According to a study involving over 200,000 elderly individuals, those who received the Shingrix “recombinant” vaccine received a dementia diagnosis 164 days on average later than those who had an older-style vaccination.
The impact was comparable to that of the first novel Alzheimer’s disease medications, which are presently pending approval by UK pharmaceutical regulators.
Although the study’s experts are unsure of the biological mechanism underlying the effect, they do know that it is statistically significant.
One said, “It’s correlation, not causation.”
Though this is by far the most important study to date, earlier research suggested that the shingles vaccine might possibly have an impact on dementia.
The scientists took advantage of a chance to conduct what they dubbed a natural experiment.
In 2017, the US virtually immediately moved from administering the live vaccine Zostavax to employing the genetically engineered vaccine Shingrix.
Both work against the herpes zoster virus, which keeps cases of chickenpox from resurfacing in those who have already had it.
