Simple vaccine could slash risk of dementia, stroke AND heart disease, study finds – experts urge Britons to get their shingles jab

Getting vaccinated against shingles could cut the risk of developing not only dementia but heart disease, heart failure and stroke, a study has found.

If all over-60s had the jab, it could prevent tens of thousands of deaths, according to experts. 

Shingles is a painful and serious condition caused by the re-activation of the chickenpox virus. It becomes more dangerous with age, and can lead to long-lasting nerve pain, hearing loss and blindness. 

A jab that protects against the illness – Shingrix – is available on the NHS for people turned 65, those aged 70 to 79, and people aged 18 and over with a severely weakened immune system.

The non-live vaccine replaced the older Zostavax jab in September 2023, after it was deemed safer for people who are immunocompromised. 

Now, researchers from the University of Oxford believe the jab could slash the risk of suffering a major cardiovascular event by up to 12 per cent. 

‘If confirmed in clinical trials, this could be the first vaccine to protect both the heart and the brain,’ Dr Maxime Taquet, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford and study lead author, said. 

‘The hope is that our study at the very least helps nurture vaccination uptake, for which the benefit could be enormous.’  

The study – published in the journal Nature Medicine – analysed data from more than 70,000 adults aged 60 and over in the US, which switched from administering Zostavax to Shingrix in October 2017.

This allowed researchers to compare the risk of cardiovascular events over a seven-year period in those who were vaccinated with Shingrix v those who had received Zostavax. 

The two groups were matched for dozens of factors that could influence heart health, including age, sex, ethnicity, existing illnesses and medication use. 

Those vaccinated with the newer Shingrix vaccine were 10 per cent less likely to develop coronary heart disease – whereby the blood vessels supplying the heart become clogged with fatty deposits, increasing the risk of heart attack and heart failure. 

Shingrix was also associated with a 12 per cent lower risk of heart failure over the following seven years. 

The benefit was seen in both men and women, with men also showing a 12 per cent  increase in time lived stroke-free. 

The vaccine was also found to be ‘good value’ for the NHS, for those over 70 years old. 

Several trials that are looking to provide more definitive evidence are now under way.  

Experts in the field who were not involved in the study have welcomed the findings, which are said to ‘amplify the obvious benefit of the shingles vaccination’.

The vaccine works by teaching the immune system to recognise and fight the virus that causes shingles.

But it also contains chemicals which experts believe ‘kick start the immune system’.  

Professor Ian Jones, from the University of Reading, said: ‘It is possible that this immune jolt also clears up low level persistent inflammation which would otherwise build to later clinical disease, including neuronal and cardiovascular disease.

‘The data amplifies the obvious benefit of the shingles vaccination, but it also suggests there may be an immune dimension to a number of age-related conditions and that focusing on boosting immunity could be generally beneficial.’ 

Dr Mark Russell, a consultant rheumatologist at King’s College London, added: ‘Although the benefits are relatively small on an individual basis, millions of people receive shingles vaccination, meaning that even a small cardiovascular benefit could translate into a substantial number of cardiovascular events prevented at a population level.’

Shingles is caused by the herpes zoster virus flaring up again in people who previously had chicken pox. 

Around 200,000 people in the UK develop shingles every year. Over a lifetime, around one in four people will develop the condition. 

The findings follow a large body of evidence that suggests the vaccine may also lower the risk of dementia, although a cause-and-effect relationship has not yet been proven. 

A major Stanford study last year found older adults who received the vaccine were around 20 per cent less likely to develop the memory-robbing condition over the next seven years. 

More recently, researchers in the US reported that people given the newer Shingrix vaccine were 24 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over a four-year period than their unvaccinated peers.

The latest findings build on this research by suggesting the jab’s benefits may extend beyond brain health.

Heart disease remains one of Britain’s biggest killers, claiming around 175,000 lives every year. More than 7.6million people are thought to be living with a cardiovascular condition.

Dementia affects almost one million people across the UK, with that figure expected to soar to 1.4million by 2040 as the population ages.