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Can Shingles LEAD to breast cancer????

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  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    Sydney- It has been a few years since I had these breakouts....It was just on one arm....

    It would itch really bad....then stabbing pain under the skin...then the blisters would appear....Yes this cancer stuff can throw it ALL out of wack....I just find it very interesting HOW many have responded to this topic....MMMMMM could Breast Cancer be a VIRAL link....Ya know Cervical cancer has been linked to the HPV virus....

  • hlth4513
    hlth4513 Member Posts: 161
    edited January 2010
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    I have had Epstein Barr Virus twice. I had an acute epsiode when I was 12 yrs old and then a terrible chronic re-activated episode six years ago where it took me over a year to recover. I had read at the time that people who have had Epstein Barr have a greater likelihood of getting breast cancer. WHen I asked my functional medicine doctor about it, he said that it is associated because of it's effect on the imuune system.

    Beth

  • Sydney6
    Sydney6 Member Posts: 40
    edited January 2010
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    angelsabove - It does sound like you had shingles.  If that ever happens again definitely go to the doctor and get the antiviral medicine.  It works best when you take it sooner rather than later, like within 48 to 72 hours.  I went to a doctor the day before the emergency room who said he thought it was shingles (at that point it was one little blister).  I told him it couldn't possibly be shingles as I had never had the chickenpox & had been titer tested for it when my kids got the vaccine.  He wound up giving me an antibiotic.  It was 17 hrs. later that the pain was so excrutiating that I went to the emergency room.

    Sue

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    Betty.....My shingles was on my right arm....and BC was in left breast....So interesting to see that your left side has lots of issues....WOW.....I dont think I am so crazy now....

    I am gonna see about getting the shingles vaccine.... 

  • thenewme
    thenewme Member Posts: 174
    edited January 2010
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    Here's an interesting clinical study that pertains to shingles in immunocompromised patients.  Unfortunately one of the exclusion criteria is prior history of herpes zoster, but it may be worth watching for results.  I agree with MemberOfTheClub who said both cancer and shingles (and other conditions) can be the result of a compromised immune system.

    http://www.centerwatch.com/clinical-trials/listings/studydetails.aspx?StudyID=147199
    Trial Information

    Clinical trial of an investigational vaccine for the prevention of shingles and shingles-related complications in immunocompromised individuals

    A Phase I, Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Multicenter Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of V212/Heat-Treated Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) Vaccine in Immunocompromised Adults

    Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and older
    Genders Eligible for Study: Both
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

    Criteria

    Inclusion Criteria:

    * Men and women 18 years of age or older
    * Patients who are scheduled to receive an autologous or allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant within 60 days of enrollment
    * HIV-infected patients with a baseline CD4 cell count < or = to 200 cells/mm3
    * Patients with hematologic malignancies
    * Patients who are receiving chemotherapy for breast, colorectal, or lung malignancies

    Exclusion Criteria:

    * History of allergy to any vaccine component
    * Prior history of herpes zoster
    * Prior history of receipt of any varicella or zoster vaccine

    Merck

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    thenewme- thanks for the link....I am going to see my regular Dr. today and I am going to request I be tested for herpes zoster, vitamin D levels, hormone levels, and all autoimmune diseases....

    She is gonna think I am nuts asking for all this, but I am sorry....I WANT it all. I am so tired of this breast cancer stuff.....You think you are young and healthy and BOOM

    Sorry for  VENTING.....

    LUV U LADIES and MAY GOD BLESS US ALL 

  • thenewme
    thenewme Member Posts: 174
    edited January 2010
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    Hi Angel,

    Shingles is herpes zoster, so if you've been diagnosed with shingles, you would be excluded from the trial.   Hopefully the trial will turn up some good evidence that can immune-compromised patients prevent shingles with a vaccine.  I haven't had shingles, but I understand that it's horrendously painful, so it would be great if it was preventable!

    I bet your doc won't think you're nuts!  I bet she'll think you're doing your research and taking your health very seriously.  In my experience, docs are sometimes shocked that I'm asking so many questions and know the questions to ask, but I think they're used to patients just accepting whatever recommendations they make.  As they say, we are our own best health advocates! 

    Best of luck at your appointment!

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    thenewme.....went to doctor today and she did NOT think I was nuts....She is running lot of test on different issues....The breast cancer thing snuck up on me. I am trying my best to be pro-active.

    God Bless All Of YOU 

  • Sydney6
    Sydney6 Member Posts: 40
    edited January 2010
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    angelsabove - Keep us posted on your tests and the results.  As I mentioned I have been dealing with the itchy skin thing for the past 2 years & I'm still looking for an answer.  When I was told I had eczema I kept insisting there was something else wrong.  Had a bunch of things checked out and that's when I found I had BC.  Thought the itching would go away, but it has not.  Going to see my 5th dermatologist next Friday - some big wig in NYC. 

    Good luck with your tests.

    Sue

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    Sydney6------My Doctor is also checking me for Wilsons Syndrome. She is trying not to leave any stone unturned. Although....I think I do have MANY of the symptoms on that checklist. Itching is a symptom of that. Along with MANY others. She also is referring me to a Dermatologist over this dry peeling area right in the crease of my nose on the left side. That has been going on for over a year. I just AGAIN put it on the back burner due to the BREAST issue. 

    She said she checked with the lab and they could not check if I had shingles in the blood. Not sure about that one, I am gonna do some more research on that.She did say she could check for if I had chicken pox, But I know I did have those. 

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    Oh yea...I gotta tell you. She is a NEW Primary Care Physician for me. I shared with her about the above experience with the Hollistic Doctor. She said well (WHY NOT) she believes it is not FAR fetched that some people are given this gift. She said she believes there is truth in Naturopathic and Holistic medicine. She told me a story of a woman who had breast cancer many years ago and then had Leukemia. She battled them both...Then went onto Natural remedies...Herbs and the whole nine yards. She said she lived to be 75 years old and did NOT pass away with cancer. I REALLY liked her. Then she let me know she lost her breast 10 years ago to BC....I was like  WOW!!!!!!

    She said we use process of illumination when diagnosing a patient and we are trained to treat the symptoms of diseases. Why not try to find the ROOT of the problem....And why not change the body with herbs and natural medicines so it can heal itself.....Not that she was telling me NO to conventional MED....she just believed that there IS OTHER THINGS OUT THERE.....

    Lots Of Love Ladies 

  • Yazmin
    Yazmin Member Posts: 218
    edited January 2010
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    angelsabove:

    I am glad you clarified. After first reading your post, I interpreted it the same way Member_of_the_Club did:

    "..I'm really curious about your oncologist's comment about how the guy is inquisitive about her (his?) patients.  I interpreted this to mean someone within your onc's office is feeding this guy information about patients.  Do you think that is possible?"

    Do I now understand correctly that your holistic doctor could not possibly have obtained your information from your oncologist's office?

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    Yazmin----No there is NO WAY he could have. It was the Oncologist Nurse who said he seemed very inquisitive. She told me that other patients have shared similar stories. Not necessarily the Shingles thing but other things. I showed up to this man on a whim....NO APPOINTMENT...Just walked in. He is not in the same city that my Oncologist is in. My Onc. Nurse said she even knows others...NOT Cancer patients that go and see him....She just said that many of their patients truly believe in this man....SHE WAS JUST SHARING OTHERS THAT SHE HAD HEARD ABOUT. Like for example if someone went to him and said I am a breast cancer patient....And out of nowhere he would say...(who is having MIGRAINES....well lets address and correct that problem.) That is just an example.....I TRULY BELIEVE THERE IS NO WAY HE KNEW....Had a friend go to him and she took a friend of ours with her....He kept looking at her friend and said WHAT IS YOUR NAME.....she said OH NO I AM NOT HERE TO SEE YOU...I AM JUST HERE FOR SUPPORT FOR HER.....She is having neck pain....AGAIN HE SAID....WHAT IS YOUR NAME....she then told him and he said that he feels her pain of being in foster home after foster home all of her childhood....and loosing her brother at a very young age..He told her that does NOT define you and YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON.....This friend of ours WAS FLOORED....she had struggled with depression over her childhood issues and he told her she has GOTTEN great GOOD from it....AND SHE NEEDS TO FOCUS ON THE GOOD....She left there SHAKING........IN COMPLETE SHOCK....HE THEN DEALT WITH OUR OTHER FRIEND WITH HER NECK ISSUE.....I was told these stories by my cousin and thought what the heck....lets go check it out....

    MAY GOD BLESS US ALL 

  • rreynolds1
    rreynolds1 Member Posts: 62
    edited January 2010
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    Wow!  I have read so many books on bc that I can't  remember  where I read what.  However, I read that shingles can be a symptom of breast cancer.  I had shingles on my face 6 months prior to my diagnosis.  I had the chicken pox as a young girl.  Not sure how old I was.  Hmmm.

    Roseann

  • Yazmin
    Yazmin Member Posts: 218
    edited January 2010
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    anglesabove: Indeed, this is very strange, very interesting, and deserves to be investigated further.
  • SharaD
    SharaD Member Posts: 3
    edited January 2010
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    Isn't Shingles a breakdown in the immune system?  As I remember it....we become allergic to chicken pox when we have it as children, but later in life if a bad cold or something else is affecting your immune system, the natural immunity that you built up to chicken pox can lessen, and you can get Shingles.

    The immune system in general is being studied constantly, regarding its relation to cancer ...vitamin D studies for instance. 

  • thenewme
    thenewme Member Posts: 174
    edited January 2010
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    Hi SharaD, shingles is caused by a virus.  A weakened immune system may make you more susceptible to it, but doesn't cause shingles.

    I'm so glad there is so much ongoing research on the immune system!  It's amazingly complicated, but hopefully we'll see some big breakthroughs soon.

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2010
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    thenewme............i too am glad they are studying the immune system.

  • DiamondGirl2010
    DiamondGirl2010 Member Posts: 1
    edited January 2010
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    Amazing!  At the urging of my internist, I had the ZOSTAVAX (anti-shingles) vaccine in May.  A few days later, I started breaking out in what looked like small pimples all over my chest (including breast and neck,) legs, face, even in my hair.  Went to the dermatologist and he said it was a reaction to the vaccine.  Took Famvir to try and get rid of what looked like chicken pox....which I had as a child...some 60 years ago!  Didn't work.  Then tried two two-week doses of doxycycline.  The breaking out lessened, but still did not go away!  In the meantime, in August, I noticed a small pea-sized lump on my mastectomy scar.  Had been examined in July and it was NOT there then.  Of course, it turns out to be cancer.  I have tried to tie the vaccine to the recurrence, but no one in the medical field seems to give any credence to this.

     I would never get this vaccine again! I eported the side effects to the FDA but never heard from them.

  • lucy88
    lucy88 Member Posts: 100
    edited January 2010
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    DiamondGirl, thank you for your post. This is very important information. Please tell your internist to personally file an adverse reaction report or it will never get in the vaccine database. Most doctors say they don't have time to fill out the form. But getting this information out there could save lives.

    I'm appalled that the FDA never contacted you back but the FDA is not reliable for anything.

    Somebody has to start an investigation. I wonder where we would start?????

  • orange1
    orange1 Member Posts: 92
    edited February 2010
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    Diamondgirl - Please report your story to the vaccine manufacturer.  They are required to add it to their database to try to look for trends.

  • Yazmin
    Yazmin Member Posts: 218
    edited February 2010
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    Diamondgirl: I am just as appalled as lucy and orange. I can't believe it that the FDA did not contact you. But I am not surprised. Please press on, this is unacceptable.
  • PinkSunrise
    PinkSunrise Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2010
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    WOW!  I have inflammatory breast cancer, and a year before my bc, I had a really bad outbreak of shingles on my leg! 

    My response to so many people who object to any "causes" of bc is this, each person's immune system is very different.  If you plant 15 families on highly contaminated site, you will get many different types of illness.  Some rare one may not get ill at all.  Many will get cancer.  But in the cancer batch, they will be many different types of cancer diagnosed.  Is the contaminated site the cause?  Or the immune system?  Or both? 

    This guy sounds so spot on to your condition, why not try it?  But also, pray and believe it will work.  The cost of the bht probably isn't any higher than some of your prescriptions, if they're like mine.  All the best

  • Fantomia
    Fantomia Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2010
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    HI Ladies - this was very interesting!

    ANGELS ABOVE: I think healers like the one you met get in contact with our helpers, and get information from them. And gosh I envy you new Primary Care Physician!

    I think shingles (witch is caused by herpes Zoster) vaccine can prevent outbreaks only - and then you still will have the prosecutor sleeping in you body. Lysine - among a lot of other supplements (herbs, vit C etc) suppress herpes flare ups, arginine, nuts and chocolate aggravates it, but maybe BHT can kill it - who knows. At least I would have listened to this man.

    I've heard about BHT - I found out about it googling herpes, and many people have had total success with using it, so it makes sense that it helps against shingles. It's a strong antioxidant especially against the hydroxyl radical. It's also used for conserving cooking oil so they don't get damaged (and produce cancerous compounds) of heat.

    I also had chicken poxes when I was a child, and what I believed was herpes never showed up on tests - I don't have the antibodies, so maybe it is shingles I have? It's also caused by a herpes virus and is a recurring disease with many faces. And I had a severe inflammation in the breast where I've got the cancer when breastfeeding my child 21 years ago, it was very painful with blisters on the nipple, what if it was shingles?

    Or maybe shingles or other herpes or viruses is not the only cause of our disease, but a factor among others - maybe because our immune system is too busy with keeping the virus in check to deal with the cancer cell all people produce.

    Anyway, the cancer came just besides my nipple where I had the inflammation and blisters, just under the skin. I go and order BHT at once - it cannot do any harm. iHerb has it and they have very low shipping. There are also statements from people using it on the site. Thanks a lot ladies, this is a very useful community!

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited February 2010
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    Fantomia.......such good advice....I am getting ready to go to my #30 rad treatment today. I have two more left after this one.....I am then going to go get this BHT......

    My oldest son who is in his first year of college....YEP...had kids young....lol.....anyway he said (MOM why NOT ....Why could shingles NOT have caused this?????) He said Cancer is NOT one disease ...it is NUMEROUS....just a big word for INFLAMATION........Ya know tumors are DEFINATELY some sort of INFLAMED something.....I thought well yea....

    I so agree with the whole thing about the Immune system trying to keep this virus in check...It is kinda like keeping your eyes on SEVERAL kids at once....you alway tend to watch the one who is more HYPER...and can get into things more so than the other....So maybe it was policing the virus and bad cells got away....

    I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOO MUCH....... 

  • hlth4513
    hlth4513 Member Posts: 161
    edited February 2010
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    angelsabove wrote:

    ...It is kinda like keeping your eyes on SEVERAL kids at once.

    What a perfect analogy!

    Beth

  • althea
    althea Member Posts: 506
    edited February 2010
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    I've been meaning to post on this thread sooner but haven't had a chance til now. 

    I had my shingles after my dx of bc.  I got it six weeks after my second surgery for reconstruction.  I got it just when I thought my life would finally be getting better.  There were only two good things about my case of shingles -- it was a mild case, and it got me out of jury duty.  :)  

    I noticed the first 'raspberry' friday evening while getting ready for bed.  It was springtime, it had been a beautiful day, and I pruned dead leaved out of the garden for a solid half day -- a milestone at the time.  And what do I get?  At that time, I thought a nasty spider bite.  It itched, but I refrained from scratching.  By morning I had a dozen big ugly red bumps.  By Sunday, I finally googled images of shingles and found a match to what I had.  

    Further googling led me to a lot of sites that said shingles happen once and never again.  Clearly, that's not accurate information.  Lots of stories here and amongst my own set of family and friends include people suffering multiple occurrences of shingles.  I heard many accounts of shingles lasting for months, even years, and one man I know said his wife died of shingles.  Someone who's never had chickenpox could catch it from someone with shingles if contact with the liquid in the blisters were to happen.  (thankfully, I didn't know that part until after I skirted out of jury duty, lol).  

     The information I saw repeatedly that I DO agree with is that shingles is precipitated by unusually high levels of stress.  I think I must've have had a delayed reaction, which I suppose is a good thing -- otherwise I would've burst into a full blown case much sooner.  I was fit to be tied after I finished chemo.  I had decided to seek my surgery in new orleans, and my local doctors were looking at me as if I had suddenly sprouted 7 extra heads.  I wanted a diep flap reconstruction, not available in my locale.  Initially, neither my local surgeon or oncologist seemed to have ever heard of diep, but they quickly launched into having all kinds of reasons why I should be afraid to pursue.  They subsequently put me through a paperwork nightmare from hell as I tried to get my surgery scheduled 

    I know now that they were just being arrogant assholes, but at the time, they had me secondguessing the mountains of homework I had done on my surgical options.  Thank GOD I stayed the course.  My surgeons in new orleans gave me the best medical experience of my LIFE!  But again, I didn't know that til afterwards.  In view of all that stress, it's truly a miracle that I didn't erupt in shingles right then and there. 

    So in my typical long winded fashion, I don't think shingles lead to bc, but I DO think the sheer volume of unnecessary stress that comes with 'health care' in the USA can cause a case of shingles.  

    Also, in regard to the vaccine, I was told by 3 different local doctors that the shingles vaccine would not be effective on someone who's already had a case of shingles.  I'm not sure if that's even worth mentioning.  I have so little faith in my local medical community, that I haven't been to a medical doctor of any kind since june 2008.  Oh well, if it turns out they were wrong, I wouldn't have $250 for a vaccine anyway, even if I wanted one.  After learning about all the toxic substances in vaccines and flu shots, I've discontinued my longstanding practice of getting flu shots and I doubt I'd opt for a shingles vaccine at this point either.  

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited February 2010
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    Althea.....GREAT INFORMATION....Thanks for sharing your story. I have been trying to figure the part out about the vaccine being beneficial to someone who HAS had a breakout....I continue to get mixed information.....

  • Yazmin
    Yazmin Member Posts: 218
    edited February 2010
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    What a fascinating analysis from althea, above!

    Then, when you say: "...I have so little faith in my medical community that I haven't been to a medical doctor of any kind since june 2008...." I can relate to that: I had to brace myself to finally make an appointment with the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Philadelphia a couple of months ago, after avoiding oncologists since my diagnosis in 2006. 

  • angelsabove
    angelsabove Member Posts: 39
    edited February 2010
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    Went to OBGYN last week for yearly exam. I did not share any information about the whole shingles thing. I did say it just drives me mad because I want to know WHAT causes this. She said well WE JUST DONT KNOW. She said they may just find out it is caused by a VIRUS. She said they certainly found that out with Cervical Cancer. THE HPV Virus......I thought....MMMMMMMM

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