It also protects your brain.
The shingles vaccine may do more than protect older adults from painful rashes – it might also offer protection against dementia, according to new research.
A study published on April 2 in Nature reveals that seniors who received the shingles vaccine in the U.K. were 20% less likely to develop dementia compared to those who did not. Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, a senior researcher and assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University, described the finding as “striking” and noted the strong protective signal observed across the data.
This discovery arose from a “natural experiment” based on the way the shingles vaccine was distributed in Wales starting in 2013. At that time, people aged 79 were eligible for the vaccine, but those who turned 80 before or after the start date were not, creating a natural randomized trial that allowed researchers to compare outcomes between those just eligible for the vaccine and those who missed the opportunity.
The research tracked health outcomes for individuals who received the vaccine and those who did not over a seven-year period. As anticipated, vaccine recipients had 37% fewer cases of shingles, but in 2020, they were also found to be 20% less likely to develop dementia. This trend held even after accounting for factors such as education, chronic illnesses, and other potential dementia risks.
The protective effect was particularly noticeable in women, possibly due to stronger immune responses to vaccination and the higher incidence of shingles among women. This finding has since been confirmed using health data from England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, reinforcing the consistent protective effect against dementia. However, researchers are still uncertain about the exact mechanism behind the vaccine’s impact on brain health, whether by boosting overall immune function or preventing harm from the varicella-zoster virus. The latest version of the vaccine, Shingrix, may have a different effect, and researchers are hopeful that further studies will explore its potential in preventing dementia.
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