United States: For those people who have had shingles, the study has found that it could potentially raise the risk of long-term confusion and memory problems.
More about the finding
The study led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School associated the virus with more chances of “subjective cognitive decline,” revealed a Harvard Press.
According to Sharon Curhan, M.D., the study author, a physician, and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, “Subjective cognitive decline” generally captures early variations in cognitive abilities, which become apparent even before the evidence of cognitive impairment shows up on standard neuropsychological tests.
The expert’s report said it was also linked to more chances of greater danger of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia.
As per Curhan, “Shingles may contribute to dementia risk through neuroinflammation, damage to cerebral blood vessels (cerebral vasculopathy), or direct neuronal damage,” as Fox News reported.
More about the study
In this particular study, the researchers conducted cross-sectional study data from three large cohorts of women and men, a total of more than 150,000, with a follow-up of thirteen years.
The information was derived from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, as Curhan pointed out.
Moreover, she added, “There was a suggestion that the magnitude of the elevated risk may be greater among those who were not vaccinated with the shingles vaccine.”
The researchers’ analysis showed that shingles were linked to a more than 20 percent increased long-term cumulative incidence of subjective cognitive decline.
“We were surprised by the large magnitude and long duration of the increased risk and [the fact] that it may be different in women and men,” Curhan said.
Later, she said that the elevated risk in APOE e4 carriers was higher in men compared to that of men who were not carriers of the gene, which is related to Alzheimer’s disease, but there was an unexpected trend in women.
However, the senior medical analyst at Fox News, Dr. Marc Siegel, agrees, saying that he thinks that “The observation is real. “
As per him, “Shingles is a reactivation of a virus that has been hiding inside nerves,” and “It causes inflammation — and when inflammation involves the brain, it is associated with cognitive decline, which can lead to Alzheimer’s.”
Prior research has also examined the relationship between other viruses, such as herpes zoster, and the other diseases that cause dementia, including Alzheimer’s, says Heather M. Snyder, PhD, senior vice president of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago.
Snyder said, who was not part of the study, “It is unclear if the virus is present in individuals because of changes associated with the diseases that cause cognitive decline, changes of the immune system, or some sort of cause and effect,” as Fox News reported.
Previous studies have also established that the risk of shingles climbs the long-term risk of another major cardiovascular occasion, including a shot or a stroke, which could span years after the initial infection, notes Curhan.