Can This Vaccine Help Prevent Alzheimer's?

Can a shingles vaccine cut your dementia risk by 20%?

A series of landmark studies — published in Nature, Cell, and JAMA — say yes.

In this episode, Tommy unpacks the research: how natural experiments in four countries produced one of the most compelling signals in dementia prevention, what might explain the effect beyond infection prevention, and what it means for your own vaccination decisions.

In this episode:

00:00 — Introduction

00:52 — The new data on shingles vaccination and Alzheimer's risk

01:48 — The Stanford group and their regression discontinuity methodology

03:15 — How birthday-based eligibility creates a natural experiment (Wales, Canada, Australia)

05:28 — Results: a ~20% reduction in dementia diagnoses across all countries

06:52 — The Cell paper follow-up: benefits at every disease stage (unimpaired → MCI → dementia)

07:55 — Shingrix vs. Zostavax: the US natural experiment and a potentially larger effect

09:08 — Why does it work? Preventing illness, avoiding bed rest and disuse, immunomodulation