Routine vaccines may cut dementia risk—experts have startling hypothesis on how

Vaccines may be training a part of our immune system long thought to be untrainable.

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[SomewhereAroundBarstow]

A shot of a shingles vaccine blocks reactivation, potentially preventing the virus from triggering brain inflammation that could contribute to the development of dementia. Conversely, there’s some evidence that having shingles may increase the risk of dementia.

Is there any data on whether getting the Shingrex vaccine shortly after having had shingles reduces that risk? Asking for a friend.

 

[SomewhereAroundBarstow]

Another recent tidbit on the medical front: "study shows that conservative Americans experienced worsening health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s." Two apparent factors:

• The simple statistical reality that conservatives tend to be older...which is nothing they've done that everybody else doesn't do in the passage of time
• But what they have done: "declining trust in medical professionals among right-leaning individuals, including lower willingness to seek care, follow clinical advice or believe in medication effectiveness, even for issues unrelated to COVID-19."

There was a study some time back that suggested survivorship bias is the real reason "people get more conservative as they age."

Historically, people with more resources have tended to both be more conservative and to live longer. Which means that your second point may well end up negating your first point and in the future what most people now believe about a correlation between age and conservatism may be seen as a silly idea past generations had that makes no sense.

 

[SomewhereAroundBarstow]

I asked my physician about this. It's not covered by insurance if you aren't in the approved group, and they don't recommend it as a matter of course, but at least he would give a prescription to anyone who thought they were in a higher risk.

My bad luck was that Shingrix was approved in the US in October, 2017 and being 51 I was in the approved group but they were pushing to vaccinate older people first so it wasn't recommended to me until after I had shingles wipe me out for all of February and March 2018. Lousy timing on my part.