Getting vaccinated against shingles could significantly reduce the risk of major long-term cognitive decline.

noli's read

The creator relies on a very rigorous quasi-experimental study published in the journal Nature Medicine (Eyting et al., 2024), which uses health data from over 280,000 people in Wales. This type of evidence (regression discontinuity design) is a very high-quality observational model that mimics the effects of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) by eliminating healthy-user bias. The results indeed confirm a 20% relative reduction in the risk of loss of cognitive vitality (which is approximately 3.5% in absolute value). Furthermore, another major observational study conducted by Harrison et al. (2024) suggests that the new version of the shingles vaccine offers even more pronounced protection of brain health. However, the exact biological mechanism by which this immune shield preserves our brain remains to be elucidated by research.

the sources

No named source held this one up — that absence is part of the verdict.