Health
Shingles infection linked to risk of cognitive decline, says study: ‘Long-term implications’
Getting shingles just once could increase the risk of long-term confusion and memory loss, a new study has found.
The study, led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, linked the virus to greater chances of “subjective cognitive decline,” according to a Harvard press release.
The findings were published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy on Aug. 14.
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“Subjective cognitive decline” captures early changes in cognition that are noticed before evidence of cognitive impairment shows up on standard neuropsychological tests, explained study author Sharon Curhan, M.D., a physician and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
It was also associated with a higher risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia.
Getting shingles just once could increase the risk of long-term confusion and memory loss, a new study has found. (iStock)
“Shingles may contribute to dementia risk through neuroinflammation, damage to cerebral blood vessels (cerebral vasculopathy), or direct neuronal damage,” Curhan told Fox News Digital.
In this particular study, the researchers analyzed data from three large cohorts of more than 150,000 women and men over a 13-year period.
The data came from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, according to Curhan.
“We were surprised by the large magnitude and long duration of the increased risk.”
“There was a suggestion that the magnitude of the elevated risk may be greater among those who were not vaccinated with the shingles vaccine,” she said.
The researchers determined that shingles was associated with a greater than 20% higher long-term risk of subjective cognitive decline.
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“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 told Fox News Digital.
The elevated risk was even higher among those who were genetic carriers of APOE e4 — the gene that increases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease — than men who were not APOE e4 carriers, she noted, but this was not the case in women.
Known medically as herpes zoster, shingles is a painful, blistering rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which is the same virus that causes chickenpox. (iStock)
Although he noted that this is an observational study and does not prove cause and effect, Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, said he believes “the observation is real.”
“Shingles is a reactivation of a virus that has been hiding inside nerves,” he told Fox News Digital. “It causes inflammation — and when inflammation involves the brain, it is associated with cognitive decline, which can lead to Alzheimer’s.”
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Previous studies have also looked at the association of herpes zoster and other viruses with Alzheimer’s and the other diseases that cause dementia, according to Heather M. Snyder, PhD, senior vice president of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago.
“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,” Snyder, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“When inflammation involves the brain, it is associated with cognitive decline.”
Previous research has also shown that a history of shingles is also associated with higher long-term risk of a major cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or heart attack, which could last for many years after infection, Curhan warned.
What to know about shingles
Shingles — medically known as herpes zoster — is a painful, blistering rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which is the same virus that causes chickenpox, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The rash and blisters usually scab over within seven to 10 days.
The infection is common, affecting about one in every three people in the U.S. in their lifetime.
In addition to the rash, which typically appears as a stripe around one side of the body or face, symptoms can include fever, chills, headache and upset stomach. (iStock)
“A majority of adults have herpes zoster hidden in their brain cells, from prior infection at some previous point in their life,” said Snyder.
In addition to the rash — which typically appears as a stripe around one side of the body or face — symptoms can include fever, chills, headache and upset stomach, according to the CDC.
In some cases (10% to 18%), the virus can lead to complications like long-term nerve pain.
One in every three people in the U.S. will have shingles in their lifetime.
Other rare but serious adverse effects can include vision loss, bacterial infections, pneumonia, brain inflammation (encephalitis), impaired hearing and death, per the CDC.
These complications are most likely to affect those with compromised immune systems.
Antiviral treatments and pain relief medications are available for those with the condition.
Means of prevention
These findings show the “long-term implications” of shingles and highlight the importance of public health efforts to prevent the infection, Curhan noted.
The vaccination has been shown to be 90% effective at preventing the infection and long-term nerve pain in adults age 50 and over who have healthy immune systems, according to the CDC.
Shingles vaccination has been shown to be 90% effective at preventing the infection and long-term nerve pain in adults age 50 and over who have healthy immune systems, according to the CDC. (iStock)
“Given the growing number of Americans at risk for this painful and often disabling disease and the availability of an effective vaccine, shingles vaccination could provide a valuable opportunity to reduce the burden of subsequent health issues due to shingles, such as chronic pain (postherpetic neuralgia), cardiovascular complications, or cognitive decline and dementia,” said Curhan.
The CDC recommends routine shingles vaccination for people age 50 and older, regardless of whether they have had a prior episode of shingles or have had a previous vaccine.
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“Anyone who may be eligible for the vaccine or who may have questions or concerns about vaccination should consult with a health care provider,” said Curhan.
Siegel echoed the merits of vaccination.
“This study adds to the growing group of evidence that the shingles vaccine (Shingrix) is important for all those over 50 (who have had chicken pox or the varicella vaccine) to decrease the risk of reactivation of the shingles virus and/or complications of active infection,” he said.
Potential limitations
This was an observational study that primarily focused on a White, highly educated population, Curhan noted — which means future studies in other populations could strengthen the research.
“Also, we did not have information on vaccination status in the full study population, so we could only examine this relation among a subset,” she added.
“A majority of adults have herpes zoster hidden in their brain cells, from prior infection at some previous point in their life,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Much of the study period took place before the shingles vaccine became widely available, Curhan said — and even once it was introduced, the uptake was generally low.
The more recent vaccine was not available until after the study.
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“As uptake of the newer shingles vaccine increases, additional studies that evaluate whether vaccination status influences the relation of shingles and risk of cognitive decline would be informative,” Curhan said.
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“Therefore, we are currently collecting this information among our participants and hope to conduct these studies in the future.”
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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