The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia • Hacker News Board

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#161

Post by gdudeman » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:57 PM UTC

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…

People who are immune compromised qualify for this. I'm not sure how much your insurance company would push back on that though.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#162

Post by chasil » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

anonym29 wrote: post #26

andy99 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

As I understand it, antibodies only last a month within the blood before they degrade.

It is the memory B cells that produce them that last years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-lifespan-of-an-antibody-in...

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#163

Post by gdudeman » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

If you haven't seen the chart from the UK study, I highly recommend checking it out: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-shingles-vaccine-and-re...

When the vaccine came out in the UK, they included a hard age cutoff: Above a certain age, you weren't eligible. Below that age, you were eligible.

They looked at the probability of a dementia diagnosis over the 7 years after the vaccine was introduced.

People who were born in the "can get the vaccine" group have markedly lower rates of dementia. People in the "too old" group have higher rates. It's cut and dry. The researchers didn't separate out the people who actually got the vaccine.

It's one of those studies where you don't even need to look at the p-value to see the difference between the cohorts.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#164

Post by warshinder » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

gdudeman wrote: post #160

reenorap wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This finding of shingles and dementia is likely due to “healthy vaccinee” bias as per the link someone else posted below: https://youtu.be/qlTnnQytOJ0?is=XJ0c5pWVV6Lg0IMs As per one of the slides around 7 minutes in, there are many vaccines that show a 20-40% reduction in mortality and dementia. The talk above basically says that “observational studies” may show great results, like the so-called protective action of…

This really isn't the case in the Shingles vaccine unless the UK study is flawed a way that isn't clear to me. The study looked at the effect of being eligible for a vaccine and the results were clear. (see chart below the fold here: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-shingles-vaccine-and-re... ) There was a hard age cutoff in the UK study. Above a certain age, you weren't eligible. Below it, you were. People who w…

Right. And RCTs not showing things than can be seen in larger observational studies seems plausibly related to the problems with RCTs, for instance statistical power being generally lower because n sizes are lower, attrition is an issue, etc… I want to believe the research though, especially since I like most smart people are going to get the Shingrix shot anyway.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#165

Post by gdudeman » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #156

scrollop wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were a few studies around 2022 showing the influenza vaccines and pneumoccocal vaccines reduce alzheimers (influenza by up to a whopping 40%!). I tell me patients this to increase uptake, so we can reduce alzheimer's prevalence. (I'm a doctor)

Do you have a link to these studies? I ask because, as another commenter mentioned, I think it would be very difficult to tease out cause and effect and I think the "healthy vaccinee" hypothesis could easily explain why so often you see the association between any vaccine (just here we have shingles, influenza and pneumococcal) and Alzheimer's risk reduction. To be clear, I would get those vaccines regardless for the…

I believe that there are studies that show that merely getting very sick increases your chance of dementia - essentially it ages you faster or brings chronic disease forward. If that's the case, vaccines for things like the flu - a disease you're likely to get - are probably good overall.

They also activate the immune system in generaly, which could probably go either way in terms of longevity.

In general I don't think vaccines are preventing so much as delaying dementia, but if they stop chronic infection they might be.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#166

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

gdudeman wrote: post #160

reenorap wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This finding of shingles and dementia is likely due to “healthy vaccinee” bias as per the link someone else posted below: https://youtu.be/qlTnnQytOJ0?is=XJ0c5pWVV6Lg0IMs As per one of the slides around 7 minutes in, there are many vaccines that show a 20-40% reduction in mortality and dementia. The talk above basically says that “observational studies” may show great results, like the so-called protective action of…

This really isn't the case in the Shingles vaccine unless the UK study is flawed a way that isn't clear to me. The study looked at the effect of being eligible for a vaccine and the results were clear. (see chart below the fold here: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-shingles-vaccine-and-re... ) There was a hard age cutoff in the UK study. Above a certain age, you weren't eligible. Below it, you were. People who w…

Thanks very much for linking that substack, very informative.

But in your summary:

> People who were born in the "can get the vaccine" group have markedly lower rates of dementia. People in the "too old" group have higher rates.

I would change "people" to "women". I thought it was very interesting that the benefit of the Shingles vaccine eligibility for Alzheimer's was largely confined to women - men showed no such benefit per the graph in that substack article.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#167

Post by chasil » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #68

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'm one of those people (knock on wood) who never gets sick. I never get colds or seasonal flu, and I don't get routine flu vaccines. Never got COVID either, even when several people in the house had it (I did get the J&J vaccine for that, however). I did have chicken pox as a kid, but have not had shingles nor the vaccine (yet). A co-worker was laid up for a week after his shingles vaccine, but that's obviously just…

Your thymus shuts down in your 80s, and you will make no more new T cells.

I also understand that a third of the elderly will have shingles by their 80s if unvaccinated.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#168

Post by warshinder » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:11 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #96

tptacek wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not this one you can't.

I told my local Walgreens I am immunocompromised and they did not ask for proof (early 40s). https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/hcp/vaccine-considerations/inde...

Safeway pharmacy staff dgaf about anything from my personal experience.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#169

Post by chasil » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

pocksuppet wrote: post #158

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like the more colds you have in life Whoa wait what? This is the first time I’ve heard of this - is this actually common knowledge?

This isn't common knowledge. This is something people (non-experts) are starting to infer, because we're seeing it with Long COVID - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48877214 - but there's no reason to think this is something special about SARS-CoV-2 - it could just as well happen with all viral infections but we weren't looking. It reminds me that we didn't look at vaccine efficacy at the individual level until…

From a legal perspective, if the injection does not provide 100% immunity (when used as directed), then it cannot be called a vaccine, instead it is a therapeutic treatment.

Because courts of law have recognized covid mRNA injections as therapeutic treatments, they cannot be mandated.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#170

Post by subscribed » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

monkey_monkey wrote: post #108

subscribed wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

> (UK becoming the dirtiest and sickest country of Europe one more time) Big Yawn

Don't let the facts to discourage you from yawning.

> [1] Of the reported 22,289 bathing waters across Europe (EU-27, Albania and Switzerland) in 2025, 84% were rated excellent quality. This share reached 85% at the EU level.

[1] https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/european-...

> [2] In 2025, 297 bathing waters in England (66.1 per cent) met the Excellent standard

Note the sharply increasing amount of "Poor" waters.

And that's despite the methodology allowing to presence of untreated sewage and human faeces in the "excellent" waters: https://www.theferret.scot/scottish-beaches-excellent-pollut...

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/bathing-water-quali...

With treatment waiting times, dental treatment availability and deaths while waiting for the ambulance I don't think I need to get into gory details.