Getting the shingles shot might help lower your risk of getting dementia later on—not because people who get the shot go to the doctor more or get diagnosed with other illnesses less, but because the vaccine itself might be doing something protective for the brain.

Getting the shingles vaccine might help lower your risk of getting dementia later on—not because people who get the vaccine go to the doctor more or have fewer other health problems, since those things didn’t change in the same way for other serious diseases.

Getting the shingles vaccine didn’t make people go to the doctor more for other things or change how often they were diagnosed with common long-term illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure—so if people who got the vaccine also had less dementia, it’s probably because the vaccine itself helped, not because they got better overall care.

Getting the shingles vaccine didn’t make people go to the doctor more for other things or change how often they were diagnosed with common long-term illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure—so if people who got the vaccine had less dementia, it’s probably because the vaccine itself helped, not because they got better overall care.

Getting the shingles vaccine didn’t make people start going to the doctor more for other things or change how they took care of their health overall—so if people who got the vaccine had less dementia, it’s probably because the vaccine itself helped, not because they became healthier in other ways.

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.