Getting the shingles shot might help lower your chances of getting dementia later in life—and this link shows up no matter how scientists check the data, so it’s probably real and not just a fluke.

People who were eligible for the shingles vaccine seem to be less likely to get diagnosed with dementia later on—and this link holds up no matter how researchers tweaked their study rules, which makes it look pretty real.

People who got the shingles vaccine didn’t have more or fewer other health problems than those just barely eligible for it—and since those groups were otherwise similar, it looks like the vaccine might help lower dementia risk, not just luck or other health habits.

Getting the shingles shot doesn’t seem to make older people healthier in general—but it might specifically help lower their risk of dementia, and that’s probably not just a coincidence.

Getting the shingles shot might help lower your risk of getting dementia later in life — a big study found people who got the vaccine were about 31% less likely to develop dementia than those who didn’t.

Getting the shingles vaccine might help older people avoid dementia—especially those over 75 or in their late 60s—but it doesn’t seem to help much for people in their early 70s, suggesting age matters.