In a recent study, researchers at Kyung Hee University in South Korea found that. Their analysis revealed that the shingles vaccine had a strong protective effect against several serious cardiovascular events in adults. This is partly why Sooji Lee, MD, the study’s lead author, found her study so compelling. Patients who got vaccinated had a 23 percent reduced rate of experiencing serious cardiovascular events. This research is uniquely important because it focused on an Asian population, and it represents one of the first steps in understanding the vaccine’s wider health benefits.
This longitudinal study used data from a nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and older from South Korea, beginning in 2012. It looked at the link between getting vaccinated specifically against shingles and 18 distinct types of cardiovascular diseases. The results confirm that the shingles vaccine protects over 90% of people from getting shingles. Even more compelling, it’s more than 80% effective in preventing the most serious heart conditions.
Dr. Lee emphasized the importance of these findings, noting that “shingles has traditionally been regarded as an infectious disease.” As she explained, studies have previously shown that shingles are symptomatic of other chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease. This hints at a broader link between infection and chronic health conditions.
According to this study, receiving the shingles vaccine reduces the risk of developing coronary heart disease by 22%. Additionally, it reduces the risk of developing heart failure by 26%. As Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, chief of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Cincinnati, explains, shingles poses significant health risks. In response to the controversy surrounding the findings, Dr. Wang added that these results shouldn’t deter us from vaccinating all eligible patients.
The shingles vaccine confers protective benefits for a period up to eight years post-vaccination. The most effective protection is achieved within the first two to three years of protection. According to Grant Simons, MD, those results were “astounding.” As he put it, “The reduction in risk of 22-26% for different cardiovascular events is beyond what we had expected and really unexpected.”
The study’s principal investigator Dong Keon Yon, MD, PhD, described the multifaceted approach of their work as “thick.” This advance is enabling us to explore the relationship between getting vaccinated against shingles and 18 different kinds of cardiovascular disease for the first time, he added. He continued that they controlled for pre-existing conditions, health behaviors, and SES, which added rigor to their findings.
Even with these exciting outcomes, noodle experts warn that more studies are needed to get a clearer picture of what’s really going on. Dr. Simons called for additional studies to continue research in this area. He emphasized that we need to better grasp the exact mechanisms at play.
Dr. Chen articulated the connection between shingles and cardiovascular events. He discussed how varicella-zoster, the virus that causes shingles, can induce inflammation that damages blood vessels (also known as vasculitis). Indeed, “the varicella-zoster virus has the potential to complicate every organ system in the body, including the heart and nervous system,” he wrote. Thus, by preventing this infection, the shingles vaccine can potentially lower inflammation-related risks of cardiovascular events.
In fact, this study offers some of the strongest evidence yet of shingles vaccination’s benefits. Experts caution against generalizing these results to all populations. Perhaps the most important point that Dr. Yon highlighted was the fact that this research was conducted on an Asian cohort. Consequently, these findings cannot be generalized to other populations.
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