Shingles May Cause Stroke
Posted by Admin | Posted in Shingles | Posted on 11-12-2009
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The chances of a stroke are increased by the presence of shingles. A study has shown that shingles affect the eyes and that can be dangerous.
The study is the first of its kind to display the fact that the risk of a stroke is connected to the presences of shingles in the body but this study is one of its kinds as it goes an extra mile and calculates the risk factors associated with it.
If you compare adults without shingles and those that have the dreadful skin soreness and rashes were 30% and the chances of them suffering a stroke within a year is greater. The presence of shingles in and around the eyes of a patient has greater risk (four times) of suffering a stroke than others.
According to the eminent researcher Jiunn -Horng Kang, MD, MSc, the patients who already have chances of suffering a strike should be very careful as the presences of shingles in the body magnify the chances further.
Causes
Shingles is also known as herpes zoster. It is caused by a virus named varicella-zoster virus (VZV). This virus also causes chicken pox in people. People generally have chicken pox during their childhood and they can develop shingles at any point in time.
In many cases the virus may be passive in the network of nerves. But in the cases of elder people and especially those people that have a weak immune system can be affected as it can be reactivated as shingles.
The rekindled virus may initially cause a feeling of numbness, irritation, twitching, fever, nasty headaches and cold. It may then be followed by painful and dreadful rashes that are a distinguished quality of shingles. The rashes on the skin surface within a span of three to five days after the symptoms occur.
The existence of shingles can result in enduring pain for months or even years after the rash disappears.
The recent study that has been published states that 8,000 subjects were cured for the disease of shingles between 1997 and 2001 and around 23, 500 patients had no record of shingles prior to 2001. In the year 133 patients suffering from shingles (1.7%) and 306 patients in the group had 1.3% had suffered from strokes.
The patients suffering from shingles had larger risks of suffering from strokes and at least threefold chances of suffering from hemorrhagic stroke.
The bleeding of the brain causes hemorrhagic strokes. These strokes are rarer than ischemic strokes that are caused by obstructed arteries. About 10-15% of the strokes that are caused by strokes involve bleeding of the brain.
The patients that have shingles especially around the eyes have 4.28 % chances of suffering a stroke if compared to people that do not have shingles. This study was published in the American journal Stroke.
The Role Of Anxiety And Soreness
The damage of the blood vessel has been linked to Varicella zoster virus has been connected to the occurrence of stroke after the surfacing of shingles. However this does not really explain the reason of high strokes in the study conducted by Kang and his colleagues.