Two new studies suggest that getting a vaccine to protect against a painful case of shingles may be beneficial for memory, too.
An estimated 98% of U.S. adults have had chickenpox and are at risk for shingles; both are caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is in the herpes family. Herpes viruses can stow away quietly in the roots of nerves. They can reactivate during periods of stress or illness, or any time a person’s immunity is lowered. Increasingly, researchers believe that some kinds of herpes viruses can also hide in the brain; if they reactivate, they may cause damage that promotes the development of dementia.
In 2006, the first vaccine for shingles, Zostavax, was licensed in the United States. In 2017, a stronger vaccine, Shingrix, became available. The CDC now recommends Shingrix over Zostavax for adults 50 and older. A new study has found that people who got Shingrix had a 17% lower chance of being diagnosed with dementia in the six years after their shots than people who got Zostavax. The participants didn’t avoid dementia completely, but vaccination did seem to be associated with a delayed diagnosis.
More new research found that after five years, people who got Zostavax were 8% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia and those who got Shingrix were about 20% less likely to have dementia as a diagnosis in their health records, compared with people who got only a Pneumovax vaccine, which prevents pneumococcal disease.
So for the time being, the best reason to get a shingles vaccine is still to avoid the misery of shingles.
