New research indicates shingles vaccine may reduce risk of dementia

The newer shingles vaccine is more effective than older vaccines at delaying the onset of dementia and may even prevent it.

The shingles vaccination has long been linked to dementia prevention, and the current vaccine, available since 2017, called Shingrix, appears to reduce the risk of developing shingles over the next six years by 17 percent more than an older vaccine called Zostavax.

Shingles occurs when the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and remains in the body, is reactivated during times of weakened immune systems, such as during stress or chemotherapy, resulting in a painful rash that can become infected and scar.

Because the risk of shingles increases with age, doctors generally recommend that older people age 50 in the US and 65 in the UK be vaccinated against the virus, followed by a booster shot about six months later.

Until seven years ago, the most common vaccine, Zostavax, was based on a live virus. May be associated with reduced risk of dementiaAlthough there are links between different types of vaccines and dementia Controversial.

Several countries have recently begun phasing out Zostavax and replacing it with the more effective Shingrix, a recombinant vaccine that involves taking a small piece of DNA from a pathogen and inserting it into bacterial or yeast cells to produce a protein that triggers an immune response in the body.

I would like to know how this vaccine affects the risk of dementia. Maxim Take Oxford University researchers collected the medical records of 103,837 people who were vaccinated in the United States after the recombinant vaccine was released in November 2017, as well as 103,837 people who were vaccinated before that.

They then selected 100,532 people in each group, with a mean age of 71 years, who had received the shingles vaccine during each period, excluding those who had received both vaccines.

By examining medical records after the first shingles vaccination, the team found that people who were vaccinated after November 2017 were 17% less likely to develop dementia over the next six years than those who were vaccinated before that. It's possible that the risk reduction lasted beyond six years, but the researchers didn't investigate this because of the reduced number of participants.

Although men and women develop shingles at similar rates, the new vaccine appears to be particularly effective in women.

The reason for the reduced risk is unclear, but it's possible that shingles infection contributes to dementia, so a vaccine that provides strong protection against the virus may also be effective in preventing dementia, Take said.

The study was thorough and well-conducted, despite being based on medical records that don't provide other important information such as people's physical activity or diet, the researchers said. Pascal Gerdsetzer Researchers at Stanford University in California say people who lead healthy lifestyles that may reduce their risk of dementia could also wait until a more effective vaccine is available.

but Richard Reiss Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in the UK have found that several types of vaccines have been linked to lower dementia rates, such as the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, which prevents tuberculosis and can also be used to treat bladder cancer. Dementia risk reduced by 45%.

So the results may be due to the vaccine boosting the body's immunity in general, rather than helping to prevent shingles and specifically reducing the risk of dementia, Reis said.