Shingles Vaccine Linked to Reduced dementia Risk in Major Observational Study
Cardiff, Wales – A large-scale observational study inโ Wales suggests a surprising benefit of the shingles vaccine: a notable reduction in dementia-related deaths among those already diagnosed with the condition. Researchers, led byโ Dr. Peter Geldsetzer at Stanford University, haveโค consistently observed this protective effect across multipleโค international datasets, raising โthe possibility that the vaccine could not only โคprevent but also slow theโค progression โof dementia.
The study, initially published in December,โ examined the health records โof 7,049 Welsh seniors who had โa dementia diagnosis at the start of โthe nationalโฃ shingles โvaccination program. Results revealed a striking difference in outcomes. While nearly half (approximately 3,525) of the dementia patients died of dementiaโข during the โnine-year follow-up โขperiod, the rate dropped to around 30 percent among those who received the shingles vaccine. Thisโ suggests the vaccine may have slowed the disease’s progression.
“The most exciting thing about this is that this really โขsuggests โthat the herpes zoster vaccine not only has preventiveโข and delaying benefits for dementia, but also therapeutic potential for those who โคalready have dementia,” Dr. Geldsetzer stated to Stanford Medicine.
The uniqueโ rollout of the Welsh vaccination program – offering the vaccine to all seniors nonethelessโฃ of shingles history – is citedโ as a strength of the study. Researchersโ believe this broad approach minimizes potential bias in โtheโ analysis. โ
The protective mechanism remains unclear. Scientists are investigating whether the vaccine’s benefits โstem from a general immune system boost, reduced reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus โฃ(whichโฃ causes both shingles andโฃ chickenpox), or anโฃ entirely different pathway. It isโ indeed also unknown if newer, more effective shingles vaccines utilizingโค onlyโฃ specific viral proteins would yield even stronger results.
Dr. Geldsetzer’s team hasโฃ since reviewed health data from โEngland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, finding consistent โ”strongโข protective signal[s] for dementia” across these datasets.
The next โcrucial step, according to researchers, is a large-scale randomized controlled trial. This study would โinvolve randomly assigning participants to receive either theโค live shingles vaccine or a placebo, โoffering a definitive test of the vaccine’s impact on dementia risk. “It would be a very simple,pragmatic study because we have a one-time intervention that we know is safe,” Dr. Geldsetzer explained.
Source: lpi
