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Shingrix vaccine may lower Alzheimers risk, study suggests

“Does shingrix vaccine reduce risk of Alzheimer”
Likely reduces risk
Confidence: High Checked on April 29, 2026

Summary

Recent large‑scale studies using natural‑experiment designs find that the recombinant shingles vaccine (Shingrix) is linked to a markedly lower incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, over multiple years of follow‑up. The evidence points to a probable protective effect, though definitive proof of causality remains pending.

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Sources 59 searched

nature.com
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
cell.com
  • The effect of shingles vaccination at different stages of the dementia disease course: Cell

    We also examined only those dementia diagnoses that were made subsequent to an MCI diagnosis during the follow-up period. As shown in Table S2, the relative reductions in dementia incidence from HZ vaccination receipt and eligibility were generally largest for diagnoses of mixed dementia as opposed to diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease and diagnoses of vascular dementia.

thelancet.com
  • Herpes zoster vaccination and incident dementia in Canada: an analysis of natural experiments - The Lancet Neurology

    After the start of the programme, new dementia diagnoses among the birth cohorts eligible for herpes zoster vaccination in Ontario were significantly less common than in the same birth cohorts in other Canadian provinces that did not have a herpes zoster vaccination programme. This analysis of natural experiments provides evidence, which is more likely to reflect a causal relationship than previous evidence from more standard observational data analyses, that herpes zoster vaccination prevents or delays incident dementia. Mechanistic research into this effect could provide insights into the pathophysiology of dementia and maintenance of neuroimmune health in older age.

med.stanford.edu
hsph.harvard.edu

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