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.

If you're 65 or older, getting the newer shingles shot (recombinant vaccine) cuts your chance of getting shingles by about a third over six years compared to the older shot, and it works just as well for men and women.

Getting the shingles shot might help keep your memory sharper for a little while—especially in the first year after you get it—but that benefit slowly fades over six years, like a temporary shield against dementia, not a permanent fix.

Getting the shingles shot might help keep your memory sharper for a little while—like pushing back dementia by a year or two—but it doesn’t stop it for good.

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.