Wait, you can just pay for the shingles vaccine, before you're 50? Where do I do that?
I had shingles in my 30s. It was the sickest I've ever been.
I had shingles in my 30s. It was the sickest I've ever been.
We even have anabolic steroids that were approved for muscle wasting in cancer patients, but if you can find a doctor willing to write the prescription and a pharmacy that won’t question it, anyone can have pharmacy grade Anavar for the gym, completely legal. In theory the doctor writing the prescription is putting their license at risk, but enforcement is so lax that there are “anti-aging” clinics all over that will prescribe testosterone and Anavar to anyone with a credit card.
So with a documented history of shingles you should have no problem getting a prescription written. It would be worth a quick check with your insurance company because it might even be covered if your doctor will fill out the form and attach evidence of the past diagnosis.
Is that not usually true in other countries?
A doctor must sign off on these but that step is mostly performative outside of some narrow exceptions. My impression is that this type of medical care is much more accessible in the US than most other developed countries.
Some countries are even more open. You can walk up to pharmacies in some countries and ask for most medications without a prescription. Up until 10-20 years ago you could walk into pharmacies in some countries and get abusable drugs, too, but that became enough of a problem that they cracked down on it.
The unique thing about the US is that we have access to almost everything first, and you can find a doctor willing to prescribe it to you if you look hard enough. In many other countries doctors don't want to stray far from the government prescribing guidelines. You may also not be allowed certain treatments unless your doctor can prove you meet the government requirements.
In the US, the enforcement is on the backend, if at all. There have been many cases of doctors getting the bright idea of turning their prescription pad into a money printer and writing prescriptions for scheduled medications to anyone willing to pay cash. Some of them make millions before the DEA catches up and goes after them. The smarter ones have moved into spaces where the enforcement brings less attention. Prescribing opioids is out, but I can't even turn on the radio without getting ads for doctors who will write me a prescription for testosterone to "get an edge in the gym".
Medications are different. Need prescription for that, although $$ and a zoom call can solve that problem.
It's stupid too, because the question I answered "wrong" wasn't clear. It basically sounded like they were asking me if I currently had a cold or covid.
https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/hcp/vaccine-considerations/inde...
Usually just most, except some in your organs where your immune response is different, out of necessity.
Then, if your immune functionality drops below a certain threshold that they can replicate inhibited, and leave the fort, you’re dealing with a systemic infection again.