Shingles & steroid use??

[Sassy69]

I'm throwing this up here in hopes that W6 or one of our medical types may have some input -- I heard this on a health-talk radio show over the weekend. They were discussing shingles and a couple of things caught my attention, primarily because the last time I heard anyone mention shingles was in my last high school health class (circa early 1980's). So it hasn't been a list-topper of my health concerns.

1) 90% of people who have had chicken pox experience shingles. What?? Did I hear this wrong? I had chicken pox when I was 16. Most people I know had chicken pox when they were children. If someone's kid had chicken pox in the neighborhood, everyone else's mom would send their kids over to get it & be over with it. Of all these people, I've never heard of anyone getting shingles.

2) They also mentioned a number of other groups of people who got shingles, among them steroid-using atheletes. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

 

[KEL]

Sassy those numbers seem very high- I've been looking for some statistics to support that and can't find anything.

I think you must have heard incorrectly or it was another group preaching woes of AAS use.

 

[RottenWillow]

Sassy which radio show was it? Was it Dr. Dean by any chance? I know he's waaay anti-AAS.

I know Varicella Roster often reoccurs in the form of shingles (I've had them) and it may happen when a person is run down and overstressed.

I'm thinking 3 possibilites:

1) AAS is the devil talk like Kel suggested
2) AAS temporarily weakens the immune system in some way which puts a Varicella host at risk of shingles outbreak. However from what little I know about AAS this doesnt seem likely.
3)Anabolic and/or androgenic hormones directly or indirectly reactivate the dorment virus via some other means. Everyone knows androgens definitely effect your skin, usually for the worse. Maybe some link there.


To sum up, I have no idea.

 

[wilson6]

There isn't enough data out there on AAS using athletes to even begin to make that link.

It has never been observed in any clinical study that I've read where AAS have been employed as a treatment.

W6

 

[wend]

Anya, I'm thinking that, though I'm sure the statistics have been overblown due to (1), it's prolly got roots in (2). I think AAS can affect the immune system when the user doesn't give his/her body what it needs in terms of food, liquid, and sleep to fuel the increased anabolic processes that take place on cycle. So shingles or any other dormant virus (like herpes) is more likely to flare up.

 

[Sassy69]

The show was something like "HealthTalk Radio", but it was sponsored by & the people on it were from a vitamin store in California called Vitaganza (vitaganza.com). I was looking through their website and couldn't find much that woudl support their program (no reprints or anything) (unless I missed it). But they didn't spend any more time on the AAS connection than just including it in a list of possible associations to shingles.

 

[RottenWillow]

It has never been observed in any clinical study that I've read where AAS have been employed as a treatment.
W6

For what? Shingles? Was it Winstrol by any chance? It seems like I read something a while back about it increasing the activity of certain components of the immune system.