ask: Do you get shingles from a flu shot?

Hello there. I'm sorry to hear that you had shingles as I understand this is a very painful condition.

And, as you mentioned, many other women have written in saying they also believe there is a connection between the flu shot and shingles. You can find a link to what they're saying here.

http://www.empowher.com/community/ask/can-flu-shot-lead-shingles

While scientists believe that shingles is caused by a reactivation of the virus behind chickenpox, the causes for the reactivation itself are poorly understood.

Because so many women have asked this question, we have contacted the American Lung Association and the Centers for Disease Control to 1) try to learn more about any potential connections and 2) make them aware of the situation.

Did you chat with your doctor about the possible connection in the flu shot and shingles? I'd be interested to hear what he or she had to say.

Personally I am not a fan of any type of vaccinations. I had enough while in the military! Flu shots (whether type A, B, or C and live or not) were given to the troops every year in addition to many other vaccines which were repeated periodically. I have a theory about vaccines, especially FLU vaccines: I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THEM, period end of story. That is my stand on them so I avoid them for several reasons. We are the only society in the world that NEEDS flu shoots during what we have learned to call "FLU SEASON". What is flu season any way, correct? Here is my story and I am sticking to it! I prefer to take vitamin D and C year round. For the past 7 years I have not got the flu.

Going back to your question. Do you want to hear my theory of what may be happening to you as a result of the flu vaccine? First of all, depending on your age, I would assume some time in your life you were exposed to the chicken pox virus. This virus will stay with you forever dormant until your body ages and it is stressed to the max. If you are experiencing stress in your life or you are going through “the changes”, or you do not maintain a healthy diet and life style, more than likely your immune system is depleted. On top of that you get the flu shot which stresses your immune system further. The result? A bout of shingles, why? Because your immune system is smart and it is telling you it can only fight one thing at a time when it is overwhelmed. The smallpox virus, which has remained dormant to this point awakens as your T-cells and natural killer cells are unable to recognize the threat. Your job? To boost your immune system with natural supplements such as Vitamin C, Vitamin D, B-12, Lysine, rest, hydration and diet high in greens. I use a product called Transfactor Cells by 4Life Research. They have the best products to boost the immune system by using your own bone marrow cells via their products. Remember, your immune system is very wise and the shingles are just a cry for help. Your immune system is overworked! It is confused and cannot focus on the “invader” viruses (i.e. virus or chemicals contained on many types of vaccines). Boosting your immune system will help you greatly!

Hello anonymous, hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Wanted to let you know we received a response from the American Lung Association and here's what they had to say ...

"There is no evidence or link that I can find that would connect the influenza vaccine to an outbreak of shingles. I think this might be nothing more than bad timing. We hear from people who swear that they got the flu from the flu vaccine, even though this is not possible.

What usually happens is that they were just unfortunate enough to either be exposed before their immunity was obtained from the flu shot (it can take 2 weeks), or they simply contracted a strain of the flu that was not covered in the vaccine. This may be similar for those who come down with shingles after the flu vaccine. If this happened to me, it would make me wonder if the two were related. I would encourage these people to report this to the FDA’s Consumer Complaint Coordinators for the state they live in: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html. This is also a good time to talk about the Shingles vaccine. This vaccine is approved for people over age 60, and is shown to reduce the risk of shingles by 50% in this population: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-shingles.pdf. Although most of us gained immunity during childhood with chickenpox, the resistance may fade as we get older. Not everyone should have this vaccine, so it is important to talk to your physician about this."

Hey all, we alerted the Centers for Disease Control to this post and similar posts about the flu shot and shingles on Thanksgiving. One of their doctors, Carolyn Bridges, MD returned a statement in less than a week and here's what she had to say:

"Influenza vaccines contain either inactivated or killed virus or they contain a weakened form of influenza virus. Thus, they cannot cause shingles. Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox. Shingles is relatively common so it is possible that some cases of shingles may occur around the time of influenza vaccination, but that would be coincidental. There is no evidence that influenza vaccination leads to shingles. Influenza and shingles are caused by very different viruses."

For more information, visit

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/default.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Thanks for posting this email, Tina. I'm glad the CDC got back to Empowher so quickly.

While they are absolutely right in their reply regarding shingles being quite common and therefore may be coincidental - it's also a mighty coincidence that a bout of shingles right alongside administration of a flu shot has been experienced by quite a few people.

I know they are caused by different viruses but viruses tend to have many strains and mutate quickly. Maybe there is merit to the questions we have received and a link simply hasn't been made - yet...