingling, and/or itching, as well as a rash and blisters.

You may recall having chickenpox as a child. Shingles is caused by the same virus, the varicella-zoster virus (VZV). After you recover from chickenpox, the virus continues to live in some of your nerve cells. It is usually inactive, so you don’t even know it’s there.

In fact, most adults live with VZV in their bodies and never get shingles. But, for about one in three adults, the virus will become active again. Instead of causing another case of chickenpox, it produces shingles. We do not totally understand what makes the virus go from inactive to active.

Having shingles doesn’t mean you have any other underlying disease.

Everyone who has had chickenpox has VZV in their body and is at risk for getting shingles. Right now, there is no way of knowing who will get the disease. But, some things make it more likely:

• Advanced age. The risk of getting shingles increases as you age. People may have a harder time fighting off infections as they get older. About half of all shingles cases are in adults age 60 or older. The chance of getting shingles becomes much greater by age 70.
• Trouble fighting infections. Your immune system is the part of your body that responds to infections. Age can affect your immune system. So can an HIV infection, cancer, cancer treatments, too much sun, or organ transplant drugs. Even stress or a cold can weaken your immune system for a short time. These all can put you at risk for shingles.

Can You Catch Shingles?

Shingles is not contagious. You can’t catch it from someone. But, you can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles. So, if you’ve never had chickenpox, try to stay away from anyone who has shingles or better get vaccinated for chicken pox.

If you have shingles, try to stay away from anyone who has not had chickenpox or who might have a weak immune system.

What Are the Symptoms of Shingles?

Usually, shingles develops only on one side of the body or face and in a small area rather than all over. The most common place for shingles is a band that goes around one side of your waistline or higher.

Week 1 to than days later

Shingles on one side of the face 

How Long Does Shingles Last?

Most cases of shingles last three to five weeks. Shingles follows a pattern:

• The first sign is often burning or tingling pain; sometimes, it includes numbness or itching on one side of the body.
• Somewhere between one and five days after the tingling or burning feeling on the skin, a red rash will appear.
• A few days later, the rash will turn into fluid-filled blisters.
• About a week to 10 days after that, the blisters dry up and crust over.
• A couple of weeks later, the scabs clear up.

Most people get shingles only one time. But, it is possible to have it more than once.

Long-Term Pain and Other Lasting Problems

After the shingles rash goes away, some people may be left with ongoing pain called post-herpetic neuralgia or PHN. The pain is felt in the area where the rash had been. For some people, PHN is the longest lasting and worst part of shingles. The older you are when you get shingles, the greater your chance of developing PHN.

The PHN pain can cause depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and weight loss. Some people with PHN find it hard to go about their daily activities, like dressing, cooking, and eating. Talk with your doctor if you have any of these problems.

There are medicines that may help with PHN. Steroids may lessen the pain and shorten the time you’re sick. Analgesics, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants may also reduce the pain. Usually, PHN will get better over time.

Some people have other problems that last after shingles has cleared up. For example, the blisters caused by shingles can become infected. They may also leave a scar. It is important to keep the area clean and try not to scratch the blisters. Your doctor can prescribe an antibiotic treatment if needed.

See your doctor right away if you notice blisters on your face—this is an urgent problem. Blisters near or in the eye can cause lasting eye damage or blindness. Hearing loss, a brief paralysis of the face, or, very rarely, swelling of the brain (encephalitis) can also occur.

Have a Rash? Go to the Doctor

If you think you might have shingles, talk to your doctor as soon as possible. It’s important to see your doctor no later than three days after the rash starts. The doctor will confirm whether or not you have shingles and can make a treatment plan. If you have a condition that weakens the immune system, the doctor may give you a shingles test. The shingles test can also help doctors diagnose shingles in people who don’t have a rash. Although there is no cure for shingles, early treatment with drugs that fight the virus can help the blisters dry up faster and limit severe pain. Shingles can often be treated at home. People with shingles rarely need to stay in a hospital.

Should You Get the Shingles Vaccine?

The shingles vaccine is safe and easy, and it may keep you from getting shingles and PHN. Healthy adults age 50 and older should get vaccinated with a shingles vaccine called Shingrix, which is given in two doses. Zostavax, a previous shingles vaccine, is no longer available in the United States.

You should try to get the second dose of Shingrix between two and six months after you get the first dose. If your doctor or pharmacist is out of Shingrix, you can use the Vaccine Finder to help find other providers who have Shingrix. You can also contact pharmacies in your area and ask to be put on a waiting list for Shingrix. If it’s been more than six months since you got the first dose, you should get the second dose as soon as possible. You don’t need to get a first dose again.

You should get Shingrix even if you have already had shingles, received Zostavax, or don’t remember having had chickenpox. However, you should not get a vaccine if you have a fever or illness, have a weakened immune system, or have had an allergic reaction to Shingrix. Check with your doctor if you are not sure what to do.

You can get the shingles vaccine at your doctor’s office and at some pharmacies. All Medicare Part D plans and most private health insurance plans will cover the cost.

What Can You Do About Shingles?

If you have shingles, here are some tips that might help you feel better:

• Get plenty of rest and eat well-balanced meals.
• Try simple exercises like stretching or walking. Check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine.
• Apply a cool washcloth to your blisters to ease the pain and help dry the blisters.
• Do things that take your mind off your pain. For example, watch TV, read, talk with friends, listen to relaxing music, or work on a hobby you like.
• Avoid stress. It can make the pain worse.
• Wear loose-fitting, natural-fiber clothing.
• Take an oatmeal bath or use calamine lotion to see if it soothes your skin.
• Share your feelings about your pain with family and friends. Ask for their understanding.

Also, you can limit spreading the virus by:

• Keeping the rash covered
• Not touching or scratching the rash
• Washing your hands often

Most people have some of the following shingles symptoms:

• Burning, tingling, or numbness of the skin
• Feeling sick—chills, fever, upset stomach, or headache
• Fluid-filled blisters
• Skin that is sensitive to touch
• Mild itching to strong pain

Depending on where shingles develops, it could also cause symptoms like hiccups or even loss of vision.

For some people, the symptoms of shingles are mild. They might just have some itching. For others, shingles can cause intense pain that can be felt from the gentlest touch or breeze.

How Long Does Shingles Last?

Most cases of shingles last three to five weeks. Shingles follows a pattern:

• The first sign is often burning or tingling pain; sometimes, it includes numbness or itching on one side of the body.
• Somewhere between one and five days after the tingling or burning feeling on the skin, a red rash will appear.
• A few days later, the rash will turn into fluid-filled blisters.
• About a week to 10 days after that, the blisters dry up and crust over.
• A couple of weeks later, the scabs clear up.

Most people get shingles only one time. But, it is possible to have it more than once.

“Your digestive system is a group of connected organs that work together to turn the food you eat into nutrients your body needs to function. It includes your biliary system—your gallbladder, liver, and pancreas—and your digestive tract.

Digestion is the complicated process of turning the food you eat into nutrients, which your body uses for energy, growth, and cell repair. The digestion process also involves creating waste to be eliminated from your body.

The liver lies under your right ribs just beneath your right lung. It has two lobes (sections).

The liver performs many important functions, such aiding in digestion, blood clotting and breaking down alcohol, drugs, and toxic wastes in the blood, which then pass from the body through urine and stool.

The pancreas sits behind the stomach. Most of the pancreas is made up of exocrine cells which make pancreatic enzymes that help digest foods (especially fats). The rest of the pancreas is made up of endocrine cells which make important hormones like insulin and glucagon (which help control blood sugar levels).

The bile ducts are thin tubes that go from the liver to the small intestine.”

WEB MD (Digestive System (Anatomy): How It Works)

How our stomach including, gallbladder, pancreas and liver work with digestion:

During digestion of a meal, smooth muscles in the walls of the gallbladder contract to push bile into the bile ducts that lead to the duodenum. Once in the duodenum, bile helps with the digestion of fats.  Gallbladder: A pear-shaped reservoir located just under the liver that receives and stores bile made in the liver. The gallbladder sends this stored bile into the small intestine to aid in the digestion of food.

The stomach, gallbladder, and pancreas and liver are four of the most important digestive organs in the human body.

These organs work together to produce and store secretions that digest our food into its most basic building blocks. Once digested, these small molecules pass into our intestines to be absorbed and to feed our body’s tissues. These are major organs that actually produce hormones for food digestion or store the hormones for digestion that help to coordinate their functions and even lead to the feeling of fullness after consuming a meal since it allows the food to get in smaller pieces to moves into the large intestines where the stool forms into a more solid form to evacuate via our rectum to the anus.

The common bile duct is formed by the union of the common hepatic and the cystic ducts. It leads to the duodenum, where a sphincter muscle guards its exit. This sphincter normally remains contracted until the bile is needed, so that bile collects in the common bile duct and backs up to the cystic duct. When this happens, the bile flows into the gallbladder and is stored there.

Yes the gallbladder stores bile produced by the liver so that there is a sufficient supply of bile on hand to digest fats at any given time.  Remember this, that the pancreas stores the pancreatic juice produced by its own exocrine glands so that it is prepared to digest foods at all times but passes the bile to the gallbladder which reaches the small intestines via the common bile duct (between the gallbladder and the duodenum). The small intestine is made up of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. In living humans, the small intestine alone measures about 6 to 7 meters long.   After death, this length can increase by up to half. It has a surface area of over 200 meters.

The pancreas is a large gland that makes digestive juices and hormones, including insulin. The digestive juices flow down a tube (pancreatic duct) into the duodenum. The duodenum is the first part of the small bowel and is joined to the stomach.

Another tube (duct) joins the duodenum. The bile duct comes down from the gallbladder and liver and joins the duodenum right next to the pancreatic duct. The place where the two ducts join and meet the bowel is called the ampulla of Vater.

So there is a relation between digestion in 5 major areas the stomach to the intestines, the gallbladder and the liver and the pancreas. 

How does cancer relate to these  areas?

Well if your diagnosed with intestinal blockage that shows cancer cells you need to know where its located.  If cancer cells where questionable by the doctor in certain tests done in the stomach or small intestines.  You need to find out where the location is and if your told the small intestines find out if the MD questions the cancer cells going to the common bile duct to the gall bladder, liver and if it spread to that could further end up in the pancreas also.  If pancreatic cancer is determined this now means in the 3 parts of the pancreas where did the cancer go exactly in the pancreas. The pancreas has a tail, body and head the head is located to easy access of spreading the cancer in ducts and to the gallbladder which can further have its cancer cells go into the small intestines from the bile duct that is connected to release stored bile when needed for digestion in the small intestines.

“Signals from your peripheral nerves – the nerves located outside of the brain and spinal cord – are responsible for a host of functions, from perceiving sensations to allowing movements and supporting balance. But sometimes these signals get disrupted for various reasons. The result is a condition known as peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by health conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, kidney disease, Lyme disease, shingles, and hepatitis. Other conditions that can cause peripheral neuropathy include having poor blood flow to the legs (often caused by peripheral arterial disease, or PAD), an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism), metabolism problems, nutritional deficiencies, and growths or tumors that press on nerves.”

Harvard Health Publishing (Peripheral neuropathy: Causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention – Harvard Health)

Peripheral Neuropathy Diagnosis:

The symptoms and body parts affected by peripheral neuropathy are so varied that it may be hard to make a diagnosis. If your healthcare provider suspects nerve damage, he or she will take an extensive medical history and do a number of neurological tests to determine the location and extent of your nerve damage. These may include:

• Blood tests
• Spinal fluid tests
• Muscle strength tests
• Tests of the ability to detect vibrations

Depending on what basic tests reveal, your healthcare provider may want to do more in-depth scanning and other tests to get a better look at your nerve damage. Tests may include:

• CT scan
• MRI scan
• Electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies
• Nerve and skin biopsy

Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment:

Usually a peripheral neuropathy can’t be cured, but you can do a lot of things to prevent it from getting worse. If an underlying condition like diabetes is at fault, your healthcare provider will treat that first and then treat the pain and other symptoms of neuropathy.

In some cases, over-the-counter pain relievers can help. Other times, prescription medicines are needed. Some of these medicines include mexiletine, a medicine developed to correct irregular heart rhythms; antiseizure drugs, such as gabapentin, phenytoin, and carbamazepine; and some classes of antidepressants, including tricyclics such as amitriptyline.

Lidocaine injections and patches may help with pain in other instances. And in extreme cases, surgery can be used to destroy nerves or repair injuries that are causing neuropathic pain and symptoms.

Peripheral Neuropathy Prevention:

Lifestyle choices can play a role in preventing peripheral neuropathy. You can lessen your risk for many of these conditions by avoiding alcohol, correcting vitamin deficiencies, eating a healthy diet, losing weight, avoiding toxins, and exercising regularly. If you have kidney disease, diabetes, or other chronic health condition, it is important to work with your healthcare provider to control your condition, which may prevent or delay the onset of peripheral neuropathy

Peripheral Neuropathy Management:

Even if you already have some form of peripheral neuropathy, healthy lifestyle steps can help you feel your best and reduce the pain and symptoms related to the disorder. You’ll also want to quit smoking, not let injuries go untreated, and be meticulous about caring for your feet and treating wounds to avoid complications, such as the loss of a limb.

In some cases, non-prescription hand and foot braces can help you make up for muscle weakness. Orthotics can help you walk better. Relaxation techniques, such as yoga, may help ease emotional as well as physical symptoms.

“Are you like millions of Americans who feel tingling and numbness in your limbs? Does it feel like needles are constantly picking your hands and feet? These might be early warning symptoms of a neuropathy, also referred to as peripheral neuropathy.

While the causes of neuropathy vary, including diabetes, autoimmune diseases or chemical exposure, the symptoms are often similar. Here are 5 the most common symptoms of neuropathy to look for:

1. Persistent Tingling And Numbness

2. Loss of balance and coordination

3. Weak muscles

4. Burning pain

5. Changes in sensation

Recognizing these signs on peripheral neuropathy is the first step towards finding relief. If you are experiencing these signs, there are ways to reduce the nerve damage and regain your comfort.”

NervePainDiscovery .com (Nerve ReGen)

“Viral hepatitis often shows no symptoms, so many won’t know they have it until it’s too late.

Chronic hepatitis B and C are the world’s leading cause of liver cancer. More than 1.3 million people die because of hepatitis B or C each year – that’s the most of any communicable disease.

Each year, there are nearly two million new cases.

But hepatitis is preventable and treatable. We have fast and accurate tests, effective and affordable treatments, and a proven vaccine for hepatitis B. We already have everything we need to eliminate it.

What’s holding us back? Low awareness, misinformation, myths and stigma are stopping people from accessing hepatitis services – and leading to a lack of action by decision makers.”

World Hepatitis Alliance (Home – World Hepatitis Day)

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states the following:

“Viral hepatitis affects nearly 300 million people globally, with approximately 1.3 million deaths each year from hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Despite effective vaccines, evidence-based prevention strategies and medications, deaths from viral hepatitis are increasing globally.

CDC and other organizations around the world recognize WHD by raising awareness about viral hepatitis, the burdens people with hepatitis face, ongoing work to combat viral hepatitis across the globe, and actions people can take to prevent future transmission.

WHD is recognized annually on July 28, the birthday of Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus in 1967. Two years later, he developed the first hepatitis B vaccine. Dr. Blumberg won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976.

CDC provides scientific and public health leadership in the United States and to countries around the world in advancing efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat. CDC helps countries build capacity for viral hepatitis surveillance, testing, care, and treatment and assists with development and implementation of national control and elimination programs.

CDC’s global viral hepatitis work protects the United States. Persons who were not born in the United States account for 3 out of 4 people with hepatitis B virus infections.

CDC’s global viral hepatitis work protects the United States. Persons who were not born in the United States account for 3 out of 4 people with hepatitis B virus infections. Simulation studies suggest that since 2000, progress in expanding global hepatitis B vaccination among all countries with people who immigrate to the United States could prevent almost 900,000 hepatitis B virus infections and over 67,000 hepatitis B-related deaths if global 2030 vaccination targets are achieved and sustained; this would save the United States $8.1 billion in estimated costs by 2070.

CDC’s support to other countries makes America stronger by fortifying international partnerships, advancing innovation, and using lessons from other countries to advance the elimination of hepatitis C in the United States. Notably, global work has provided examples of the usefulness for tests at point-of-care, such as a viral test for hepatitis C diagnosis that can be used to link people to care and curative treatment in real time. Evaluations of use of hepatitis C self-testing (i.e. for antibody to hepatitis C virus) has shown strong usability and acceptance in the country of Georgia providing lessons for potential use in other low- and middle-income countries to identify persons exposed to hepatitis C who do not typically access health care services.

CDC has supported the first national viral hepatitis serosurveys to estimate the burden of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatitis D in Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Malawi, and Botswana, providing data that guide the development of national strategic plans, identify strategic priorities needed to achieve elimination of viral hepatitis, and measure progress toward the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C.”