Shingles Vaccine May Slow Aging

[Zema Bus]

I heard a lot of discussion about this last month. I got the shingles vaccine (Shingrix vaccine) about two years ago since I had chickenpox as a kid and so the virus is still with me, just dormant. That plus it's also recommended for adults over 50.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study encompassing almost 4,000 adults who were ages 70 and over in 2016.

“The shingles vaccine is relatively new and recommended for older adults,” Jung Ki Kim, PhD, research associate professor of gerontology in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, and first author of this study, explained to MNT.

“Prior studies have found lower risks of dementia and other age-related conditions. We wanted to understand whether it might also be associated with [the] underlying biological processes related to aging,” said Kim.

Past studies have found that the shingles vaccine may lower a person’s risk for cardiovascular issues, such as heart failure, stroke, and coronary heart disease, as well as lower overall mortality risk.
Vaccinated people experience slower overall biological aging

Researchers used seven different aspects of biological aging in the body to come up with participants’ composite biological aging score:

adaptive immunity
blood flow
epigenetic aging
inflammation
innate immunity
neurodegeneration
transcriptomic aging

At the study’s conclusion, scientists found that participants who had received the shingles vaccine had a slower overall biological aging on average, when compared to those who did not receive the vaccination.

“This suggests that shingles vaccination may be linked not only to preventing infection and reducing its severity, but may also be more favorable to multiple biological systems, particularly inflammatory, and overall biological aging,” Crimmins said.

“While this is an observational study and cannot prove cause and effect, it adds evidence that a vaccine that affects immunity also affects biological processes that underlie multiple facets of aging biology,” she added.

Additionally, shingles vaccinated-participants had much lower inflammation measurements, slower epigenetic and transcriptomic aging, and lower composite biological aging scores, than those who were not vaccinated.

Kim explained that:

“Inflammation and molecular aging markers have been associated with many age-related health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. Finding consistent associations across these domains suggests that shingles vaccination may be linked to slower aging at a biological level, not just differences in the immune system.”

How might the shingles vaccine help slow biological aging?

Crimmins said one possible explanation as to how the shingles vaccine might help protect a person against aging and health issues that may increase biological aging is that preventing reactivation of the shingles virus may reduce chronic, low-grade inflammation, which is a key driver of aging.

“Vaccination may also influence immune regulation and gene expression in ways that support healthier aging,” she added.

“Our study suggests that beyond its role in preventing shingles, shingles vaccination is associated with slower biological aging in older adults,” Kim said. “These findings highlight the interaction of immune system changes due to vaccine and biological aging that may have additional positive consequences.”

“Future research should follow people over time to better understand causality, examine whether similar patterns are seen with the newer shingles vaccine, and explore whether changes in biological aging translate into meaningful health outcomes like reduced mortality or cognitive decline,” added Kim.

From medicalnewstoday.com.

There are a lot of these articles reporting on the study, here's one from USC Davis.

[Grogan]

I don't know about slowing aging, but I should get that vaccine (same situation here, I had the pox when I was a kid).

Interesting about the inflammation, I wonder if that's true. I could certainly stand to have my inflammatory responses to things reduced.

[Zema Bus]

If it works, it could be part of the "live long enough to live forever" idea, where little things extend lifespan long enough for others to come into play down the line, until we finally figure out how to live indefinitely, or until we get run over by a bus

[Grogan]

I envision them being able to extend life for a few decades (e.g. people living into their 100's), but expiry is in the genetic programming. To have humans living indefinitely, you'd have to change that. You'd have a hard time with religion and ethics if you want to genetically engineer humans, those people would have to be taught STFU'ing before you'd see any of that kind of research. In a million years, our species could evolve longer lifespans. If there's no longer a need for us to perish (and a greater need to stay reproductively viable for longer) genetics may favour longevity. For example, if people started breeding a lot less for thousands of years.

[mlangdn]

I've not taken the vaccine because originally Medicare did not cover it. Now it does and I'm just too lazy it seems to schedule the shot. I've had all the others including the first three covid shots. I swore off covid shots after the third one. I got what was called breakthrough covid. It was milder than a cold for me and my wife both. We lost family during the pandemic and it was horrible.

I'll schedule us for the shingles vaccine Monday. Not to live longer, but perhaps to live better.

[TheeRadioDJ]

I got the shingles vaccine last year after having a bout of you guessed it, shingles. I don't know about it slowing aging, but I hope I never get shingles again.

[Grogan]

Do they still recommend the shingles vaccine when you've recently had shingles? Or was that your prerogative and precaution?

That's pretty scary, if you can still get it even after recent exposure.

[Grogan]

I just looked into the shingles vaccine here. They don't "recommend" it for people under 65. They say it's "more effective" in people over 65, but it's important to understand the context. (deduced from their weasel words)

They say if you get the shingles vaccine, you'll be "50% less likely to get shingles". THAT is not the same as saying "the vaccine only has 50% efficacy". Without the vaccine you'd have a certain chance of contracting shingles (this is missing information). So whatever it is (relatively low to start with) the vaccine will reduce the overall likelihood by 50%.

So... when they say the vaccine is more "effective" in seniors, they are talking about population, and a segment of that population, not vaccine efficacy.

Why the weaseling? Because "not recommended" means "not covered". I could go to a pharmacy and get this shot, but I'd have to pay for it at age 60 (unless I had some sort of drug plan, which I don't, because I don't get any prescriptions).

Unfortunately for the weasel fucks out there, I took a statistics course in university. I hated it, but it gave me knowledge to see through people's bullshit.

[TheeRadioDJ]

Do they still recommend the shingles vaccine when you've recently had shingles? Or was that your prerogative and precaution?

That's pretty scary, if you can still get it even after recent exposure.

My primary was okay with me getting the vaccine. She's the one who diagnosed the shingles, so she must have felt it was worth getting it when I asked about it.

[Zema Bus]

Here the recommended age was originally 60 but they later lowered it to 50. It's possible for shingles to reoccur, but from what I've read it's not likely to happen a second time.

Statistics wasn't one of my favorite subjects either, but I'd say I liked it better than all the math in the three general chemistry courses I had to take, as well as biochemistry. I haven't had to calculate moles per liter in decades

[Grogan]

I haven't had to calculate molarity in 6.02x10^23 years