There are many reasons to get a flu shot this fall, but here’s one that might surprise you: It could protect your brain.
Some studies have shown that vaccinated individuals appear less likely than the unvaccinated to develop dementia. https://t.co/Uw9301VwNf
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 25, 2023
The “vaxx skeptics”, of course, will insist that the Big Pharma medical-industrial complex has every reason to push ‘unverified’ benefits… but since I’m getting those shots anyway, I don’t mind hoping for some positive side effects. From the Washington Post, “Flu shots may protect against the risk of Alzheimer’s, related dementias”: [unpaywalled gift link]
… Recent research suggests that regular vaccinations against influenza and other infectious diseases such as shingles, pneumococcal pneumonia, and tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough) may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
“Vaccines are the great public health success story of our generation,” said Paul E. Schulz, professor of neurology and director of the Neurocognitive Disorders Center at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, who led several of the studies. “They keep you safe from any number of infections, many of which can be life-threatening. And now it appears there is another tremendous benefit, this one against a disease that is among the most feared.”
A number of studies have found that people receiving vaccinations for flu and several other infectious diseases appear less likely than the unvaccinated to develop dementia, although scientists aren’t sure why. Some believe that infectious agents play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and that vaccinations help by preventing or reducing the likelihood of getting these infections.
Alternatively, Schulz speculates that vaccines may curb an immune system reaction to amyloid plaque, a naturally occurring protein found in abnormally high levels in Alzheimer’s. The immune system sees plaque as a foreign invader and attacks it, causing chronic brain inflammation and the death of nearby neurons, which contribute to dementia, he said.
In quelling the immune response to amyloid, vaccines may save brain cells that the body’s immune system might otherwise kill, he said. It’s also possible that vaccines strengthen the immune system’s ability to get rid of plaque. “Fewer plaques lead to less inflammation and less brain cell loss,” Schulz said, adding: “We aren’t sure yet exactly what the mechanism is, but something is going on with the brain and the immune system that seems to make a big difference.”
Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said the studies “suggest long-term benefits from immunizations with vaccines that may go beyond the intended direct benefits.”…
Schulz led a recent study that found a statistically significant difference in the incidence of Alzheimer’s after following two groups — one vaccinated against flu, the other unvaccinated — for up to eight years.
In the flu study, the researchers took participants from a national patient database, two groups of 935,887 each, one group vaccinated, the other not. To avoid the potential influence of various factors that could affect the results, the scientists ensured that each group shared many of the same characteristics, such as age, gender, how frequently they went to the doctor, and certain medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.
Schulz and his colleagues found that an annual flu vaccination for three consecutive years reduced the dementia risk 20 percent over the next four to eight years, while six shots doubled it to a 40-percent reduction…
In another study, his team found similar results with vaccines for other infectious diseases, including shingles, pneumococcal pneumonia and the combination of tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough), known as Tdap, or with tetanus and diphtheria without the pertussis component.
With the shingles vaccines, for example, (Zostavax, the early shingles vaccine, and Shingrix, the most recent one), the researchers compared 198,847 patients, who were vaccinated to an equal number who were not, Schulz said. Among the vaccinated, 16,106 patients developed Alzheimer’s during the eight-year follow-up, compared with 21,417 of the unvaccinated — or 5,311 fewer patients in the vaccinated group got dementia…
Wear those upper-arm bandaids proudly!
Matt McIrvin
Before the COVID vaccines existed, I recall an interesting paper claiming that having any kind of recent vaccination seemed to significantly lower the likelihood of severe COVID. Of course it might be hard to filter out sampling issues– maybe people with recent flu shots were also more likely to take precautions that protected them from COVID. But there was also speculation that maybe the vaccines were triggering a nonspecific immune response that was somehow helpful.
Scout211
Association is not causation. So even though these results appear encouraging, not knowing exactly what that X factor is that can be proven (in a double-blind study) to be the factor that helped reduce the percentage of those in the study from developing dementia and Alzheimer’s, I’m staying cautious.
Call me cynical, but going through my mother’s Alzheimer’s and now my husband’s, I don’t get too excited by these studies. Being fully vaccinated didn’t help either one of them.
But if it encourages more people to get vaccinated regularly, it’s a good thing I guess.
UncleEbeneezer
I always get flu shot, so I’m happy about this.
trollhattan
If only I can remember to get one!
Will be heading out to watch the kiddo race this weekend. She’s bitching about the course, “That hill!” and I’m all, “Yeah, and see what you get to look at the entire time.”
https://map.pepperdine.edu/images/IMG_2011041804833_DETL.jpg
Considering she’s run in Riverside, Fresno, Ontario and the like (Last year, Portland–yay–solid rain for three hours–sub yay) this seems like an upgrade.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: It’s amazing how many of these nutters seem really deeply invested in their anti-health behaviors. Remember when somewhere (NYC, maybe?) taxed big sodas and you would have been forgiven for thinking that we were forcibly removing their fingernails?!
Like, drink your soda, don’t take your shots, whatever…. but stop pretending that it’s some bold and iconoclastic statement of your personal self.
Tinare
@Scout211: Yeah, my first thought was might this be correlation that those more likely to get vaccines might be more likely to do other things – eat certain foods, exercise, do other health positive things that might have a hand in curbing cognitive decline.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
Same here. I also think that there is a lot that we don’t know about these viruses. I mean, you can have chicken pox as a kid, then it comes back decades later as shingles? So it just lurks?
So thankful I never had chicken pox. And I jumped on that vaccine when it came out in the 1990’s.
kindness
Kaiser here in N. Cal finally got enough of the new covid boosters. So I went and got that and the flu shot last week. Sore shoulder the next day but no effects to report, except my 5G is off the charts now! I’m a walking personal hotspot.
eclare
@trollhattan:
Gorgeous! Good luck to the kiddo!
Fake Irishman
@Scout211:
True, association isn’t causation, but this retrospective study is reasonably well controlled (propensity score matching isn’t perfect, but it does help simulate experimental conditions by trying make sure the the vaccinated and non- vaccinated are otherwise apples to apples comparisons). There are also several potential mechanisms scientists have pointed to as potential drivers.
So that gives us a few points of evidence. The next step, as you note, is more powerfully designed studies to isolate potential mechanisms.
I’m really sorry about your folks. My wife does research on caregivers, who are a rather overlooked part of the healthcare team.
But even though a 25 percent reduction doesn’t spare the majority of folks with Alzheimer’s or other dementia-related conditions, it would have enormous positive implications for public health and medicine.
Sister Golden Bear
Definitely hope this is true. One of my grandmothers died of Alzheimer’s and prospect terrifies me since I live alone and don’t have any close relatives.
trollhattan
@Suzanne: I’ve heard yapping about fluoridation since I was a kid, as one example. Big thanks to the Birchers for that one (they had a ton more). “Doctor Strangelove” was notable for highlighting wacky wingnut health conspiracies, of course.
The aluminum one goes back much further, including being blamed for Rudolph Valentino’s death.
trollhattan
Hey, stop bragging! :-P
trollhattan
@eclare: Thanks!
Senior year so we’re trying to attend as many as possible. Thank god Gonzaga isn’t hosting.
sab
@Fake Irishman: We hired caregivers for my parents and I pulled the third 8 hour shift for years until my mom died and we put dad into a nursing home. I was too small to pick him up by myself when he fell down at night.
That is emotionally amd physically grueling work.
We still have one of the caregivers with him at his nursing home most days. My siblings will be shocked when they find out I spent their inheritance on caregiving. But she has had and could get again a factory job with full benefits at $25 or more per hour, and she is a lovely kind person who treats him like her own parent.
Princess
My mother also is fully vaccinated and has AD. But, y’know, the pathways they suggest for why it might help make sense to me and it may be that if she weren’t vaccinated AD would have come earlier or progressed faster. Looking forward to more studies.
jonas
Tom Nichols, I think, has done yeoman’s work piercing this conceit that freedom = “You’re not the boss of me!” It’s oppositional defiant disorder dressed up as faux-patriotism or something. Half the country is in thrall to it.
sab
@kindness: No you are not a hotspot. Only Covid shots do that.
Kayla Rudbek
Here’s hoping that there’s a causal connection! I have had a lot of flu shots and a lot of COVID shots, and a history of dementia on the paternal side of the family. Of course, my grandpa also did electroplating work back in the 1930s and mouthpipeted gasoline for his boats, so a lot of toxic chemicals exposure there…
the pollyanna from hell
@trollhattan:
My first conscious memory is of Pepperdine in 1950 or 51
trollhattan
@Kayla Rudbek: Mmmm, lead.
Dad, a smoke, died of lung cancer but did auto and airplane mechanics and worked in industrial settings, so there were many unknowable toxic synergies, plus the very known one of asbestos. Lots and lots of lead and mercury.
The America Republicans work towards returning to us, on a cadmium platter.
trollhattan
@the pollyanna from hell:
You win! Mine are of Iowa. :-)
Suzanne
@jonas: Agreed. It always blows me way how people try to justify their negative impulses. Like, just own it.
Kayla Rudbek
@trollhattan: his dad (my great grandfather) worked for the railroad cleaning out the locomotive engines. Surprised he didn’t get cancer from that.
gvg
I wonder if they have the causation backwards. Not getting vaccinated implies you already have some cognation issues…
Ohio Mom
@Scout211: That’s always the rub with medical research. It could show something like, “This treatment works for 97% of patients,” but no one can ever tell in advance if you are going to be in the 97% group or the 3% group.
stinger
What a timely post! I just got back from a lunchtime presentation on brain health, presented jointly by AARP and the Alzheimer’s org. They talked about the evidence that vaccines of all types may help stave off dementia. Also about the two, soon to be three, infusion treatments for slowing progression, and how although there is no cure, amazing progress had been made in treatment over only 2 1/2 years. You Jackal whippersnappers should take hope!
trollhattan
@Kayla Rudbek: Had to have been grim conditions.
We have old railyards in town, from as far back as the Transcontinental Rail era, and their environmental cleanups are epic. SO MANY contaminants from so many sources.
Scout211
My husband’s neurologist will not prescribe those treatments anymore. There is a high incidence of serious side effects, even fatal brain bleeds with those two treatments. One of his patients ended up near death after taking one of them last year.
I know they were touted as effective treatments but should only be taken with extreme caution. Getting through FDA approval was very controversial for both of them.
I may seem like a downer here, but living through this for the second time in my life (so far), feels like a ginormous dose of reality and I am just trying to keep things real in my life, one day at a time.
eclare
@Scout211:
Your lived experience is valuable, please continue to speak out.
stinger
@Scout211: You have a very valid point of view. The side effects can be extreme. Such treatments are available around here only through the university teaching hospital where they do a lot of leading-edge work. Still, the research goes on and every new breakthrough leads to another. My offer of hope really is intended for patients 20-30 years from now, not, alas, for current patients.
Villago Delenda Est
So what is needed here is Obama, Biden, Harris, AOC, and Hakeem Jeffries jointly doing a public service bit about how important it is to get your flu shot!
eclare
@Villago Delenda Est:
Add Travis Kelce and Taylor. He already does ads for Pfizer covid and flu shots.
Ruckus
@eclare:
I’ve had chickenpox and shingles. Both before the vaccines were out for each one. I’am rather up to date currently and do keep up with them. And my medical provider does seem to keep up with all the latest. And I am an old, but one that takes most of the shots. I believe I will ask for more of them from now on. The only vaccine that was widely given when I was born was for smallpox. At least that’s what I was told long ago. I remember standing in line with the family to get the polio vaccine when I was 6 – a sugar cube with the blue dot on one side. I’ve known 4 people with polio. A girl I went to school with, 2 of my friends moms had iron lungs in their front rooms, and a neighbor my age who lives in a wheelchair. That’s 4 I know of within a 4-5 mile radius.
WaterGirl
I always wait at least two weeks between vaccinations. I had my Covid shot 9 days ago, and I’m trying to figure out what I should get next. RSV or flu.
I had never even heard of RSV until 2023!
Any thoughts?
MisterDancer
@WaterGirl: Flu. Reason: More likely to catch, overall.
eclare
@Ruckus:
My US rep, TN-9, had polio as a child. Sometimes he uses a cane.
I got the two shot chicken pox vaccine when it came out, and about ten years ago a dr recommended a booster. I rolled up my sleeve pronto!
eclare
@WaterGirl:
The only youngish person I know planning to get RSV has severe asthma. I’d go with flu.
WaterGirl
@MisterDancer: That makes sense.
WaterGirl
@eclare: That, too!
CarolPW
@WaterGirl: I got both of those at the same time a week ago – one in each arm. It was 4 weeks after my Covid shot. The senior flu hurt as usual, at the time of the shot and still a little if I poke the area (I think that’s related to the volume). The RSV one I didn’t feel at all, at the time of the shot or after.
H.E.Wolf
I’ve had the smallpox vaccine twice: first time as a small child (little hexagonal pinprick gizmo), and second time (regular inoculation) as a condition of employment at a public university in MA.
My statement of prior vaccination cut no ice with the elderly doctor who administered the 2nd vaccine. He said, “I’ve seen smallpox outbreaks, and I never want to see one again.”
WaterGirl
comrade scotts agenda of rage just submitted a single (gorgeous) fall photo. So if all you have is just one or two, we can always make a compilation post of fall colors.
WaterGirl
@CarolPW: I never get more than one at the same time. It’s a personal choice, but I feel like it’s asking too much of your body to handle more than one at once.
Geminid
@Kayla Rudbek: I just heard about the relationship between Parkinson’s Disease and exposure to trychlorethyline. This chemical is or was used in drycleaning as well as industrisl orocess like degeasing metal.
There seems to be a lot of research showing the connection now, but I heard about it from a scientist interviewed on local radio. He said there was a large increase in Parkinson’s Disease during the last century, and that it seemed to come from exposure to trychloethelyne and other chemicals including pesticides.
A customer of mine has Parkinson’s. He’s retired now, but he used to work as a high powered corporate consultant. I’ve seen his closet; it holds 10 feet worth of really nice, drycleaned suits.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf:
What can you say to that, besides “fair enough”.
Bill Arnold
@Tinare:
There was a woman-only study several years back that showed a very large effect for midlife exercise to improve cardiovascular fitness, which was correlated with a dramatic deferral of dementia among (Swedish) women. (No men studied but I would expect similar results (guessing slightly less dramatic).) Study was size unfortunately small, N=191. Needs more N !
Midlife cardiovascular fitness and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study in women (14 March 2018)
Soprano2
@eclare: My mother had a virus in her inner ear that caused dizziness. I thought that was bullshit until I researched it.
RSA
These are retrospective studies, where blinding isn’t an issue. More importantly, direct experimentation with people could give causal connections but isn’t possible for ethical reasons. You can’t inject people with a placebo and later say, “Sorry, you were part of the control group.” What we really want is an understanding of the disease and the mechanisms by which vaccines reduce risk. This may be decades away. In the meantime, the results seem trustworthy enough.
Snarki, child of Loki
CLEARLY it’s the microchips in the vax shot that keeps your brain functioning at maximum capacity.
Add the caffeine? OVERCLOCKED.
BellyCat
Did the scientists consider the fact that those opting for flu shots appear to utilize their grey matter enough to realize they should get a flu shot. And *thinking* might be beneficial to long term mental health ?!?!
Barry
@Scout211: “Association is not causation. So even though these results appear encouraging, not knowing exactly what that X factor is that can be proven (in a double-blind study) to be the factor that helped reduce the percentage of those in the study from developing dementia and Alzheimer’s, I’m staying cautious.”
Note that the study of causality has improved quite a bit.
I took the causality workshops offered by Northwestern Law School in 2012 and 2013. I was shocked by how much I had **not** been taught in my graduate statistics and biostatistics in the 90’s.
Barry
@Ohio Mom: “That’s always the rub with medical research. It could show something like, “This treatment works for 97% of patients,” but no one can ever tell in advance if you are going to be in the 97% group or the 3% group.”
I disagree; that’s the rub with life itself, not medical research in particular.