HOW TO BE HEALTHY 50+ AT

Most of us had chickenpox and 1 in 4 will get shingles, Dr Philippa Kaye explains

Holly had been in pain for the past two days with a burning sensation underneath her right breast and on the right side of her back.

She had kept looking at where it was hur ting and asking her husband to look, but it was only this morning that she had seen anything. She had a rash and a tingling, burning sensation.

Her pharmacist had sent her on to me. Holly had shingles – and as she came to see me within 72 hours of her symptoms star ting, I was able to star t her on some anti-viral medication.

Shingles is a reactivation of the virus which causes chickenpox. Holly couldn’t remember having had chickenpox but most of us have had it as children, though it may have been mild. The virus then remains dormant, or sleeping in the body in one ner ve root.

In shingles, the virus has become reactivated in that ner ve, so you get the rash, not over the whole body, but in the area of skin supplied by that par ticular ner ve. It is quite a common condition, with 1 in 4 people having shingles at some point in their lives.

The reason why the virus reactivates is not always known. Sometimes it happens when you have had another illness or a recent stressor. But in many people