Shingles (herpes zoster) is a nerve infection caused by the chicken-pox virus. Shingles results from reactivation of the chicken-pox virus that remained in your body since you had chicken pox--perhaps many years ago.
Symptoms
The rash of shingles begins as red patches that soon develop blisters, often on one side of the body. The blisters may remain small or can become large. They heal in two to four weeks. They may leave scars.
Many patients mistakenly believe that "nervousness" causes shingles. this is wrong; shingles is a viral infection of a nerve and has nothing to do with being "nervous."
Shingles is often painful, this is because the virus travels along the nerve to get to the skin resulting in inflammation and damage to the nerve.
