Can a shingles shot help prevent memory problems?
Impact of herpes zoster vaccination on incident dementia: A retrospective study in two patient cohorts
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The shingles vaccine’s dementia protection wasn’t explained by preventing shingles itself—even people who still got shingles after vaccination had lower dementia risk.
Common sense says if the vaccine prevents a virus that causes inflammation, then the benefit must come from stopping the infection. But this study proves the vaccine’s effect goes deeper—possibly rewiring immune responses.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re 65 or older and haven’t gotten the shingles vaccine, talk to your doctor about getting Shingrix—it’s now the recommended vaccine and may offer brain protection too.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The shingles vaccine’s dementia protection wasn’t explained by preventing shingles itself—even people who still got shingles after vaccination had lower dementia risk.
Common sense says if the vaccine prevents a virus that causes inflammation, then the benefit must come from stopping the infection. But this study proves the vaccine’s effect goes deeper—possibly rewiring immune responses.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re 65 or older and haven’t gotten the shingles vaccine, talk to your doctor about getting Shingrix—it’s now the recommended vaccine and may offer brain protection too.
Publication
Journal
PLoS ONE
Year
2021
Authors
Jeffrey F. Scherrer, J. Salas, T. Wiemken, D. Hoft, Christine K. Jacobs, J. Morley
Related Content
Claims (7)
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 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 shot might lower your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease by about a quarter to a third when you’re 65 or older — at least, that’s what some big health studies have noticed.
Getting the shingles vaccine doesn’t seem to help or hurt one racial group more than another when it comes to avoiding dementia in older U.S. veterans.
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.