Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 234 posts

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#21

Post by timcobb »

swed420 wrote: post #12

[flagged]

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 lost count), have had 0 covid infections as far as I know, masked for a long time while it seemed to make sense.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#23

Post by syntaxing »

I know quite a few people who got shingles in their early 20s. One of their doctors didn’t believe she had shingles until the blisters formed. The vaccine can definitely help those younger than 50, dementia benefits or not. Some of them have permanent nerve damage after getting shingles.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#24

Post by tptacek »

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.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#26

Post by anonym29 »

andy99 wrote: post #18
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 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 vaccine strain tends to be much more mild than the wild strain, and indeed it was quite unpleasant, but not extremely painful for me. The wild strain is considerably more painful and linked to a greater incidence rate of complications. Please do not skip chickenpox vaccinations for your kids, the minor risk of latent infection from attenuated vaccine is far less harmful than the consequences of not vaccinating. Most important of all, if you have a cluster of blisters or rash on one side of your body that keep popping up, make sure to see a doctor and get on antivirals within the first 72 hours for best results.

Re: The shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia

#28

Post by [deleted] »

cyanydeez wrote: post #6
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…

aside from age ranges being the tested population, your just gambling no other interference pattern is involved.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN