- Adults ages 50 and older can protect themselves against shingles with a vaccine.
- Previous research has shown that the shingles vaccine may help lower a person’s risk for dementia and heart disease.
- A new study found that the shingles vaccine may help lower a person’s risk for vascular dementia and cardiovascular events like blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.
Since 2006, older adults have been able to protect themselves from shingles by getting the shingles vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommends
Previous research has shown that the shingles vaccine may offer additional health benefits. For example, a study published in May 2025 found that the shingles vaccine may help lower a person’s risk for cardiovascular events by 23%. And research published in April 2025 reported that the shingles vaccine may help reduce a person’s dementia risk by
For this study, researchers analyzed the medical data for more than 38,000 people in the U.S. with an average age of 69. Participants who received the shingles vaccine were followed for an average of 3.6 years, and those who did not receive the vaccine were followed for an average of 3.9 years.
“Vaccines don’t just prevent infection — they can also shape how the body responds to inflammation,” Ali Dehghani, DO, doctor of internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, and presenting author of this study at IDWeek 2025, told Medical News Today. “Herpes zoster (shingles) is now recognized as a condition that can affect the heart, blood vessels, and brain long after the rash is gone.”
“Understanding how the shingles vaccine might reduce these broader complications helps us appreciate vaccines as tools for overall health protection, not just for stopping one disease,” Dehghani added.
At the study’s conclusion, researchers found that when comparing the shingles vaccine to the pneumococcal vaccine for the prevention of pneumonia, participants who received the shingles vaccine lowered their risk for vascular dementia by 50%.
Additionally, those same shingles-vaccinated participants had a 27% risk reduction for blood clots, a 25% lower risk of heart and stroke, and a 21% lower death risk.
“We’ve learned from past studies that shingles can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and dementia, but no one had yet asked whether being vaccinated before getting shingles could lessen those long-term risks,” Dehghani said. “Our goal was to test whether vaccination might not only prevent shingles itself, but also blunt the inflammation that drives vascular and cognitive damage afterward.”
How: Reducing overall inflammation
“These numbers suggest the vaccine’s benefits may extend far beyond preventing shingles. We think the shingles vaccine may help the immune system control the virus before it causes widespread inflammation, which in turn could protect blood vessels and the brain. It highlights how reducing inflammation early — through vaccination — can have lasting effects on heart, brain, and overall survival.”
— Ali Dehghani, DO
“Our next steps are to study how shingles-related inflammation affects blood vessels and the brain in patients with medical conditions that predispose them to increased Zoster susceptibility,” Dehghani added. “We’re also exploring whether other vaccines that reduce viral inflammation show similar long-term heart and brain benefits.”
MNT spoke with Manisha Parulekar, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD, director of the Division of Geriatrics at Hackensack University Medical Center and co-director of the Center for Memory Loss and Brain Health at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about the shingles vaccine and its potential for lowering vascular dementia risk.
“As a geriatrician who works daily with patients and families affected by dementia, my first reaction was one of cautious optimism,” Parulekar said. “This study reinforces a theory we have been exploring that inflammation in the nervous system is a key driver of cognitive decline. For patients who often feel helpless against this disease, the potential benefit of a routine vaccination could offer a level of protection (that) is encouraging.”
“This research suggests the shingles vaccine may do more than just prevent a painful rash; it may also reduce inflammation in the nervous system. If we can confirm this link, it opens up a promising new avenue for prevention, not just for dementia but potentially for other neurodegenerative diseases that are also linked to inflammation.”
— Manisha Parulekar, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD
Although it’s far too early to say whether the varicella-zoster virus directly causes dementia, more research could explain the link.
“It would be helpful to expand this research from correlation to causation, to definitively confirm if reducing the reactivation of the
MNT also spoke with Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a board certified interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, about the study’s findings regarding the shingles vaccine and lowered cardiovascular disease risks, including blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.
“This study found an association between getting the shingles vaccine and a reduced future risk of heart attack, stroke, dementia, or even death,” Chen said. “These results are in line with previous studies, which have also found a cardio-protective and neuro-protective effect of the shingles vaccine.”
How shingles may lead to other diseases
“Serious infections such as shingles can incite a strong and stressful inflammatory response in the body. This, in turn, could lead to major adverse health effects in many different organ systems. By better understanding the health benefits of the shingles vaccine, we may even be able to expand the categories of patients who we think would benefit from vaccination.”
— Cheng-Han Chen, MD
“Future research can focus on the potential mechanisms behind how the shingles vaccine could actually have a causative protective effect against cardiovascular disease,” Chen added.