Can a shingles shot help people live longer without dying from dementia?
The effect of herpes zoster vaccination on the occurrence of deaths due to dementia in England and Wales
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists looked at people who turned 80 just before or after a certain date — only those after the date got a free shingles shot. They found that those who got the shot were less likely to die from dementia years later.
Surprising Findings
The shingles vaccine reduced dementia deaths even though most recipients already had dementia at the time of vaccination.
Everyone assumes vaccines prevent disease before it starts—this suggests it may actively slow progression of an advanced neurodegenerative condition, which contradicts decades of neurology dogma.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a woman over 80 and eligible for the shingles vaccine, consider getting it—even if you already have dementia—because it may help you live longer without dying from it.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists looked at people who turned 80 just before or after a certain date — only those after the date got a free shingles shot. They found that those who got the shot were less likely to die from dementia years later.
Surprising Findings
The shingles vaccine reduced dementia deaths even though most recipients already had dementia at the time of vaccination.
Everyone assumes vaccines prevent disease before it starts—this suggests it may actively slow progression of an advanced neurodegenerative condition, which contradicts decades of neurology dogma.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a woman over 80 and eligible for the shingles vaccine, consider getting it—even if you already have dementia—because it may help you live longer without dying from it.
Publication
Journal
Alzheimer's & Dementia
Year
2024
Authors
Felix Michalik, M. Xie, Markus Eyting, Simon Heß, Seunghun Chung, Pascal Geldsetzer
Related Content
Claims (6)
Getting the shingles shot when you're 65 or older might help lower your chances of developing dementia by about a third over the next several years.
Getting the shingles shot after age 80 might help people with dementia live longer, even if they already have dementia — it doesn’t stop dementia from starting, but it might slow it down.
Getting the shingles vaccine when you're 80 or older might slightly lower your risk of dying from dementia over the next nine years—especially for women—but not so much for men.
Women who got the shingles vaccine may be a little less likely to die from dementia than women who didn’t, but for men, the vaccine doesn’t seem to make a difference in dementia deaths.
People born just before and just after September 2, 1933, were treated almost the same except one group got a shingles vaccine and the other didn’t—scientists used this tiny difference to see if getting the shingles shot helped reduce deaths from dementia.