FWD:RSDHope-Two articles on shingles

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From: byrd45 (Original Message) Sent: 2/21/2006 5:03 PM
5 ) Shingles - Two Articles - I have two short articles on Shingles.

I include them here as we have a lot of people who ask about this very painful condition. Many Doctors feel there is a link between shingles and RSD noting that many patients who experience shingles in their 20's end up getting RSD in their 30's and 40's and/or get shingles after they have had RSD. It isn't surprising since there is a direct correlation between RSD and shingles induced by stress coupled with a weakened immune system.

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Health Tip: Shingles Most Common in Elderly

(HealthDay News) -- Shingles, a painful and often long-lasting condition, is an infection produced by the same virus that causes chicken pox.

According to the U.S. government's National Institute on Aging, shingles travels down long nerve fibers and causes rashes and painful inflammations. Older people with weakened immune systems are most likely to get shingles, with those over 80 often five times more likely to get shingles than those aged 40 and younger.

Shingles can strike any part of the body, but the areas most often affected are the rib cage and the face. About 40 percent of the cases affect the eyes. Because shingles is a viral infection, there is no cure. Treatment includes antiviral medication and in severe cases, numbing patches, tricyclic antidepressants, and anti-seizure medications.

-- Deborah DiSesa Hirsch -
Copyright 2006 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Epidural Won't Lessen Long-Term Shingles Pain

THURSDAY, Jan. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A single epidural injection of steroids and local anesthetics may not ease long-term pain for people with shingles, Dutch researchers report.

Shingles, caused by the chickenpox virus (herpes zoster), occurs as a painful, blistering rash. Chronic pain is a common complication of shingles.

This study included 598 shingles patients who received either standard therapy (oral antiviral's and analgesics) or standard therapy with one additional injection of steroids (methylprednisolone) plus local anesthetics (bupivacaine).

A month after the start of the study, fewer patients in the epidural group were reporting pain. However, the benefit of the epidural was strongest in the first week after treatment and did not last longer than a month, the study found.

"We conclude that one epidural injection of methylprednisolone and bupivacaine, applied in the acute phase of [shingles], has a modest effect in reducing zoster-associated pain for one month," the researchers at University Medical Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands, concluded in this week's issue of The Lancet.

But they added that this treatment doesn't prevent long-term pain. Therefore, "we suggest that an epidural injection of corticosteroid and bupivacaine only be considered for patients with severe acute pain from herpes zoster who are not responding to standard analgesic therapy," the researchers said.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: The Lancet, news release, Jan. 19, 2006