Herpes & Systemic Symptons

Does herpes cause heart, lung, gi disease, or autoimmune problems?

[daisy315]

Not that I am aware of,however about 6 months after I was diagnosed with HSV2  I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis which is an Autoimmune Disease I believe can be triggered by infection or a virus,it may have been coincidental it may not but I guess thats something I'll never know for sure ......
I personally have not heard of Herpes causing any medical problems relating to heart,lungs or GI

Daisy  

[Verysaddude]

Daisy,

There has been research of the relationship between HSV and RA. The research was inconclusive but I doubt its a coincidence. I believe HSV is more serious then some think.

[gracefromHHP]

We know that herpes can trigger inflammatory changes in the body. Already have some other things going on that perhaps hadn't gotten to the point yet where you notice them, the events in the body that can occur with a herpes infection, can sometimes set off all sorts of things.  Medicine over the last several years has been putting more and more together about viral triggers of other illnesses. For instance juvenile diabetes is thought to be triggered by a virus - the child was already set up to be vulnerable to developing it, they catch a viral illness and a few weeks later their pancreas starts to stop working and they develop signs of diabetes.  Same goes with rsv, a very common respiratory virus that in infants and the elderly ( or immunosuppressed ) can cause them to be very ill. Recent research has shown that when you contract rsv along with another specific virus, it causes you to be sicker and more likely to have lung issues further down the road like asthma.  I truly believe that in time we'll find that hsv coupled with other certain other viruses contracted at the same time have this same effect and can trigger underlying issues in folks who were already "programmed" to be vulnerable to them.  

Back to the original poster, herpes can cause systemic illness but it typically only happens in otherwise ill folks and with a newly acquired infection.  The organs you are mentioning having problems with are most likely linked to something else going on. I assume you ( or whoever you were asking this about ) is under the care of a medical doctor.  Unfortunately ( or unfortunately whichever the case may be ) we can't at this point just point to herpes and say it's the culprit for most of those illnesses.

grace