-Dr.Dianne McCallister, Chief Medical Officer at Porter Adventist Hospital

Skin cancer falls in two basic categories.

First, and most concerning, is melanoma. There are ABCDE's you can follow to detect this disease

A is for asymmetrical shape. Moles where one half does not look like the other

B is for irregular border

C is for changes in color or multiple colors in one mole

D is for diameter moles larger than ¼ inch are more concerning

E is for evolving/changing - moles that change color, bleed or get itchy

The other type of skin cancer is basal cell cancer. This is directly related to sun exposure and tends to start as a flakey area that will not clear up, but can become raised, red and pearly looking

Shingles is a painful rash caused by herpes zoster -the chicken pox virus. It is red raised bumps that usually appear in a line from the mid-back around to the front on one side of the body - generally the chest area. However, it can appear anywhere on the body - again, almost always on only one side.

The chicken pox virus goes into a dormant, or inactive state in our nerve roots by our backs. For some reason, the virus comes alive again and spreads down the nerve that it is in. This causes inflammation of the nerve which is very painful. No one is exactly sure why it wakes up - but stress, age over 50 and other illnesses seem to increase the chance of it happening. They say that half of all people over the age of 50 will develop shingles by age 85.

In general, shingles is a painful, but self-limited disease that does not cause permanent harm. However, in people whose immune system is not working well (such as on chemotherapy) or in the cases where it involves the head, the disease can have serious complications such as ongoing pain, blindness, or in rare cases, death.

You have to have chicken pox in order to get shingles, so vaccinating children for chicken pox can prevent shingles later in life. Also, for those of us who had chicken pox, there is a vaccine to prevent shingles that can reduce the chance of developing it by half. This is generally given to someone 60 or older.

When caught within 72 hours of breaking out, there are oral antiviral medications such as acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir that can treat the virus.

For the pain, narcotics such as percocet, tri-cyclic antidepressants and the anticonvulsant drug neurontin can be used.,

You cannot catch shingles from someone who has shingles. However, a person who has never had chicken pox can get that from a person with shingles - it is the same virus.