Shingles Disease

There is much speculation as to what actually causes the shingles disease.  The one known factor for what causes the shingles disease is if you have already had the chicken pox when you were younger.  The shingles disease is still being studied to see if there are other contributing factors that would cause an outbreak or for someone to get the shingles disease.

Most research that is ongoing continues to support the theory that if you are over 50 and have had chicken pox, then you are at risk of developing the shingles disease.  This is because the shingles disease is really the chicken pox virus that has been dormant in your body.  It is reactivated or flares up as shingles when your immune system is weakened.

When you are older, and as a natural aging process, your immune system weakens.  This can allow the chicken pox virus to reactivate or flare up and travel down the nerves of your body and cause a shingles disease outbreak.

Anyone with a weakened immune system is at risk of developing shingles disease if they have had chicken pox in the past.  They are also at a higher risk of contracting the shingles disease if they come into contact with someone that has an active outbreak of shingles.  The weakened immune systems can be from lymphoma, cancer, HIV/AIDS or any other illnesses that can cause a weakened immune system.

The shingles disease seems to be mostly prevalent in people over 50.  There doesn’t seem to be any support for other causes of the shingles disease.  The most recent data still is pointing to the main factors of getting shingles as being having chicken pox when being younger and being over 50 years of age.