Shingles is a virus that can lead to uncomfortable symptoms like pain, burning or tingling, sensitivity to touch, or a rash.
There is a vaccine to prevent it, but now that same vaccine could help protect you against something else: Alzheimer's.
Gulf Coast News Today anchor Lisa Spooner spoke with one Alzheimer's patient who thinks the shingles vaccine could be slowing her disease's progression.
To talk with Lee Belanger, you would never know that five years ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
"Well, I couldn't remember how to start my Instant Pot one morning, and I thought, this is not good," she explained. And so I went and got a memory screen and, with a little begging, they did some more testing and found out that I did have Alzheimer's."
Belanger certainly has not let her Alzheimer's diagnosis slow her down.
"Well, as soon as I got the diagnosis, I immediately was thankful. And I know that sounds very weird, but I was thankful for an early diagnosis, and I said, 'OK, I have two choices. I can be sad and mope, or I can hit this running.' And I decided that I was going to find out everything that I could about Alzheimer and find out what I could do to slow it down," Belanger said.
Part of slowing down the disease is keeping her mind moving.
"I work with the -- some of dementia patients here at Shell Point," she said. "I also work at our thrift store, which is off-site, which is open to the public, by the way. I also spend at least five days a week at -- exercising at our exercise facility. And I've been on a blitz of learning about second World War spies and also code breakers. I probably read two books a week."
And she believes staying active is just one of the reasons why her Alzheimer's has not progressed further.
A recent study published in the journal "Nature" found that the shingles vaccine may have the added benefit of reducing the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's.
Belanger has had multiple shingles vaccines and believes they could have contributed to her symptoms not developing further.
"Because shingles is a neurological disease. And the shot is, is calming down the neurons that are, that are excited because of the disease. So, absolutely, I think it's a very potential. And it's also something that has been studied in Wales and also at Stanford University. And there are figures show that it could show -- slow down the disease maybe up to 20%," explained Belanger.
Stefanie Wardlow is the Florida research champion for the Alzheimer's Association. She told Gulf Coast News, "All research should give us hope because it's giving us information that can lead us to eventually find a cure for the disease. So, yes, this new study does add to our current knowledge. It suggests that the shingles vaccine may also reduce someone's risk of developing dementia."
She said it shows promise.
The shingles vaccine appeared to reduce inflammation.
"The hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease are plaques and tangles, which is amyloid beta and tau. But also we see inflammation now, inflammation is, can happen all over the body, but also with Alzheimer's disease, there's inflammation in the brain. So it's important that we look at studies and look at other avenues that are reducing these other hallmarks of the disease," explained Wardlow.
But she warns that more research still needs to be done.
"Now, these results, while preliminary, do call for further studies in large, diverse study populations because this one study, you know, was in a certain area, it wasn't even in the United States," Wardlow said.
So until there is a definitive cure, Belanger says she is going to continue living life to the fullest, and she encourages others with the same diagnosis to do the same.
"Being positive is very important. Worry is just a waste of time. It's wasting your, your present time without changing the future in any way," Belanger said. "I am a realist. I know I have the disease. I'm not ignoring that I have the disease. The likelihood of my progressing into where I would rather not be is very high. But I also know that these things, such as the Shingrix shot and exercise and being positive, can slow it down. And that's my goal."
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