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You’ll
probably find it ugly and irritating but it’s most often considered harmless
and disappears quickly, never to return.
Not
so fast though!
Shingles Links to
Increased Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
Because
a new study reveals how this small skin issue drastically raises your risk of heart attack and stroke
as well as other cardiovascular diseases.
Ironically,
it may be more serious, the better your apparent cardiovascular health is.
Korean
scientists used the database of the National Health Insurance Service to follow
519,880 people for a period of 10 years.
During
this time, they discovered 23,233 new cases of shingles.
They
found that shingles raised the risk of stroke
by 35%, heart attack by 59% and overall cardiovascular diseases by 41%.
Risk of Heart Attack
and Stroke Initially High Then Reduces Over Time
The
risk of heart attack and stroke
was highest during the first year of shingles diagnosis and gradually decreased
over time.
The
risk of heart attack after a shingles diagnosis dropped from a 1.7-fold
increase in risk in the first week, to a 1.3-fold increase in risk two to four
weeks after the diagnosis, to a 1.1-fold increase in risk five to 12 weeks
after the diagnosis. Again, by week 27, the risk returned to baseline.
This
increased risk of heart attack and stroke
is likely due to the biological effects of a shingles infection.
For
example, inflammation from having shingles could lead to a blood clot, which in
turn could cause a stroke or heart attack, according to the study.
Shingles
may also bring on incidents of elevated blood pressure, due to pain or stress associated with the disease, according
to the study.
Interestingly,
the shingles-related stroke risk was highest for people under 40 years, the
group with the best cardiovascular indicators like blood pressure and cholesterol.
This suggests something other than the usual mechanisms might be responsible
for the strokes.
But why do people get
shingles?
Shingles
occur in people who had chickenpox as a child when the virus gets reactivated
for some unexplained reason. Most often at an older age.
Typically,
decades later, when a person who had chickenpox has some dip in immune
resistance, the virus travels along a sensory nerve to the skin, where it can
replicate and cause painful, burning rashes and blisters.
The
nerve inflammation it causes can persist for weeks and even months, and for an
unlucky few, the resulting nerve damage can bring unrelenting pain.
It's
been known that when the shingles virus travels along the ophthalmic branch of
the trigeminal nerve in the face, and affects the area surrounding an eye, the
patient has a nearly five-fold risk of heart attack and stroke
in the year following.
Because
we don’t know why this happens, the only thing you can do to avoid shingles is
to strengthen your immune system to fight the virus immediately as it gets
reactivated before it flares up to your skin.
But
shingles are of course not the most common cause of stroke
and heart attack. The most important thing is to focus on…
Watch
this Video – Shingles (Herpes Zoster) is a Risk Factor for Stroke, TIAand Heart Attack a New Study Finds
High Blood Pressure: Click here to test-drive the 3 easy exercises that drop your blood pressure below 120/80—as soon as today…
High Cholesterol: Normalize your cholesterol and clear out clogged heart arteries—within a month—cutting out just this one single ingredient you didn’t even know you’re eating…
This post is from
the High Blood Pressure Exercise Program. It was made by
Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the
top quality national health information websites.
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provide you the natural high blood pressure treatments, natural recipes to cook
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help you to maintain and stabilize your blood pressure.