Who would’ve thought that getting your shingles vaccine could potentially protect you against dementia? Yet, breaking news reports say professionals have claimed a shingles vaccine, called Zostavax, could lower the risk of dementia. The vaccine is a weakened form of the shingles virus.
A study based on over 280 000 medical records of elderly adults who had received the Zostavax vaccine showed that they were less at risk for dementia in the seven years following the vaccine, than those who had not received it.
How A Shingles Vaccine Took The Spotlight
The study into Zostavax as a key to reducing dementia risk began quite by chance. According to an article on Verywellhealth.com, a unique set of circumstances in Wales in 2013 put the vaccine in the spotlight. From 1 September 2013, residents who were 79 years old were eligible to receive the Zostavax vaccine for that year. This eligibility then shifted to the next group of 79-year-olds.
This meant that those who were 80 years old or older as of 1 September were never eligible.
In an unexpected breakthrough, researchers then discovered that there was a difference in the rate of dementia between those who had received the vaccine and those who hadn’t. “The vaccinated group was 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia,” reads the report.
How Does A Vaccine For Shingles Affect Dementia Risk?
The results seem astounding. How does a shingles vaccine begin to relate to a dementia diagnosis, and what can account for the peculiar medical anomaly?
According to studies, vaccines in general are known to have a neuroprotective effect. Interestingly, vaccines against pneumonia and influenza have been known to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s.
Also, research cites that dementia could possibly be linked to the varicella zoster virus, which hibernates in the nervous system. This is the virus which causes shingles, which is a painful, blistering rash, usually on one side of the body or face.
Vaccines: Possible Treatment For Neurological Conditions
While vaccines are traditionally used to prevent infectious diseases, recent research is exploring their potential to treat various neurological conditions by targeting the immune system in specific ways.
The reason for this is that vaccines can clear protein build-up (for example amyloid, tau, alpha-synuclein); suppress autoimmunity (for example, as in MS), and target tumours. Vaccines offer a potential way to train or reprogram immune responses.
While no vaccine is currently approved specifically to treat a neurological condition in the way traditional therapies are, several approaches are being investigated.
Dementia currently affects 57 million people worldwide. If the finding of the shingle vaccine’s link to decreased risk of dementia is verified, this could be a way of slowing the rapid increase of worldwide dementia cases, which are expected to triple in the next 25 years.