Shingles May Increase Risk of Heart Disease

The researchers found that those receiving the shingles vaccine had an 18 percent lower risk of ischemic (clot-caused) stroke and a 12 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke. The vaccine’s protection was strongest among people ages 66 to 79.

After analyzing the results, they determined that a history of shingles was associated with a higher long-term risk of suffering a major cardiovascular event.

Get vaccinated

It wasn’t until 2006 that the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine against shingles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends the recombinant shingles vaccine for people age 50 and older.

Curhan notes that most of the data used in her study was collected before the shingles vaccine was available, so they were not able to evaluate whether vaccination status influences the association of shingles and long-term risk of a major cardiovascular event. They intend to conduct additional studies that would address this data shortfall.

Regardless, she suggests that older adults get the shingles vaccine.

“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 shingles and reduce the risk of subsequent cardiovascular complications,” Curhan said.

Meanwhile, preliminary research from a 2020 study suggests the shingles vaccine may lower the risk of stroke for some adults, particularly those ages 66 to 79, as AARP reported.

“Our study results may encourage people ages 50 and older to follow the recommendation and get vaccinated against shingles. You are reducing the risk of shingles, and at the same time you may be reducing your risk of stroke,” study lead author Quanhe Yang, a senior scientist at the CDC in Atlanta, said when the study results were presented in 2020 at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles.

Yang and his colleagues reviewed the Medicare health records of more than a million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries age 66 or older who had no history of stroke and who were vaccinated with the zoster vaccine between 2008 and 2014, and followed them for an average of almost four years. That group was matched with an equal number of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who did not receive the shingles vaccine, with the same four-year follow-up.