Posters have asked if this is true for any vaccination, not just for shingles. This is a slightly simplified version of the detailed news report. It is quite specifically about shingles, which is a very strange affliction.
‘In childhood the VZV virus gives us chickenpox, with its painful rash. When that fades, the VZV virus recedes but does not disappear. It enters into the nerve cells and then crawls up toward the spinal cord, where it can remain in the body for decades. It periodically reactivates. When we are young and healthy, our immune system beats it back. As we age, the VZV virus can return with more force and our immune system weakens. It then causes shingles.
‘Inside the brain, the periodic reactivation has for years attacked our immune systems, which become inflamed. This inflammatory response leads to a build up of amyloid-beta plaques which affect the brain. Small-level increases of these plaques over years mean that “by the time you’re 65, the brain may just stop working properly’. That’s dementia!
Research into dementia has for years been unsuccessful. This is a major breakthrough. It resulted from data in Wales that found an unexplained clear decrease in dementia in people who had received a shingles vaccine which in 2013 was provided free to people under 80 years of age. The decrease was 3.5% compared with those who had not received the vaccine, which is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card but is very significant at a population level.
And it has already opened many more pathways for research, which may be even more significant!
The study is NOT saying that shingles increases the likelihood of dementia. That's not what was found in this "accidental" study. The initial scientific thought is whether certain viruses cause an increase in dementia. There is not yet enough studies to confirm or disprove this finding. This is a new possible correlation.
This is why a cold isn't just a cold, and flu isn't just the flu for some people. It's why I dread getting Covid, which is already being researched re Long Covid and hopefully other conditions. It's why I cover my coughs and sneezes and why I wish other people would too. The follow-on disease can be worse than the original infection that leads to it.
The chicken pox to shingles to dementia connection doesn't surprise me one bit!
It would be wonderful if having children vaccinated for chicken pox , resulted in even slightly decreasing the number of people developing dementia in the younger generations . My son had a pretty bad case of the chicken pox before the vaccine was available . My nephew had a very serious case and ended up in the hospital with encephalitis . My daughter had the vaccine , however she did come down with a very , very mild case of chicken pox a few years later . After that they started recommending a second vaccine dose for children .