I’m a brain health expert - here’s why shingles vaccines may fight dementia

Want to reduce your risk of dementia ? Consider getting the shingles vaccine. A new study provides the strongest evidence yet that a shingles vaccine reduces the risk of dementia. Researchers tracked more than 280,000 adults in Wales and found that the shingles vaccine cut the risk of developing dementia by 20% over a seven-year period.

The new findings, published in Nature, could have implications for managing the large and growing burden of dementia. There are few effective treatments for dementia and no preventive measures outside of lifestyle changes. “If we were able to identify one treatment which reduces the risk significantly of developing dementia in the population or even delaying it, that would be exceptionally good news,” said Max Taquet, a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Oxford.



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