Vaccination can help prevent shingles – a painful condition that an estimated one in three people in the U.S. will develop in their lifetimes – but new research indicates that it can also prevent cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death and disability in the nation and other issues.
“These findings suggest that live zoster vaccination may be beneficial as a public health strategy with potential implications for cardiovascular disease burden in the general population,” said the study, published Monday in European Heart Journal. “This strategy may help address health disparities and mortality linked to cardiovascular complications.”
Other studies have found that shingles, caused by a varicella-zoster virus, which is in the herpes family, can also hide out in the brain and may cause damage that promotes the development of dementia. A study published in July found that people who got the Shingrix shingles vaccine had a 17% lower chance of being diagnosed with dementia in the six years after their shots.
As for cardio benefits, according to a press release about the research from the European Society of Cardiology, more than 1.2 million people living in South Korea participated in the study. Data was gathered beginning in 2012.
People who were given a live zoster vaccine for shingles had a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, a 26% lower risk of major cardiovascular events (a stroke, heart attack or death from heart disease), a 26% lower risk of heart failure and a 22% lower risk of coronary heart disease, said the release.
This protective effect of the vaccine lasted for up to eight years and was particularly pronounced for men, as well as people under the age of 60 and those with unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and being inactive. It was strongest in the first two to three years after the vaccine was given.
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two doses of the Shingrix vaccine for everyone over the age of 50. Shingles is a rash caused by varicella-zoster virus (VZV) that causes chicken pox reactivating in the body. It can be extremely painful and people can develop shingles more than once and it can lead to severe complications, including long-term nerve pain called postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN.
According to the CDC, vaccination is more than 90% effective at preventing shingles. It is also recommended for immunocompromised adults age 19 and older.
However, the Shingrix vaccine available in the U.S. is not the same as the live zoster vaccine used in the South Korean study, per the Mayo Clinic. Zostavax is a live virus vaccine for shingles (meaning that a small amount of the virus itself is injected, triggering an immune response) available in other countries.
“Our study suggests that the shingles vaccine may help lower the risk of heart disease, even in people without known risk factors. This means that vaccination could offer health benefits beyond preventing shingles,” said Professor Dong Keon Yon from the Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, lead author of the study.
He said there are several reasons why the vaccine may help reduce heart disease risks. For one thing, a shingles infection itself can cause blood vessel damage, inflammation and clot formation that can lead to heart disease, Yon noted.
“By preventing shingles, vaccination may lower these risks,” he explained. “Our study found stronger benefits in younger people, probably due to a better immune response, and in men, possibly due to differences in vaccine effectiveness.”
This study is one of the longest and most comprehensive on the subject.
“For the first time, this has allowed us to examine the association between shingles vaccination and 18 different types of cardiovascular disease,” said Yon. “We were able to account for various other health conditions, lifestyle factors and socioeconomic status, making our findings more robust.”
However, Yon also acknowledged that it was limited to an Asian cohort and that the live zoster vaccine is not suitable for all people. He said more research is needed on the recombinant vaccine offered in the U.S.