Study suggests shingles vaccine may lower dementia risk
https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-06-15/shingles-vaccine-lowers-dementia-riskOpen linkView original on lemmy.zipSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.ziphttps://www.brown.edu/news/2026-06-15/shingles-vaccine-lowers-dementia-riskOpen linkView original on lemmy.zip
16 replies
I was sweating the Shingles shots (it's 2 shots, 2 months apart), because I didn't want to get shingles, and kick myself the entire time for procrastinating. When I walked out after the second shot, knowing I was protected, I actually felt good.
Now it's helping against dementia, too? Awesome.
I can't get it because I'm too old now.
Weird, all information about the shingles vaccine I've seen just says 50 or older.
In Canada, if you're over 50, it's apparently free-to-you with your continuing yearly subscription to our government as a bundle.
Over 65. Not 50.
Is there a point to getting the shingles vaccine if you've already had an outbreak of it? I had it in my 20's but I'm approaching 50 now
Short answer: yes
Long answer: CDC recommends 2 doses of Shingrix separated by 2–6 months for immunocompetent adults aged 50 years and older: - Whether or not they report a prior episode of herpes zoster.
Herpes zoster does not go away after infection, it reservoirs in the nervous system, constantly controlled by the immune response. In older people or immune compromised, this immunity wanes. That's why you need Shingrex when over 65.
Imagine how it felt having it in your 20s and now imagine having it at 70+.
At 50 you know by now you don't heal or recover from colds as fast as you did at 20, so getting the shingles vaccine between now and 60 is basically insurance against feeling that ever again.
Man I hope so. I got it at like 25 but I did the shinrix a few years ago just so I don't get it again. Yeesh, but that sucked.
"may" Okay 👀️
For some reason i think of the myth that got spread around about wine being healthy for your heart. Are we sure it's not just a correlation that people who get the vaccine tend to be in a better position to stay healthy than those that may not be able to or refuse the vaccine?
Edit: just to be clear i agree the vaccine is awesome.
Shingles is a herpes. Other herpes viruses are also linked to dementia. It’s probably not a coincidence.
As my doctor said when she said I should get the vaccine: If this study is true, it's great it great, but even if this study turns out to be false, it doesn't matter because I should get the vaccine anyway.
There are half a dozen studies with the same conclusions. The best was in UK, where because of some stupid rule, people born a week later could not get Shingrex, so they ended up with a huge control population. Interestingly, the protective effect is only seen in women.
But other studies show protection effects from all vaccines in elderly.
No, there is actual mechanism here, and it's not just shingles vaccine. Older people who get frequent vaccinations have lower incidence of Alzheimer's. The reason is that infection causes a strong immune response that releases a lot of reactive oxygen species. In young people, their mitochondria can deal with this, but in older people mitochondria don't work as well and brains get more oxidative damage. Zoster is just a virus more prevalent in neurons.
The one fact buried in the Shingrex effect is that it appears to occur in women only.