I am not sure how big in the news this has been recently because I only heard it once and in passing, so I thought I’d share it here in case anyone missed it. Researchers have been studying the link between having shingles and then later developing dementia for a few years. Their findings consistently showed a link between the two conditions, but parsing out the lifestyle differences was always an issue. They managed to study a population and create a scenario that was akin to a randomized trial where they rolled out the vaccine in Wales in a very controlled way. Only 79 year old people were given the vaccine each year, while the people who were already 80 and older never received it. These groups of people were completely alike in every way, yet those who got the vaccine were 20% less likely to later develop dementia. Women showed an even greater protective result. I got this information from the Stanford Medicine News Center which is a well written, easy to read article. The original findings were published in Nature.
The reason that having shingles leads to a greater chance of developing dementia is unclear, but might have to do with the virus itself, or how it weakens certain key elements in the body’s functioning.
Peace and Protection 💜🌱✨
Thanks for sharing this. I am not a fan of extra vaccines but this is worth researching further.
I totally understand that and agree with you! I’m very thoughtful about what goes into my body and make sure the vaccines I get are worth it. Also it just points to the fact that they can now really consider studying the role viruses play in dementia and Alzheimer’s which might lead to better understanding prevention and effective treatments.
I had not heard about this. I will definitely ask my doctor. Thank you for posting!
Beautiful rainbow photo!
Thank you for your sweet words and liking the rainbow pic! There’s so much in the news these days that it’s hard for these smaller stories to get through!
Just saw an article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer about this.