# Does the shingles vaccine reduce dementia risk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 14, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672 "2026-02-14T21:54:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/1 "2026-02-14T21:54:44Z")
The association between viruses and inflammation causing certain conditions is not nearly as robust as one would like. But what to make of this evidence that shingles vaccine may lead to a lower incidence of dementia and healthier aging? > **[Study: Shingles Vaccine Linked to Slower Biological Aging in Older Adults](https://gero.usc.edu/2026/01/19/shingles-vaccine-slower-biological-aging/)** > > Shingles vaccination not only can prevent painful illness but also correlates with lower inflammation & slower biological aging in Americans age 70+. > **[Huge Study Reveals 2 Vaccines That Appear to Reduce Dementia Risk](https://www.sciencealert.com/huge-study-reveals-2-vaccines-that-appear-to-reduce-dementia-risk)** > > Some immunizations may be quietly protecting us from cognitive decline. > **[A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia -...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40175543/)** > > Neurotropic herpesviruses may be implicated in the development of dementia1-5. Moreover, vaccines may have important off-target immunological effects6-9. Here we aim to determine the effect of live-attenuated herpes zoster vaccination on the... > **[Shingles, Zostavax vaccination and risk of developing dementia: a nested...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34625411/)** > > A history of shingles was not associated with an increased risk of dementia. In subjects who were eligible for the immunisation and vaccinated with Zostavax, we saw reduced risk of developing dementia. > **[The Impact of Routine Vaccinations on Alzheimer’s Disease Risk in Persons 65...](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10578243/)** > > Accumulating evidence suggests that adult vaccinations can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias. To compare the risk for developing AD between adults with and without prior vaccination ... ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/2 "2026-02-14T22:08:12Z")
If it does, that apparently hasn’t stopped Kennedy from saying the shingles and chickenpox are not available in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/3 "2026-02-14T22:29:11Z")
Yup pretty undeniable. This is pretty compelling research… > In propensity-score matched cohort studies with 436,788 individuals, both the AS01-adjuvanted shingles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, individually or combined, were associated with reduced 18-month risk of dementia. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/4 "2026-02-14T23:30:59Z")
That’s still just a correlation, though, not necessarily a causation. It might be, for instance, that individuals who are more health-conscious in general are more likely to get the vaccine, and are also likely (for other reasons) to have lower dementia risk. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/5 "2026-02-14T23:41:27Z")
Yep. Cohort studies don’t prove causation. Still, interesting that vaccines may offer more benefits than those proposed by Health Secretaries. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/6 "2026-02-15T03:37:13Z")
Another source (limited gift link) [https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/02/13/can-the-shingles-vaccine-slow-ageing?giftId=MWUyOWQ5ZTItNTcxNy00NjNmLWE0NWUtZjYzM2FmMTA5M2E0&utm\_campaign=gifted\_article](https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/02/13/can-the-shingles-vaccine-slow-ageing?giftId=MWUyOWQ5ZTItNTcxNy00NjNmLWE0NWUtZjYzM2FmMTA5M2E0&utm_campaign=gifted_article) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/7 "2026-02-15T06:08:02Z")
Are we talking the older shingles shot or the the newer two dose vaccine? Or both? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/8 "2026-02-15T06:17:19Z")
Per the most recently gift link: > Why exactly this might be remains unclear. One possibility, says Dr Geldsetzer, is that the seemingly dormant chickenpox virus may continuously damage the body until such time as the vaccine helps fight it off. The other possibility is that the shingles vaccine provides a broader boost to the immune system—by encouraging the production of white blood cells, for example—in which case other vaccines may yield similar benefits. Which (to me) means they see the correlation, and are at the stage of _guessing_ at possible causation. What I’d really like to see, is that we have a full generation (roughly) since the Chickenpox vaccine itself came into use. In 30 or so years, they, having theoretically no dormant varicella virus in their systems (well, not from _chickenpox_ at least) would be a great control group to draw upon. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/9 "2026-02-15T06:31:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s still just a correlation, though, not necessarily a causation. It might be, for instance, that individuals who are more health-conscious in general are more likely to get the vaccine, and are also likely (for other reasons) to have lower dementia risk But the subjects were chosen at random from the two different age groups. Conceivably, the same percentage of the older group would have opted for the vaccine as the percentage of the younger group who did opt for it. The older group would have been just as likely to have the same percentage of health-conscious people as the younger group. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/10 "2026-02-15T15:02:02Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Still, interesting that vaccines may offer more benefits than those proposed by Health Secretaries. Having seen my mother suffer from shingles when I was young, I got the shot as soon as it was offered. If it turns out to have other benefits, so much the better. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/11 "2026-02-15T15:54:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s still just a correlation, though, not necessarily a causation. Though that’s a big correlation… [![](https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41541-025-01172-3/MediaObjects/41541_2025_1172_Fig1_HTML.png) ](https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41541-025-01172-3/MediaObjects/41541_2025_1172_Fig1_HTML.png) There are a lot of confounding factors that could be adjusted for in a study that large. I don’t know if cohort studies do that? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/12 "2026-02-15T16:24:00Z")
It says right there in the ScienceAlert article that they think it’s the adjuvant that has the effect, and that there’s no additional effect of getting vaccinated for both viruses, or just one. And it also points out that the Shingrix vaccine does indeed outperform the Zostavax (older) shingles vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/13 "2026-02-15T16:34:44Z")
Having had both Shingrix and the RSV vaccine, I’ll be happy they ward off both shingles and RSV, never mind any purported benefit against dementia.\* \*along with [drinking plenty of coffee](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/drinking-2-3-cups-of-coffee-a-day-tied-to-lower-dementia-risk/), I should blurp fe foin, reely. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/14 "2026-02-15T18:08:16Z")
Same, except it was my dad. He got a horrible case of shingles after my sister and I got chicken pox. I got my first shingles shot dose two weeks after I turned 50. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/15 "2026-02-15T22:30:19Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Per the most recently gift link: > > > …The other possibility is that the shingles vaccine provides a broader boost to the immune system—by encouraging the production of white blood cells, for example—in which case other vaccines may yield similar benefits. This aligns with my (non scientific) theory that the body benefits from vaccines by exercising the immune system, making it strong. It’s like driving a vehicle to keep the engine running smoothly, instead of leaving it in storage. You’ve got to run it through its paces or you need to worry about rust. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/16 "2026-02-15T22:38:31Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > This aligns with my (non scientific) theory that the body benefits from vaccines by exercising the immune system Your immune system gets “exercised” all the time, not just when you get a vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/17 "2026-02-16T14:05:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > for instance, that individuals who are more health-conscious in general are more likely to get the vaccine, and are also likely (for other reasons) to have lower dementia risk. IMO there must be something interesting going on here. Because to me, the obvious confounding factor, namely that getting vaccination rate is just a very good indicator of how often you see a doctor, would have the reverse effect. These results are classified based on dementia _diagnosis_ and if you aren’t seeing a doctor then you aren’t getting a dementia diagnosis until much later. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/18 "2026-02-16T14:07:36Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > But the subjects were chosen at random from the two different age groups How would that overcome the confounding factor? They weren’t given, or not given, the vaccine based on the random assignation were they? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/19 "2026-02-16T14:21:59Z")
Hm, that’s true that that would tend to work against a correlation. Mitigating that, I think, is that dementia diagnoses often don’t result from the patient themself choosing to see a doctor: I’d expect that more often, they’d result from concerned loved ones urging an older person to be checked out. Even with that factor working against correlation, though, that just means that whatever is actually causing the correlation is even stronger. It still doesn’t say anything about why the correlation exists. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672/20 "2026-02-16T16:14:31Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > How would that overcome the confounding factor? The cohort from the older group who weren’t offered the vaccine would have presumably gotten the vaccine in the same proportions as the group that was eligible, had the older cohort been eligible. The people who took better care of themselves would have been more likely to have opted for it than people who didn’t take better care of themselves, in the same proportion as the eligible group. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-shingles-vaccine-reduce-dementia-risk/1027672.md?page=2)