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The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

economist.com

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Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#51

Post by jyounker »

mlyle wrote: post #19
robot_jesus wrote: post #5

I'm in my 40s with genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's. Been seriously considering the past year or two paying out of pocket for Shingrix. I think it would be ~$500 total for two doses. Sure, I could wait 7 or 8 years until I qualify via insurance, but is that really worth the risk for what is an easily absorbed cost to me? Especially when I have a friend in her late 30s who just went through a very rough bout of…

I got shingles at 45 and it was -not fun-. My arm is slightly disfigured. I think the age 50 target is dated. With reduced childhood incidence of chicken pox, we're all exposed to varicella zoster less, and it seems like the ages of incidence of shingles is falling. Public health recommendations are slow to catch up with research (especially for vaccinations, these days).

Yeah, I came here to say the same thing. I got it around 46. The horrible looking stuff on the outside is also on the inside, and it weakens your internal tissues. I know this because I tore one of the muscles in my lower back, and it still causes problems.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#52

Post by jyounker »

copperx wrote: post #17
robot_jesus wrote: post #5

I'm in my 40s with genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's. Been seriously considering the past year or two paying out of pocket for Shingrix. I think it would be ~$500 total for two doses. Sure, I could wait 7 or 8 years until I qualify via insurance, but is that really worth the risk for what is an easily absorbed cost to me? Especially when I have a friend in her late 30s who just went through a very rough bout of…

Shingles terrifies me because it can cause hearing loss. I spoke to my GP and he wouldn't give me a script for it even though I'm 3 years away from qualifying. He mentioned side effects.

That seems like being penny wise and pound foolish.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#53

Post by zahlman »

mlyle wrote: post #19
robot_jesus wrote: post #5

I'm in my 40s with genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's. Been seriously considering the past year or two paying out of pocket for Shingrix. I think it would be ~$500 total for two doses. Sure, I could wait 7 or 8 years until I qualify via insurance, but is that really worth the risk for what is an easily absorbed cost to me? Especially when I have a friend in her late 30s who just went through a very rough bout of…

I got shingles at 45 and it was -not fun-. My arm is slightly disfigured. I think the age 50 target is dated. With reduced childhood incidence of chicken pox, we're all exposed to varicella zoster less, and it seems like the ages of incidence of shingles is falling. Public health recommendations are slow to catch up with research (especially for vaccinations, these days).

> Japan was among the first countries to vaccinate for chickenpox. The vaccine developed by Hilleman was first licensed in the United States in 1995.[17][60]

People (well, Americans and Canadians at least) in their 40s now generally didn't get vaccinated as children, as their parents didn't have the option. It will be different for the next generation.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#54

Post by timcobb »

swed420 wrote: post #35
timcobb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most people can't really get a worthwhile quality of life like that. maybe life is worthwhile to you walking around in an N95 respirator, but not to me, at least not... indefinitely. I'd rather be dead TBH. IMO it makes sense to wait to die to be dead. Why be dead while you're still technically alive? What are you trying to optimize for? Days you woke up? And for transparency, I am triple vaccinated (maybe more, I lo…

[flagged]

Why are you insulting the people you're seemingly trying to convince of something? What's going on there? What are you doing here?

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#55

Post by tptacek »

jyounker wrote: post #52
copperx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shingles terrifies me because it can cause hearing loss. I spoke to my GP and he wouldn't give me a script for it even though I'm 3 years away from qualifying. He mentioned side effects.

That seems like being penny wise and pound foolish.

I think the bigger thing is that the vaccine has a peak response window, and the current medical guidance lines that up with when you're epidemiologically most likely to experience a shingles outbreak (for most people, that's very unlikely when you're young, because your immune system is so jumpy, but that wanes with age). If you get the vaccine early, its effect can be attenuated right when you need it most.

(I don't like this logic and if I had the option of just going to Walgreens and getting vaccinated, I'd do that this afternoon. I'm just saying, there's a logic to it.)

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#56

Post by Terr_ »

zahlman wrote: post #44
khriss wrote: post #43

Recently, even the TDAP (Tetanus) vaccine was correlated with lower incidence of dementia https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26919881 I recall seeing a few discussions on HN comments hypothesizing that immune system stimulation via the vaccine might be the root cause. Now that the Amyloid hypothesis is on the wane, hopefully we'll explore other paths.

> the Amyloid hypothesis is on the wane Oh? What did I miss?

I think the short version is that people have developed a lot of things to substantially reduce the levels in human brains, but in practice is doesn't seem to be yielding clearly-good results.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#57

Post by khriss »

zahlman wrote: post #44
khriss wrote: post #43

Recently, even the TDAP (Tetanus) vaccine was correlated with lower incidence of dementia https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26919881 I recall seeing a few discussions on HN comments hypothesizing that immune system stimulation via the vaccine might be the root cause. Now that the Amyloid hypothesis is on the wane, hopefully we'll explore other paths.

> the Amyloid hypothesis is on the wane Oh? What did I miss?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32183302

TL;DR A lot of evidence supporting the Amyloid hypothesis is suspect.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#58

Post by iambenm »

mlyle wrote: post #19
robot_jesus wrote: post #5

I'm in my 40s with genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's. Been seriously considering the past year or two paying out of pocket for Shingrix. I think it would be ~$500 total for two doses. Sure, I could wait 7 or 8 years until I qualify via insurance, but is that really worth the risk for what is an easily absorbed cost to me? Especially when I have a friend in her late 30s who just went through a very rough bout of…

I got shingles at 45 and it was -not fun-. My arm is slightly disfigured. I think the age 50 target is dated. With reduced childhood incidence of chicken pox, we're all exposed to varicella zoster less, and it seems like the ages of incidence of shingles is falling. Public health recommendations are slow to catch up with research (especially for vaccinations, these days).

I got it around 36, and coincidentally a friend 5-6 years younger than me in a different part of the country got it at the same time.

My research at the time led me to the same conclusion: Since we've basically eradicated chickenpox, we're not exposed to the varicella zoster virus as much as previous generations (via children that have chickenpox). Without exposure our antibodies / resistance fade out.

Since we had chickenpox, the virus is already in us and dormant. When it wakes up and decides to do its thing, our bodies have forgotten how to fight it effectively compared to previous generations - and as a result, the incidence of shingles is increasing in younger populations compared to previous generations.

My doctor said vaccination for under 50 is only indicated after multiple occurrences of shingles... so here's to hoping I'm good til the guidelines change.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#59

Post by SoftTalker »

tptacek wrote: post #24
robot_jesus wrote: post #5

I'm in my 40s with genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's. Been seriously considering the past year or two paying out of pocket for Shingrix. I think it would be ~$500 total for two doses. Sure, I could wait 7 or 8 years until I qualify via insurance, but is that really worth the risk for what is an easily absorbed cost to me? Especially when I have a friend in her late 30s who just went through a very rough bout of…

Wait, you can just pay for the shingles vaccine, before you're 50? Where do I do that? I had shingles in my 30s. It was the sickest I've ever been.

If you just want to pay out of pocket or with an HSA, etc. you can get many vaccines at a pharmacy. Might need to check if there are limited hours for that service or appointments needed. Not sure if Shingrix is one of them.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#60

Post by hobo123 »

hereme888 wrote: post #10

Replicated association, which is strong, but not proof. Initial study saw a 3.5% absolute reduction in dementia diagnoses over seven years with a very wide confidence interval. In Australia the study was replicated with 1.8% absolute reduction over 7.4 yrs. Canadian replication: 2% over 5.5 yrs. Infections generally increase the risk of future dementia. Like the more colds you have throughout life.

I wonder if infections do not cause more dementia, but are simply correlated with more. A weaker immune system may trigger many many things.

And similar questions about obesity "causing" many diseases, sunburns causing skin cancer (although that sounds somewhat plausible) etc.

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