How a common vaccine may help provide protection from dementia
Recent research has shown that routine vaccines offered to adults may help protect against dementia.
A joint Italian-Canadian neuroscience review that analyzed more than 100 million people found that both flu and shingles vaccines were associated with a lower risk of dementia in adults ages 50 and older. The herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine was associated with a 24 percent lower risk of dementia and a 47 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Public health experts say the study published in the journal Journal of Age and Aging The past year points to a pattern that is becoming harder to ignore.
This may indicate that vaccines against common infections may quietly provide long-term protection against the disease, which remains the leading cause of death in the UK.
The prevalence of dementia is expected to rise dramatically with the aging global population, and an estimated two million people in the UK are expected to be living with dementia by 2050.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and former chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, said: said Times: “Pneumonia, shingles, and flu vaccines in older adults have been shown to reduce the risk of serious infection and hospitalization caused by these diseases.
“However, research over the last few years has raised the intriguing possibility that vaccination may also provide a positive reduction in the risk of dementia, a disease that places a huge burden on society and the NHS.”
Some critics argued that other external factors were not taken into account in the review, including the “healthy user effect,” in which those who choose to get vaccinated tend to be more conscious of personal health issues anyway.
However, other studies aim to alleviate this situation. A large-scale, randomized medical trial in Wales where people were offered one of two shingles vaccines, Zostavax or Shingrix. Since both are shingles vaccines, the “healthy user effect” no longer applies, as both groups in the study are actively seeking the vaccine.
The results showed that those who received the Shingrix vaccine, a newer vaccine, had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia in later years.
Dr., a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at Oxford who conducted the second study. Maxime Taquet said: “The size and nature of this study make these findings compelling and should motivate further research.
“They support the hypothesis that vaccination against shingles may prevent dementia. If confirmed in clinical trials, these findings could have significant implications for older adults, healthcare, and public health.”
Shingles vaccines are available free of charge to anyone over the age of 65 through the NHS.
