Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew — The New York Times, by Paula Span (January 3, 2026) (Read article)
You may have heard that the shingles shot, in addition to preventing or reducing the severity of shingles, seems to reduce the risk of dementia in older people. But according to this article by Paula Span, the shingles vaccine is not the only vaccine that seems to provide this benefit. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), pneumococcal, and flu vaccines are also consistently associated with a reduced risk of dementia. This suggests that the benefits are not specific to the vaccine per se, but that in preventing disease, vaccines can reduce inflammaging.
Inflammaging is the aging-related process of priming inflammatory immune cells to be more easily activated, and with a greater degree of inflammation. Inflammaging is boosted every time our immune systems are activated, so preventing infection-related immune activation could reduce inflammaging. Inflammaging is considered to be a key mechanism underlying "aging-related" diseases, notably cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke, as well as dementia. Vaccinations also reduce the risk of these conditions as well. Many infections, including influenza and Covid, can affect the gut and induce persistent symptoms of post-infective irritable bowel syndrome.
For anyone who is still "on the fence" about whether to get the recommended vaccines, the potential for reducing inflammaging and its effects should be one factor to consider.