Can the Herpes Zoster Vaccine Help Prevent Dementia?

According to the statistics of the CDC, the rate of herpes zoster, commonly known as “skin snake”, is more than 30%, which means that 1 out of every 3 people will get the disease. Because the sequelae of this type of disease are very complicated, it may lead to facial nerve paralysis, hearing loss, or even blindness or deafness if it is serious, which makes many people feel uncomfortable. Now, with the development of the herpes zoster vaccine, a foreign statistical analysis found that taking the elderly in their 70s to receive the herpes zoster vaccine, in addition to reducing the risk of herpes zoster infection, found that in the next 7 years , are also less likely to suffer from dementia. However, although the causal relationship between the two has not yet been determined, physiologists believe that the occurrence of dementia is positively correlated with viral infection.

According to the report of Live Science, in recent years, more and more medical evidence has found that viral infection is related to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the future. It is speculated that the possible reason should be related to chronic inflammation of the body .

The report mentioned that the chickenpox virus that causes herpes zoster infection is a relatively cunning type of virus. After infection, it often hides in specific nerve cells. When the immune system is weakened, the virus will be stimulated and cause shingles. Herpes zoster, which is commonly known as “skin snake”.

Scientists analyzed the health records of people in their 70s during the marketing period of the attenuated virus vaccine Zostavax (Zostavax) in September 2013, and compared the elderly who had received Zostavax vaccine and those who had not. for analysis. It was found that the chances of developing dementia were about 8.5% lower among the elderly who had been vaccinated.

Ruth Itzhaki, honorary professor of molecular neurobiology at the University of Manchester, said in an interview that theoretically, the inflammation caused by the re-initiation of “chickenpox-shingles” may increase the risk of dementia, but Because he did not participate in the new study, he only analyzed it theoretically.

Itzaki believes that some part of this statistical analysis is also a virus in the nervous system, which may damage the brain and cause the risk of dementia. Detailed cause-and-effect relationships clarified.