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As if there is not yet enough reason to get a flu shot every year, you are eligible – that is, you reduce not only your own risk, but also the risk of others becoming seriously ill or dying from the flu: two new studies presented This week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference suggest that getting a flu shot can also protect people from Alzheimer’s disease.
A team of researchers from the University of Texas found that people over the age of 60 who had received at least one flu shot had a 17 percent reduction in Alzheimer’s risk. People who received regular flu shots (that is, once a year, most years) saw an additional 13 percent reduction in risk. Albert Amran, author of the study, told NPR: “More vaccines mean less Alzheimer’s.”
The second study, by a team of researchers from Duke University and the University of North Carolina, found that people who received a pneumonia vaccine before age 75 were 25 percent less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. (The pneumonia vaccine is usually given to people younger than 2 years old or older than 65 years old, although smokers and people with certain medical conditions can be vaccinated as younger adults.) In this case, the researchers noted, people who also received the flu shot did not. Don’t see additional protection beyond the benefit of the pneumonia vaccine.
It is not clear why these vaccines could offer protection against Alzheimer’s disease, Although scientists believe it may be because both the flu and pneumonia also affect the brain. But the studies provide important evidence of the still-widespread myth that getting a flu shot increases a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s; in fact, it may be just the opposite.
