{"id":28,"date":"2026-11-06T09:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/?p=28"},"modified":"2026-11-06T09:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:06:21","slug":"need-another-reason-to-get-your-shingles-vaccine-it-may-protect-against-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"Need Another Reason to Get Your Shingles Vaccine? It May Protect Against Dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An older shingles vaccine may offer unexpected protection against dementia<\/a>, new research suggests.\n<\/p>\n

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A 2025 study published in Nature <\/em>found that people who received Zostavax, a shingles vaccine that\u2019s no longer in use in the United States, had a lower risk of developing dementia.\n<\/p>\n

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Based on over 280,000 health records of older adults, those who received Zostavax were 20% less likely to develop dementia in the seven years following the vaccination than those who did not.\n<\/p>\n

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The findings add to growing evidence that vaccines may play a role in reducing the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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Shingles is a painful rash illness caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus<\/a>, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus can remain dormant in nerve cells and reactivate later in life.\n<\/p>\n

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Zostavax is a live attenuated vaccine<\/a> that uses a weakened form of the virus. This type of vaccine was not recommended for people with weakened immune systems, as it could occasionally trigger shingles in those individuals.\n<\/p>\n

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Zostavax was discontinued in the U.S. in 2020.<\/span> Shingrix<\/a>, a more effective and safer option, had been approved in 2017.<\/span> Shingrix is given as a two-dose series<\/a> and rarely causes infections from the virus.\n<\/p>\n

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Shingles Vaccine Helps Cut Dementia Risk <\/span> <\/h2>\n

The Nature <\/em>study isn\u2019t the first to show a connection between a shingles vaccine and a lower risk of dementia. In 2024, another study by Oxford researchers found an even stronger association between Shingrix and dementia protection<\/a>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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The study also showed that protection against dementia was stronger in women, which could be due to sex differences in immune response or in the way dementia develops, the authors wrote.\n<\/p>\n

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People who are vaccinated also tend to live healthier lives, including having better diets and more exercise, which can also protect against dementia, said Pascal Geldsetzer, MD, PhD<\/a>, senior author of the new <\/em>study and an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.\n<\/p>\n

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Geldsetzer said that lifestyle information was generally absent from patient health records, so it was difficult to determine if lifestyle factors contributed to dementia risk in previous research.\n<\/p>\n

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However, the study was sparked by a unique circumstance in Wales. Starting Sep. 1, 2013, people who were exactly 79 years old became eligible to receive Zostavax for one year. After that, eligibility shifted to the next group of 79-year-olds. Those who were 80 or older as of that date were never eligible.\n<\/p>\n

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Researchers emphasized data from people who made the cutoff date by a week and those who turned 80 a week before the rollout. They accounted for potential differences between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, such as medication use and doctor visits. After weeding out those factors, the vaccinated group was 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia.\n<\/p>\n

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