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Shingles vaccine may slow progression of dementia or provide protection against it
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Study published in medical journal cell Shows the vaccine “can slow or prevent disease progression throughout the course of dementia”
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“We are more confident that what we are actually seeing here is a causal relationship,” said the study’s senior author.
Shingles vaccine may show progression of dementia and ‘protect against early memory loss’.
Researchers looked at the health records of more than 300,000 people in Wales between 2013 and 2022 and found that the herpes zoster (HZ) vaccine (the medical term for shingles) “can slow or prevent the progression of dementia throughout the course of the disease,” according to new research published in a medical journal. cell.
The researchers found that for people with dementia, the vaccine reduced their risk of death by 29.5%; for those who had not yet been diagnosed, the vaccine reduced the likelihood of being diagnosed with cognitive impairment by 3%.
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Stock image of doctor preparing vaccine.
The study noted that “the effect of shingles vaccination on reducing new diagnoses of MCI and dementia deaths was greater among women than among men.”
“What this means is that the vaccine not only has preventive potential, but actually has therapeutic potential because we’re already seeing some benefit in people with dementia,” Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and senior author of the new study, told CNN. “To me, that’s really exciting and unexpected.”
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The Centers for Disease Control explains that the shingles vaccine is a two-dose series given at age 50, or at age 19 or older for immunocompromised adults. One in three adults develops shingles, which causes an itchy rash on one side of the body and severe, often long-term, nerve pain.
The CDC explains that it’s caused by the same virus as chickenpox, but even if you’ve had chickenpox, you should get vaccinated because “the virus remains dormant (inactive) in the body. It can reactivate years later and cause shingles.”
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Stock images of elderly people suffering from dementia.
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The researchers considered the eligibility requirements for the shingles vaccine in Wales and explained that they were able to compare eligible groups with those who were not.
“We know they should have similar levels of physical activity, diet, etc.,” Gerdesizer said. “So we have more confidence that what we’re actually seeing here is causation and not just correlation.”
Read the original article on People