… I wonder if it also helps with weight loss? {LOL} I’m glad I got two of them.
Does shingles vaccination cut dementia risk? Large study hints at a link
intercst
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I did as well. I had a golfing buddy that got shingles and I went ahead and got the shot then a couple of years later I got the Shingrix vaccine. Shingrix was a two shot deal. I vaguely remember them being about a month apart.
Or are the two factors correlated because people who took precautions against shingles also took precautions against covid?
Steve
3 Likes
I know 6 people who got shingles. DH was in terrible pain. A friend got it in her eyes and almost went blind.
I got the original shingles shot as soon as I turned 60. Then I got the Shingrix 2-shot series which cost $400 out of pocket. (It’s covered by Medicare now.)
Shingles is nothing to joke about. Or take chances with. Even if it doesn’t have a link to Alzheimer’s disease.
I also got 5 Covid shots (counting all the boosters). I intend to get the Covid and flu booster as a routine from now on in October.
Wendy
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I got shingles about 20 years ago on one side of my abdomen, right about the belt line.
I had to adopt a more urban look for about six weeks while the scars healed with my pants sitting about 6" lower on my posterior.
intercst
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I have had both Shingles and Covid. Covid was a cake walk in comparison, even though I was 25 years younger when I had Shingles. Did not hesitate to get both the shingles vaccines when they were offered, and Covid vaccines when they became available, though that was after we got the virus in February 2020. I don’t need any more increases in chance of Alzheimers with my family history!
IP
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Between the time my brother got his shingles vaccine and it became fully effective, he came down with them across his face and damaging the cornea on one of his eyes. Someday he will have to have a corneal transplant because of that.
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Interesting. Any idea how you got the virus that early?
DB2
Since shingles was also referenced in the first part of the sentence (which you omitted), I assumed that was what ip meant since it made the most sense. Of course, ip could have been on one of the cruise ships that had the first COVID cases in US waters, although that seemed a lot less likely.
Pete
Except that she said (if I read it correctly) that she was 25 years younger when she had shingles.
DB2
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Nowadays shingrix is a 2-shot sequence, two to six months apart. I got mine during COVID, in fact, one of my shingrix shots was exactly 14 days after one of my covid shots. And my shingrix shots were 4 months apart almost to the day (I figured I’d choose the middle of 2 to 6 months).
There is always someone who is an early contractor (if that’s the right word) of any infectious disease…through no fault of their own and oftentimes with no idea of who gifted it.
My husband is pretty convinced he saw his first case of Covid on about 28/29th January. A guy in his 40s and otherwise healthy, apparently, who was admitted to the ICU for ECMO (Google will help here). Husband along with one of the nephrology team were called for consults because of multi organ failure. Admitted initially for flu (but-ve testing) plus chest radiographs that looked nothing like dh (or the nephrologist) had ever seen. The patient…and his liver … ultimately recovered but I’m not sure whether his kidneys did.
Maybe IP wasn’t as late to the party as it seems.
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Maybe so; but can’t you get shingles more than once? My dad had multiple incidents over a period of 20 years.
Pete
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I have had recurrent cases of shingles since 1959 when I was 8. The Shingrix vaccine has helped but not (yet) cured the damn thing. Interestingly, micro doses of edible marijuana, taken nightly, has been been very useful.
david fb
(yes, I am weird)
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There are no precautions to take against shingles (except taking the vaccine). Anyone who had chicken pox as a child (like most of us) carries the virus internally.
Wendy
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That is what I was talking about. Are people who get themselves vaccinated against shingles also more likely to take precautions against covid (mask, sanitizer, avoiding people, getting vaccinated)?
Steve
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Yes. DH had a 2 week business trip in San Francisco and brought it back as a souvenir. It was all over the news as the “China virus,” so I had joked he had better not go to China Town. We were very lucky, but dog got it too and had long Covid for about 18 months. He was never the same.
We may not have had such a mild case if we had gotten the next variant, from Italy, which hit NYC very hard. Ours lasted about 4-5 days, followed by another 3 weeks of feeling like someone was sitting on our chest.
At someone’s suggestion on what was the Health and Nutrition Board, we called the local health department. You could hear the fear in their voice when they tried to answer our questions. What do we do? Stay home. How long? Don’t know. Honestly, we have had worse colds, given biggest symptoms during the active 4+ days were fever/chills and a dry cough. No runny nose. No desire to contract a second time, none the less. Our son had a nasty case, even after being vaccinated and a super fit guy in his early 20’s. Different strain.
IP
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Our kids had the chicken pox vaccine, so I asked the doctor if they needed the Shingles Vax. He still said it was probably a good idea.
IP
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Probably yes. Especially since the shingles vaccine was out of pocket until recently for Medicare and it was expensive. ($200 X 2 shots). Anyone who is strongly motivated against shingles is probably also strongly motivated against Covid.
I need a TDAP booster. I plan to drag DH along for Shingrix as well as TDAP. I dragged him for the Covid shots, too. This (plus healthy home cooking) is part of the statistic that married men average a longer life span than single men.
Which is not to say that sensible single men can’t take good care of themselves on their own. But wives are usually the caretakers.
Wendy
1 Like
from the link:
The researchers used an array of statistical tools to account for other factors that could influence COVID-19 infection and severity, such as members’ sociodemographic characteristics and underlying health conditions.
The 2 separate analyses gave highly consistent results, showing that people who had received at least 1 dose of the shingles vaccine were 16% less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19—no matter how long ago they had received the vaccine. The cohort analysis also showed that shingles vaccine recipients were 32% less likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
They had about 450K patient records so it seems it would have been pretty easy to account for all sorts of factors
Mike