Getting the shingles vaccine might help lower your risk of dementia—not because it treats shingles with pills, but because it stops the virus from waking up in your body, and that could be good for your brain.

Getting the shingles vaccine might help lower your risk of dementia—not just because it prevents shingles, but because it might be doing something else good for your brain, since even when scientists accounted for shingles cases, the dementia benefit stayed strong.

A newer shingles shot works better than the old one at preventing shingles, and people who get the newer shot also seem less likely to get dementia—maybe because both problems are linked in some way inside the body.

Getting the shingles shot might help lower your risk of dementia, and this benefit isn’t just because people who got the shot didn’t get shingles later or didn’t take antiviral drugs — it’s something else about the vaccine itself.

Getting the shingles shot might help lower your risk of dementia—even if you still get shingles afterward—suggesting the vaccine protects your brain in ways beyond just preventing the rash.

Getting the shingles shot when you're in your late 70s might lower your risk of getting dementia by about 20% over the next seven years—maybe because the virus that causes shingles could also be involved in brain changes that lead to dementia.