Shingles vaccine?

[Rolfe]

Just to follow up on this; whether it was related to one or both of the jabs or not, I had difficulty sleeping for a few days afterwards. Both arms were slightly sore, but not really painful, so I don't know if that was it or just my body was slightly 'off' as a result of the injections; it took longer than usual to fall asleep, then I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back asleep again. Back to normal after about four days, and no other side-effects that I noticed.

I had my second dose early this afternoon. Went for a ten-mile bike ride in the late afternoon without even thinking about it, feel fine.

Well, about that. A week after the second dose I had a very strange episode of what felt like a nasty post-vaccine reaction. It came on quite suddenly in the middle of the evening, and passed off again just as suddenly two days later. Weird.

 

[Trebuchet]

You are of course quite correct. I had read that it was rare for someone to get shingles twice unless they were immunosuppressed, but several people have explained to me that this is not the case. A GP friend said, if your first bout happens when you're fairly elderly you probably won't get another in your lifetime, but you were only 60, plenty time left to get it again.

I got the vaccine.

My wife's had it twice. Once was enough for me. On my face and scalp. Ugh.

 

[Planigale]

My wife's had it twice. Once was enough for me. On my face and scalp. Ugh.

Shingles on the face may be sight threatening. Eye doctors take facial shingles very seriously and may want to admit for intensive treatment (e.g. 2 hourly eye drops).

 

[Rolfe]

I suppose I was lucky, mine was in the common site of forming a sort of half-moon round my left side just above my waist. I heard the doctors mention which spinal nerve it was but I don't remember. L4?

 

[dann]

More good news!

Article: Shingles vaccine may slow biological aging in older adults
cidrap.umn.edu/adult-non-flu-vaccines/shingles-vaccine-may-slow-biological-aging-older-adults (CIDRAP, Jan 20, 2026)
Study: academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/advance-article/doi/10.1093/gerona/glag008/8430804 (The Journals of Gerontology)
Article: Analysis adds evidence that shingles vaccine prevents or delays new-onset dementia
cidrap.umn.edu/adult-non-flu-vaccines/analysis-adds-evidence-shingles-vaccine-prevents-or-delays-new-onset (CIDRAP, Jan 22, 2026).

 

[Planigale]

I suppose I was lucky, mine was in the common site of forming a sort of half-moon round my left side just above my waist. I heard the doctors mention which spinal nerve it was but I don't remember. L4?

L4 is leg to foot, depending on where your waist is T10, 11, 12. T10 includes umbilicus, T12 just above groin, T11 inbetween.

 

[jadebox]

.

I suppose I was lucky, mine was in the common site of forming a sort of half-moon round my left side just above my waist. I heard the doctors mention which spinal nerve it was but I don't remember. L4?

I had heard of shingles, but the first time I really took note of it was when a coworker and friend had it flare up in that area. This was a guy who played hockey and seemed impervious to pain, but that bout of shingles was extremely painful for him.

Not long afterwards, my wife had it show up on her arm and face. It didn't appear too painful for her, but we had to watch it because it was close to her eye.

Since then my wife and I have both been vaccinated for it. I recall just a minor ache in my arm that lasted for a few hours after the shot - certainly better than the pain my friend suffered or the concern we had for my wife.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Had my shingles shot a 1.5 decades ago, or there about. No issues.

 

[Rolfe]

L4 is leg to foot, depending on where your waist is T10, 11, 12. T10 includes umbilicus, T12 just above groin, T11 inbetween.

Sorry, I knew that. I probably meant to say T4, and still would have been wrong. I should look stuff up.

 

[dann]

Had my shingles shot a 1.5 decades ago, or there about. No issues.

You probably got the Zostavax shot. You should consider getting the new one (two shots), Shingrix!

Zoster vaccine (Wikipedia)
The ACIP voted that Shingrix is preferred over Zostavax for the prevention of zoster and related complications because data showed vaccine efficacy of more than 90% against shingles across all age groups. ... Shingrix provides high levels of immunity for at least 7 years after vaccination, but it is possible the vaccine may provide protection for much longer.
(...)
The Zostavax vaccine (both single dose and two-dose regime) is likely effective at protecting people from herpes zoster disease for a duration of up to three years. The degree of longer term protection (beyond 4 years from the initial vaccination) is not clear. (...) Zostavax was shown to reduce the incidence of shingles by 51% in a study of 38,000 adults aged 60 and older who received the vaccine.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I get stuck at the Veterans' Administration Hospital here. They don't do check or "last week".

 

[Trebuchet]

Had my shingles shot a 1.5 decades ago, or there about. No issues.

I think that's too long ago to have been the newer more effective vaccine. You should look into it.

 

[dann]

Shingles vaccine tied to half the risk of cardiac events in older adults with heart disease (CIDRAP, Mar 17, 2026)
Shingles vaccination may halve the one-year risk of serious cardiac events among older adults who have heart disease, adding to accumulating evidence that the vaccine may protect against health conditions in addition to shingles (herpes zoster), University of California researchers say.
The study findings will be presented at the upcoming American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans.
(...)
From one month to one year after shingles vaccination (or the same period for unvaccinated adults), vaccinated participants were at lower risk for any major adverse cardiac event (46% lower risk), death from any cause (66%), heart attack (32%), stroke (25%), and heart failure (25%). The risk reductions were on par with what would be expected from quitting smoking.

Most studies have looked at vaccination with the old shingles vaccine, so it's interesting that the new study looked at vaccination with either of them:

Participants were 123,411 people who had received at least one dose of either the Shingrix or Zostavax shingles vaccine and the same number of unvaccinated controls.

Shingles vaccine drastically cuts risk of serious cardiac events (EurekAlert, Mar 17, 2026)
People with heart disease who received a shingles vaccine had nearly half the rate of serious cardiac events a year later compared with those who did not get the vaccine, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26)

 

[rjh01]

Is receiving the shingles vaccine the cause of a reduced death rate or is it that people who receive the shingles vaccine are also the people who look after themselves better thus having lower death rates? One indication is to see if death rates have fallen since the shingles vaccine became available. This rates have not changed then the shingle would not prevent deaths. But if death rates have fallen, then this is something to investigate further.

 

[dann]

rjh01, see previous links to studies about this. I have posted several in recent years.
Begin here, post 68 about brain health. (Deaths caused by dementia are considerable.)
Here about brains and hearts, post 131. (Deaths from heart disease even more so.)
And here, post 161, about reductions in risk of dementia, heart disease and death.
I have posted more links to relevant studies than these. At least one of them was to a study with two cohorts, one vaccinated another one unvaccinated, and the reason why one group was vaccinated and the other one wasn't was not that "people who receive the shingles vaccine are also the people who look after themselves better thus having lower death rates."
Look it up! It was not a blinded study and thus not ideal. The circumstances that caused the difference between the two cohorts occurred in a peculiar way.

 

[rjh01]

rjh01, see previous links to studies about this. I have posted several in recent years.
Begin here, post 68 about brain health. (Deaths caused by dementia are considerable.)
Here about brains and hearts, post 131. (Deaths from heart disease even more so.)
And here, post 161, about reductions in risk of dementia, heart disease and death.
I have posted more links to relevant studies than these. At least one of them was to a study with two cohorts, one vaccinated another one unvaccinated, and the reason why one group was vaccinated and the other one wasn't was not that "people who receive the shingles vaccine are also the people who look after themselves better thus having lower death rates."
Look it up! It was not a blinded study and thus not ideal. The circumstances that caused the difference between the two cohorts occurred in a peculiar way.

You are probably right. The vaccine reduces deaths from other causes. However cannot find any of the studies that were double blinded. On the other hand since everyone in certain groups should get a shingles vaccine it would be unethical to do one.
So I am suggesting that someone needs to see what has happened in the entire population.

 

[catsmate]

Talking of the shingles vaccine...

‘Strong evidence’ of lowered dementia risk: the benefits of shingles vaccination

A growing body of evidence suggests the vaccine may also lower risk of stroke and heart attack

www.theguardian.com

A growing body of evidence suggests the vaccine may also lower risk of stroke and heart attack.j

 

[dann]

You are probably right. The vaccine reduces deaths from other causes. However cannot find any of the studies that were double blinded. On the other hand since everyone in certain groups should get a shingles vaccine it would be unethical to do one.
So I am suggesting that someone needs to see what has happened in the entire population.

This is the one I hoped you would find:

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia (Nature, April 2, 2025)
To provide causal as opposed to correlational evidence, we take advantage of the fact that, in Wales, eligibility for the zoster vaccine was determined on the basis of an individual’s exact date of birth. Those born before 2 September 1933 were ineligible and remained ineligible for life, whereas those born on or after 2 September 1933 were eligible for at least 1 year to receive the vaccine. Using large-scale electronic health record data, we first show that the percentage of adults who received the vaccine increased from 0.01% among patients who were merely 1 week too old to be eligible, to 47.2% among those who were just 1 week younger. Apart from this large difference in the probability of ever receiving the zoster vaccine, individuals born just 1 week before 2 September 1933 are unlikely to differ systematically from those born 1 week later.

So not double blinded but almost as good (= almost as coincidental) - unless "the people who look after themselves better" just happened to be "those born on or after 2 September 1933," which isn't likely. (I don't find it ethical that those born before Sep 2, 1933, didn't get vaccinated, but the effect of the vaccine seems to be very low after a certain age, which may have been the reason. And I don't think I would call the experiment natural.)

 

[rjh01]

This is the one I hoped you would find:

So not double blinded but almost as good (= almost as coincidental) - unless "the people who look after themselves better" just happened to be "those born on or after 2 September 1933," which isn't likely. (I don't find it ethical that those born before Sep 2, 1933, didn't get vaccinated, but the effect of the vaccine seems to be very low after a certain age, which may have been the reason. And I don't think I would call the experiment natural.)

That is the sort of study I was thinking about. Interesting that the only side-effect was a decreased rate of people who had dementia. they did not find a decreased rate of heart attacks which have been mentioned above.

 

[ohms]

Slightly off topic but there was a study that showed that high dose flu jabs also showed a decreased rate for Alzheimer’s and, similar to the shingles vaccine, the effect was greater in women.

Bluesky Link