a study The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston found that people over the age of 65 who received the vaccine were significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. This study highlighted the importance of vaccination to prevent infectious diseases and dementia.
This research Alzheimer’s Journal.
Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 6 million people in the United States, and the number of people affected is increasing as the population ages.
Pediatric vaccination
Most people receive routine immunizations during childhood because many vaccines are designed to protect children and their communities from infectious diseases. For similar reasons, vaccines against other serious diseases are equally important for older people.
Children can often be vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and pneumococcal infections. The tetanus and diphtheria vaccines are combined into her single vaccine, which may include the pertussis vaccine.
Vaccines to prevent pneumococcal disease are recommended for children under the age of 5 and adults over the age of 65. People over the age of 50 in the US and people over the age of 70 in Australia and the UK are recommended to get a vaccine to prevent shingles.
influenza vaccine
A previous study published in the same journal found that people who received at least one flu vaccine were 40% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than unvaccinated people in the same age group. was shown.
The study’s corresponding author, Paul Schultz, said: “We had wondered whether the flu findings were unique to flu vaccines. This data suggests that some additional adult vaccines may also be at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. We found that it was associated with a decline,” he said.
“We and others hypothesize that the immune system is responsible for causing brain cell dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. The results of this study suggest that vaccination has a more general effect on the immune system. , suggesting that it reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.”
“We hypothesize that the vaccine-associated reduction in Alzheimer’s disease risk is probably due to a combination of mechanisms,” said Abram Bukbinder, one of the study’s co-authors.
“Vaccines can help the immune system respond to the buildup of toxic proteins that cause Alzheimer’s disease by making immune cells more efficient at clearing toxic proteins or by ‘polishing’ the immune response against these proteins.” may change. “There is less ‘collateral damage’ to nearby healthy brain cells. Of course, these vaccines protect against infections like shingles, which can contribute to neuroinflammation. .”
The researchers said the evidence was compelling, but more research was needed to accurately measure how effective vaccines are in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
