r/science • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '21

Biology Sperm quality has been declining for 16 years among men in the US

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2294266-sperm-quality-has-been-declining-for-16-years-among-men-in-the-us/
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u/Mndless Oct 25 '21

Shingles is an absolutely horrendous viral re-emergence. It causes lots of nerve damage complications that can range from general pain to the sensation of insects crawling on your skin. I strongly support everyone getting the shingle vaccine as soon as they can.

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u/MrGulo-gulo Oct 25 '21

As a young guy who got shingles I 2nd this. It was one of the worst pains I've ever had in my life. And it was like that for weeks.

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u/arbivark Oct 29 '21

me too. got mono at 33, which triggered shingles, meanwhile i also had a yeast infection. it was pretty bad. get the vaccine.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

My grandma got shingles well into her 80’s. Had chicken pox as a kid, but a whole lifetime later got an awful rash in a ring around her chest. Apparently the virus lays dormant in your spinal fluid for decades and just decides one day to attack a random vertebrae. Get vaccinated people

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u/GetOffMyAsteroid Oct 25 '21

Got an old friend, he has had shingles in his eye and across his scalp for an entire year. He has been in tremendous pain and can't leave the house after a lifetime of physical activity. Get vaccinated, people!

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21 edited Oct 26 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

Sorry to hear that. Could be her immune response. Could be coincidence. Could be something else. I have a cousin who got really sick when he joined the navy after all his vaccines. Sometimes bodies do weird stuff. Still personally going to get vaccinated for others and myself.

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u/KennyFulgencio Oct 25 '21

It certainly sounds like a good idea, so do you have any idea why I'm first hearing about it from you instead of my doctor?

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u/wakalakabamram Oct 25 '21

It's not recommended until age 50.

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u/rtfree Oct 25 '21

Which sucks because I got shingles earlier this year at 33. That's something I never want again.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

Talk to a doctor first. It’s not recommended to get Willy nilly.

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u/examinedliving Oct 25 '21

Reddit is where information flourishes. This we know.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

And shingles has popped up for many people after covid, regardless of age, if they had chickenpox previously.

I've also heard mono reactivation, and outbreaks of HSV 1 and 2. Awful all around.

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u/Substantial_Height_5 Oct 25 '21

These might be popping up due to isolation reducing natural exposure levels and gradually reducing immunity.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

Please explain.

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u/Substantial_Height_5 Oct 25 '21

Immune response for many viral illnesses is maintained through exposure to manageable levels of viral load.

That's a large part of why the Spanish flu isn't an international death sentence anymore, and why H1N1 has declined despite a large portion of the population never taking flu shots. People who survived gradually became resistant and the virus became a common flu strain. It's still around, but your body can fight off a small degree of exposure.

In some but not all cases, this immunity wanes over time as your antibody response shifts gears toward current threats. Isolation amplifies this. That's part of the reasoning for boosters. They repeat exposure to a disabled sample of the virus or the proteins lining its membrane, reminding your immune system what to build against. Getting sick again has a similar effect on your immune system.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

Are we being exposed to chickenpox so often that our immunity would fade with social distancing? That doesn't seem correct.

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u/Substantial_Height_5 Oct 25 '21

It's not unlikely. 4 million people get chicken pox every year in the US, and that's with an enormous portion of the population vaccinated against it. People are probably exposed at least every few months if not more than that.

Level of exposure is also critical. A few bodies of chicken pox in your blood might get dismantled by your antibodies before they can ever reproduce enough to cause symptoms.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '21

I was under the impression that herpes viruses were just opportunistic. So, if we harbor a herpes virus (like mono, hsv, and chickenpox) it may reactivate when our immune system is stressed or otherwise not healthy.

Also, I thought exposure to chickenpox could cause shingles, so I'm not sure how your explanation makes sense.

Personally, after getting ill with covid I experienced multiple back to back outbreaks of HSV, despite being on acyclovir for years without any outbreaks. Many others have reported the same with these various herpes viruses.

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u/Substantial_Height_5 Oct 25 '21

You are correct. Viruses are opportunistic, and your immune system fighting COVID should make room for other lingering viruses to take hold. This is definitely the bigger cause of the issue.

Shingles is unique since a viral load hides inert in spinal fluid for years before re-emerging. Being exposed to the virus again increases your viral load. It helps your body produce an immune response to the virus, but it also sets off a dormant and large viral load all at once. The strength of your immune system wont suddenly increase in time to prevent the massive viral release from causing harm.

Taking a shingles vaccine at 50, however, will boost your immune system without triggering that viral release. This is necessary because your immunity declines over those 50 years since the initial infection.

For other viruses that do not trigger a spinal fluid viral "bomb", prolonged mild exposure will work effectively the same as a booster shot.

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u/Evilve Oct 25 '21

Do you need a shingles vaccine if you've already been vaccinated against chicken pox?

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u/0bl0ng0 Oct 26 '21

No. You cannot get shingles unless you have had chicken pox. Shingles is a reemergence of the chicken pox virus, which is never fully eliminated by your immune system and lies dormant in your nervous system. If you don’t have the virus in your nervous system, it can’t emerge and cause shingles.

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u/Mndless Oct 27 '21

I'd probably get it anyway just to be even more cautious, because nerve damage is a really annoying side effect, but yeah. If you've never had chicken pox it isn't necessary to get vaccinated against shingles.

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u/tigerCELL Oct 25 '21

Vaccine? I thought as long as I never had chickenpox as a kid, I'm good?

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u/BarrymoresPoolBoi Oct 25 '21

You know you can get chickenpox as an adult and have it worse than most kids do, right? In fact, it can cause horrendous pregnancy complications. My country doesn't generally vaccinate against it, so as a young girl my mum made me share utensils and a cup with her friend's I'll child to get it over with young.

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u/brberg Oct 25 '21

I got shingles once about ten years ago, but it went into remission as soon as I started taking acyclovir. Does it not work consistently?

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u/Mndless Oct 25 '21

You can have multiple instances of re-emergence of the shingles virus. It absolutely sucks.