About Shingles
Shingles is a neurological disease that, primarily, affects the skin. Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chicken pox. After a person recovers from chicken pox, the VZV goes dormant and hides in roots of the the sensory nerves that feed the skin. A person with a healthy immune system may never have another issue with shingles. In a person with a weakened immune system, the virus awakens, travels along the sensory nerve and causes pain, itching and lesions in the skin fed by that nerve. Shingles usually affects skin of the face and back. On rare occasions it affects the arms and legs. Shingles can also lie dormant in motor nerves and other nerves, unrelated to the skin, including those that control the bladder.
About the Bladder
The bladder is a muscular sack in the lower abdomen and is shaped much like a bulb syringe. The round, bulbous part is the top of the bladder, which is connected to the kidneys by tubes called ureters. The bulb also has a muscle, called the detrusor, which contracts the bladder. The narrow part of the bladder has a sphincter that controls the flow of urine to the urethra and out of the body. The sole purpose of the bladder is to collect and hold urine until we are ready to urinate. When the bladder functions properly, the muscles and sensory nerves all work together to determine when the bladder is full and signal the brain accordingly. The bladder also receives clear signals from the brain, which tell it when it should release its supply of urine.
Shingles and the Bladder
Shingles causes inflammation in the nerve. When a nerve is inflamed one of two things occurs: the nerve overreacts or it shuts down. In both cases, all the structures along that nerve are affected. If the nerve that controls the detrusor muscle overreacts, it may cause the bladder to contract involuntarily, causing urge incontinence, urinary frequency and urinary urgency. If the nerve shuts down it may cause bladder overflow, difficulty urinating and incomplete emptying. The nerve that controls the sphincter may prevent the sphincter from opening or closing properly, causing leakage or difficulty urinating. Shingles can also disrupt communication between the bladder and the brain, which can cause bladder retention leading to overflow incontinence. Or it can cause the bladder to release urine before we are ready.
