Can Shingles And Celiac Be Related

[confused]

I was talking to my mom today and she was talking to my aunt yesterday and she was telling my mom that she went gluten free after she got the shingles for like the 3rd time and feels so great now. I was excited to heat she went gluten free, but didnt know if it could correlate with shingles.

But she did say she keeps getting headaches now, and i told my mom maybe she needs to get rid of casein or soy. And she was like well she was telling me how everything she eats and drinks now has to do with soy. So i was going to call her tommorow and tell her to give up soy. She is in her late 60's and has been taking many supplements for years, i actually use to make fun of all the pills she took, now im thinking i will be her soon lol.

paula

[Mom23boys]

From what I understand dermatitis herpetiformus and shingles look alike so my question would be "is it REALLY shingles and not DH????"

[AllieB]

One of my symptoms of being "glutened" is a decreased ability to fight off colds and other junk. I live in MN USA, so our 5 months of winter gives us a long cold and flu season. Isn't that what Shingles is? A dormant infection in our bodies that reappears? So I would say yes, if your mom's immune system is busy processing gluten it might have lost hold on Chicken Pox virsus and allowed it to surface again.

[darlindeb25]

This is from WebMD:

What is shingles?

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a viral infection of the nerve roots. It causes pain and often causes a rash on one side of the body, the left or right. The rash appears in a band, a strip, or a small area. Shingles is most common in older adults and people who have weak immune systems because of stress, injury, certain medicines, or other reasons. Most people who get shingles will get better and will not get it again.

What causes shingles?

Shingles occurs when the virus that causes chickenpox starts up again in your body. After you get better from chickenpox, the virus "sleeps" (is dormant) in your nerve roots. In some people, it stays dormant forever. In others, the virus "wakes up" when disease, stress, or aging weakens the immune system. It is not clear why this happens. But after the virus becomes active again, it can only cause shingles, not chickenpox.

That being said, it is nothing like DH. My daughter got shingles when she was 15 from stress. She was taking driver's training and had a totally obnoxious teacher. This teacher would tell the kids to do something such as driving up and off ramp, then as they did it, he would scream at them for going the wrong way--which they really didn't understand what was going on because they were simply doing what they were being told. She got so nervous and stressed out, that she came down with shingles, diagnosed by the doctor. She is 25 now and still will have very painful ribs at stressful times and to this day, does not have a driver's license.

I do know that the stress of celiac disease could "wake" up the dormant virus, which will be shingles and not chicken pox, once you have had chicken pox. Do a search on "shingles and celiac disease".

[nb-canada]

I was talking to my mom today and she was talking to my aunt yesterday and she was telling my mom that she went gluten free after she got the shingles for like the 3rd time and feels so great now. I was excited to heat she went gluten free, but didnt know if it could correlate with shingles.

But she did say she keeps getting headaches now, and i told my mom maybe she needs to get rid of casein or soy. And she was like well she was telling me how everything she eats and drinks now has to do with soy. So i was going to call her tommorow and tell her to give up soy. She is in her late 60's and has been taking many supplements for years, i actually use to make fun of all the pills she took, now im thinking i will be her soon lol.

paula

You read my mind. I have been wondering the same thing - in fact I have been searching on this site for any posts about Shingles and was going to start a post asking the same question.

I have had shingles 4 times. I had them twice within a year about 14 years ago & then again twice in the same year about 2 years ago. Thankfully they were on my neck so I noticed them before they got out of hand. I was able to get medication which stopped it in its tracks.

My son was diagnosed 4 months ago with celiac disease & I am being tested. I am discovering that a lot of my problems over my life are connected to celiac disease. So do you think Shingles is connected to celiac disease too? Is there anyone else out there that has had shingles multiple times or just once?

P.S. My son also has DH

[Fiddle-Faddle]

From what I understand dermatitis herpetiformus and shingles look alike so my question would be "is it REALLY shingles and not DH????"

I've had both, and while they may LOOK alike, they do not FEEL alike.

With shingles, in addition to the unbearable itchy burney oozing blisters, the entire nerve is inflamed. If you have ever had a pinched nerve, you know how painful that is. Now imagine that kind of pain, along a spinal nerve, from the spine all the way to wherever that nerve ends. In my case, it was a nerve that ran from my neck all the way down to my left hand, and it was way worse than childbirth.

The similarity IS striking, though. When I had my DH outbreak, I thought it was a repeat episode of shingles at first, because it LOOKED like it--but it was on both arms, not one, and it was perfectly symmetrical, and there was no nerve pain at all.

In fact, that's how I ended up here: I googled "symmetrical rash" and "thyroid," and guess what popped up?!

[confused]

Thanks for everyones input. I know she has said her "shingles" is very painful, but that is all i can remmeber she has said. I am calling her tommrow if i have the energy, this flu is kicking my butt.

paula