Shingles is actually a residual from having had chicken pox in your childhood. The virus that causes chicken pox lays dormant inside your body and waits until a time when your immune system is not as strong as it had been. You will then get shingles. Not everybody who has had chicken pox gets shingles, but a fair percentage does. Shingles is a virus and so the treatment we do is to decrease the symptoms you have to make you feel more comfortable, to help you get through the period of being sick. Better is to prevent the shingles. There is a vaccine you can get through your local provider that will decrease the severity of shingles if you do get it and will decrease the likelihood that you’re going to get something called post herpetic neuralgia, which is the long-term pain that you can have months to years after the shingles episode has actually resolved and gone away.
