The Shingles Vaccine - An Update

Audio and YouTube versions available at the end of this email.

Last Sunday, I did a coffee-shop meeting for Anantaquest, and spoke to a group of around 35-40 people aged 50 and above, about my thoughts on how to live long, healthy. It was a free-wheeling discussion with a healthy Q & A. One question I asked was how many had taken the shingles vaccine, and just 3-4 hands went up. 

This seems to be the standard response whenever I ask groups of people. Whether it is lack of awareness, doctors not pushing the vaccine, the cost (Rs. 20,000 or so) or just ennui…I am not sure…but the number of people taking the vaccine is small. And this is considering that unlike with other vaccines, there is no active opposition to the shingles vaccine.

In the 15-point Atmasvasth guide, the 5^th point on managing medications, supplements and vaccines says

• Take your vaccines - zoster (shingles), pneumococcal, flu, TDP, etc. 

And yet, most people just don’t seem to do that.

Let’s take that room of 40 people. Around 3-4 people will get shingles over the next 10 years [1, 2] and if we consider the entire remaining lifespan, it will more likely be about 10 people (1 in 4) [2]. Of those who get shingles, 10% will have post-herpetic pain that makes your life a misery as long as it lasts [2]. I discussed some of the technicalities in detail in the Dec 2025 piece, but to reiterate…vaccinating 33 people prevents one episode over approximately 3.2 years with roughly 90% protection and milder disease in those who get it [3]. 

The Dec 2025 piece was triggered by Ajit sending me a Nature paper [4] that found reduced dementia risk as an additional benefit of the shingles vaccine. This possible benefit is now much less certain…the same analysis run on 6.3 million people in England found no dementia benefit at all [5]. Last month, a similar paper was published linking the shingles vaccine to better cardiovascular health [6], but that one is also more likely explained by the two groups of people being different from each other than by the vaccine doing anything to their hearts [7].

Even if these benefits were real, we don’t need them to make the case for vaccination. The vaccine works, prevents shingles or reduces its effect if it still happens and makes a difference to our healthspan. That is enough!

In our atmasvasth quest to live healthy in the long life that most of us will have, vaccines play an important role. Preventing disease from occurring is more important than picking it up early and treating it…and the shingles vaccine does just that…prevents disease from occurring.

Give it a thought, and if you are convinced by the logic and if you are above 50 years of age and haven’t taken the vaccine, then take it. If you have elderly parents or other family members around you, try and do the same for them. 

Footnotes:

1. Van Oorschot D, Vroling H, Bunge E, Diaz-Decaro J, Curran D, Yawn B. A systematic literature review of herpes zoster incidence worldwide. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2021 Jun 3;17(6):1714–32.
2. Kawai K, Gebremeskel BG, Acosta CJ. Systematic review of incidence and complications of herpes zoster: towards a global perspective. BMJ Open. 2014 Jun;4(6):e004833.
3. De Oliveira Gomes J, Gagliardi AM, Andriolo BN, et al. Vaccines for preventing herpes zoster in older adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Oct 2;2023(10).
4. Eyting M, Xie M, Michalik F, Heß S, Chung S, Geldsetzer P. A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia. Nature. 2025 Apr 2.
5. Hamilton W, et al. Eligibility for shingles vaccination and hospital-coded dementia in England and Wales: a regression discontinuity analysis in England. medRxiv preprint, 2026 Jul 21.
6. Corsi-Zuelli F, Li F, Upthegrove R, Todd JA, Raman B, Harrison PJ, Taquet M. Recombinant shingles vaccination and the risk of cardiovascular events. Nat Med. 2026 Aug 26.
7. Prasad V. Does the shingles vaccine reduce cardiovascular events? drvinayprasad.com, 27 Aug 2026.

Listening Options

Audio File

The Shingles Vaccine An Update

0:00

/321.684

1×

YouTube

Atmasvasth - A Guide to Ageing Healthfully

This book by Dr. Bhavin Jankharia is an authoritative 15-point guide to living long, healthy based on the most current data and science that allows us to understand the role of physical activity, the food we eat, how and how much we sleep and our exposome. It goes one step further to address the issues of polypharmacy,

JPLLPJPLLP

The Atmasvasth 15-Point Guide to Living Long Healthy - Zine

This zine presents the 15-points in short, in a easy to digest and understand manner. 5 zines make a collection that comes with an envelope. The zines (also called booklets in the past) make great gifts. There are 5 purchase options. Selection Expected checkout 1 pack ₹300 + ₹50 shipping = ₹350 2 packs ₹550 + ₹50 ship

JPLLPJPLLP

The Detailed 15-Point Guide to Live Long, Healthy

The 15-Point Guide - Detailed

The detailed 15-points guide to live long, healthy

AtmasvasthBhavin Jankharia