A new study suggests that the shingles vaccine may help prevent dementia by reducing the risk of varicella-zoster virus reactivation.
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A new study suggests that the shingles vaccine may help prevent dementia by reducing the risk of varicella-zoster virus reactivation.
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It’s chickenpox, which can resurface as shingles in adulthood.
Before there was a vaccine, parents would deliberately expose their kids to chickenpox, reasoning that it would confer long term immunity at an age when an infection was unpleasant but didn’t seem very dangerous. (As opposed to in adulthood, when an infection was likely to be a greater danger.) I don’t think anyone had linked it to neurological problems yet.
Since then, we have found correlation between the varicella zoster virus and multiple sclerosis, and now apparently dementia. I don’t know if it has been proven to be a contributing factor yet, but I think it’s pretty clear that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do.
Yeah my mom didn’t believe in vaccines an exposed me to chicken pox. Dementia already runs in the family too. What a jackpot for me.