Shingles is a painful rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person has chickenpox, the virus doesn’t leave the body completely. Instead, it stays hidden in the nerves and can come back later in life as shingles, especially in older adults.
While shingles is best known for its painful skin symptoms, it can also lead to more serious health problems. One of the biggest concerns is that shingles can raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes, particularly in the first few weeks after the rash appears.
The risk is even higher if shingles affects a nerve in the face. When this happens, the chances of having a stroke can increase sharply. That’s why getting the shingles vaccine is so important—not only to prevent the rash, but also to lower the risk of these dangerous health issues.
A new study has found that the shingles vaccine may help protect the heart and brain, especially soon after people get the shot. The study, led by researcher James Mbinta and his team, looked at hospital records from New Zealand. They studied 278,375 adults—most of them over the age of 70—who received the shingles vaccine between 2018 and 2021.
The researchers compared what happened to people in the first 42 days after getting the vaccine with what happened later, between 72 and 162 days after the shot. They discovered that in the first six weeks, fewer people went to the hospital for heart attacks and strokes. In fact, the vaccine appeared to reduce the risk of these events by almost half during that time.
Colin Simpson, another researcher on the team, noted that their results match findings from an earlier study in Australia. That study showed that adults aged 70 to 79 who got the shingles vaccine were also less likely to have a stroke.
These studies build on earlier work from Mbinta and others, which showed that the vaccine could also lower the chance of being hospitalized for nerve pain caused by shingles—a condition called postherpetic neuralgia.
Shingles affects about one in three people during their lifetime, and the risk gets higher with age. For people over 70, the vaccine is especially helpful. It can protect not only against the rash itself, but also against more serious problems like heart attacks and strokes, which can be life-threatening.
Talking to your doctor about the shingles vaccine is a smart step as you get older. Like all vaccines, it’s important to consider both the benefits and any possible side effects. But based on current research, the shingles vaccine offers more than just relief from a painful rash—it may also help prevent serious problems that affect your heart and brain.
In summary, the shingles vaccine does more than protect your skin. It may play an important role in keeping older adults healthier overall by lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes shortly after vaccination. For many, it could be a key part of staying strong and well in later life.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
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