Childhood illness linked to dementia risk later in life, alarming…

In early October, one of the largest-scale research was launched, demonstrating the connection between the shingles vaccine and the risk of dementia. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the shingles vaccine is the only approach to stop the disease and other problems associated to shingles. About one in three Americans can have shingles in their lifetime, and the CDC recommends that adults 50 and older and those with weakened immune systems get vaccinated. 

Anyone who has had chickenpox in their lifetime will carry that virus in their our bodies for the remaining of their lives, and the virus that causes chickenpox also causes shingles infections. 

The researchers’ findings, printed in the journal Nature Medicine, reveal evidence that vaccination against shingles could help decrease the risk of dementia and defend the mind. 

This research is essential, as latest research spotlight that the risk of developing dementia for Americans 55 years and older is 42%. This risk evaluation has more than doubled the projections from older research. 

In 2025, researchers project about half a million circumstances of dementia, and by 2026, the disease will rise to about a million circumstances per 12 months.

What the research revealed about shingles and the connection to dementia 

Researchers analyzed the health data from over 100 million people that have been seen at more than 7,000 hospitals and clinics across the U.S., between 2007 and 2023. 

They managed almost 400 different variables, including demographics, lifestyle elements, doctor’s visits, and more, and discovered a 27% to 33% decrease risk of developing dementia over three years after sufferers obtained the shingles vaccine. 

Furthermore, the research discovered that those who skilled a number of episodes of shingles have been related with a 7-9% increased risk of dementia three to 9 years after the second outbreak in contrast to those with only a single shingles episode. 

How does this research support dementia research? 

While a quantity of dementia circumstances are linked to getting old adults in the U.S., the disease is also linked to genetic elements, such as “high rates of hypertension and diabetes, obesity, unhealthy diets, lack of exercise, and poor mental health,” per NYU Langone Health. 

Most sorts of dementia can’t be cured, so this research aids in discovering a pathway to decreasing the risk of dementia in older adults. As of proper now, medical doctors can only present methods for dementia sufferers to handle their symptoms. 

The research’s findings counsel that those who have obtained a number of doses of the shingles vaccine have a decrease risk of dementia in contrast to a single dose of the vaccine. 

This new analysis backs up an April 2025 research printed in Nature, in which Stanford Medicine researchers analyzed the health data of older Welsh adults and discovered that those who obtained the shingles vaccine have been 20% less doubtless to develop dementia in the seven years following, in contrast to those who didn’t obtain a vaccine.