Herpes simplex virus

And three, this is a really interesting one, which I first heard about at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Amsterdam in 2024.

The shingles vaccine might also be preventing reactivation of the herpes simplex cold sore virus, HSV-1, because both viruses can lie dormant in the exact same neighbourhoods of the nervous system, specifically the cranial ganglia near the brain and spinal cord.

So let's flesh these theories out a bit.

The varicella zoster virus is described as neurotrophic, meaning it lives in nerve tissue.

And your anger will be justified.

At my head, I was just like, well, I guess I'll just see if I have an outbreak because from what I understand, it actually is really hard to to know if you do have HSV-2 as opposed to one if you're not having an active outbreak.

I think you're right, but dude, I'm not going to chat GPT and I'm not going to Google Docs on this one.

I'm going to go sit with a physician, okay, brother? Okay.

I just asked you your last test and status.

However, little did I know that HSV-2 wasn't something that's included in full panels and what people are doing.

Had I have asked to see it, I would have because I was personally testing for it.

So I made the decision that if it was my reality, that I could be part of the conversation or the topic as I'm known within the community because of my roles.

And if you had genital herpes, it was almost undoubtedly HSV type two.

And that is so common that I still hear doctors all the time, if they see an HSV-2 test result, they'll say, "Well, do you ever have any sores on your genitals?" Like, that is still kind of considered to be common knowledge, but it's not really true anymore.

Because what has happened is that as people, you know, parents and grandparents have better understood that, oh, that sore I get on my lip whenever I'm stressed or whatever it is, oh, that's herpes.

And that's something that people didn't understand generations ago when they kissed a baby and, and things like that.

But I have not found that to be the case in the general population.

If I talk to a random person at a coffee shop about this, they have no idea what I'm talking about when I say things like herpetic whitlow [laughs] or even what HSV one or two stands for.

For people to understand me in the mainstream world, not the sex positive world, if I say I have HSV-2, I get a blank stare, and then I have to say, "Commonly called genital herpes." [laughs] 'Cause there's no-- I, uh, I...

And then I, and then I end up launching into rants about myth busting and, and stigma busting.

So that's one piece of the puzzle is bacteria.

Viruses, CMV, Epstein-Barr, herpes virus six, but also HSV-1, HSV-2, parvovirus.

Many of these viruses are associated with Alzheimer's dementia.

They're associated with autoimmune illness.

you? Well, no, let's not spread any stigma.

Well, right, but I'm just saying, you know, we've known each other for a good while now, and I think that were that something that were going on for me in, let's just say, a herpetic sense, I feel like it's a conversation that we would have had.

Hey, Herpetic.

My favorite lines from Arrested Development.

Yes, I'm sorry, I interrupted you.