Earlier quoted context omitted.
But surely you can do a booster shot?
So far as I know there's no standard booster protocol for Shingrix.
You could just get one more dose, right?
The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
121–130 of 234 posts
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems like being penny wise and pound foolish.
Looks like the GP is in the UK. I tried to go private (also not 50), but everyone just refused. Pharmacy, GP, private GP. Currently I'm arranging it in the third country because WTAF. (UK becoming the dirtiest and sickest country of Europe one more time)
Close, I'm in the US. I don't need a script to get it, only if I want the insurance to pay for it.
But if I couldn't I could still go to Mexico and buy brand name Shingrix.
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
The antibodies you develop to fight the virus fade over time. I just had it fairly recently (young 30s, vaccinated with the attenuated chickenpox virus, never had chickenpox, so this was likely the vaccine strain¹). Did a lot of reading and research during and after. The antibodies seem to offer good protection for 5-10 years following either vaccination or infection according to the literature I was reading. ¹ The v…
You had Shingles after never having chicken pox except the vaccine?
Yes. In my case, the virus became active after severe and chronic sleep deprivation one summer where I tried experimenting with going from a 16/8 sleep schedule to a 24/12 sleep schedule, on a now-resoundingly-disproven hypothesis that the ratio of waking hours to sleeping hours was more important than the absolute number of each for healthy functioning.
Stress and sleep deprivation are known triggers for the virus, which lies dormant in the nervous system for life after initial infection, and can be dormant for decades at a time between reactivations.
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#124I'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 read before that iirc because of waning protection it’s better not to get it too early. It’s not clear to me why you can’t get it twice, but what I read (and it was some online discussion so could be wrong) was that someone had been specifically told by their doctor to wait to 50 as the best spot to get it. I’d like to know more, I’m in my 40s and would be happy to get it now too but not if it was going to be worse…
Yeah
And you can absolutely get Shingles before 50 (in some cases)
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#125HORSE PASTE!!! NO!!! NO MEDICINE HAS TWO USES!!! HORSE PASTE!!!
Did I do it right?
Edit: I just learned all the dementia patients have undiagnosed shingles. Please ignore my comment now. :-|
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can get basically any medication or vaccination you want in the US as long as you can find a doctor to write the prescription. We even have anabolic steroids that were approved for muscle wasting in cancer patients, but if you can find a doctor willing to write the prescription and a pharmacy that won’t question it, anyone can have pharmacy grade Anavar for the gym, completely legal. In theory the doctor writing…
> You can get basically any medication or vaccination you want in the US as long as you can find a doctor to write the prescription. Is that not usually true in other countries?
There is a large industry in the US that specializes in catering to people that want medications, vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments that are outside the recommended standard of care that medical insurance or public health systems cover. You have to pay for these services directly but the market is competitive so the cost is quite reasonable.
A doctor must sign off on these but that step is mostly performative outside of some narrow exceptions. My impression is that this type of medical care is much more accessible in the US than most other developed countries.
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a separate article the other factors are quoted with similar impact (listed in order of max potential magnitude) - anti depression treatment - education increases - hearing improvement - obesity reduction - low alcohol The earlier you start the better.
Can you share the article you reference?
Its paywalled though:
https://economist.com/briefing/2026/07/09/how-dementia-is-be...
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 c…
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Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#129Unfortunately this is a spurious finding. See this presentation: https://youtu.be/qlTnnQytOJ0 The mechanism is that people with the shingles vaccine are less likely to visit the hospital (because they don't get shingles). Because they have fewer hospital visits they are less likely to receive an incidental diagnosis of dementia from a hospital.
are there that many instances of mild dementia where a lack of diagnosis remains a lack?
Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia
#130Dementia might have dozens of risk factors, each adding up a little. Physical and emotional stress, insomnia, head microinjuries, arteriovascular risk factors, infections and there lies herpes zoster. Only the latter has a causal treatment and is only single stone on the wall of disease.