People who get the shingles vaccine have a 26 per cent lower risk of suffering a heart attack, heart failure or stroke, a study suggests.
South Korean experts found the jab had this effect after analysing data from over one million patients and found the protection lasted for up to eight years.
They also found the protective effect was stronger for men, people jabbed under the age of 60, and those with unhealthy lifestyles that left them at greater risk of serious cardiovascular events.
Shingles is a painful nerve and skin infection caused by the same virus behind chickenpox that causes a telltale blotchy rash.
It triggers when virus from a previous chickenpox infection reactivates in the body, sometimes many years later.
Shingles isn’t dangerous for most people but can be deadly for older adults or those with weakened immune systems like cancer patients.
This is why certain groups in the UK are offered a shingles vaccine to reduce their odds of becoming seriously ill with the infection.
But the new research suggests there could be additional health benefits to getting the jab.
People who get the shingles vaccine have a 26 per cent lower risk of suffering a heart attack, heart failure or stroke, a study suggests. Stock image showing shingles
In the study, experts from Kyung Hee University College of Medicine analysed health data from nearly 1.3million people in Korea with an average age of 61.
Half of the cohort had got the shingles vaccine, whilst the other half were unvaccinated.
They compared vaccination history with health records of any cardiovascular events for up to 12 years and accounted for factors like age, wealth and lifestyle habits like drinking and smoking status.
The authors found people that got the shingles jab had, overall, a 23 per cent lower chance of suffering poor cardiovascular health.
But they found this increased to a 26 per cent lower risk of serious health emergencies like strokes, heart attacks and heart failure.
People who got the vaccine also had a 22 per cent lower chance of coronary heart disease, a condition where the arteries become narrowed by a build-up of fatty material called plaque, increasing the risk of complications.
Lead author of the research, Professor Dong Keon Yon, said they believed the vaccine helped protect the body from the damage shingles can cause.
‘A shingles infection can cause blood vessel damage, inflammation and clot formation that can lead to heart disease,’ he said.
While some warning signs are easy to spot ¿ such as severe chest pain ¿ others are more vague and hard to pinpoint
‘By preventing shingles, vaccination may lower these risks.’
He added the protection seemed to be more effective in younger people, probably thanks to their stronger immune systems.
Professor Yon said the effect also seemed stronger in men, which could be a sign that the vaccine worked better for males than females.
Publishing their findings in the European Heart Journal, the experts found while the protection offered by the jab was strongest for two to three years post vaccination it still had a significant impact for up to eight years.
Professor Yon said the study was strong due to its large sample size and accounting for factors like wealth and health history that could influence the results.
However, he acknowledged it did have some limitations.
‘As this study is based on an Asian cohort, the results may not apply to all populations,’ he said.
Another limitation, acknowledged by the authors, is that their study only looked at a shingles vaccine that uses a live, but weakened, version of the virus.
Such vaccines are being phased out in many countries in favour of a new version, delivered as two doses 12 months apart, that only uses part of the virus.
The NHS phased out the live version of the shingles jab in September 2023 in favour of the newer version.
Professor Yon said his team are planning another study to examine if the new shingles vaccine offered the same or similar protection.
Currently, the NHS offered the shingles vaccine to all adults between the age of 65 and 79.
The jab is also offered to people over the age of 50 with severely compromised immune systems.
Official data, covering the period up to January this year, shows only one in six of eligible 65-year-olds in England have received the first dose of the new shingles jab.
While shingles is a mild illness for most people it can trigger serious complications like pneumonia, inflammation of the brain or the tissues that surround it.
It’s these serious complications that can make shingles deadly with the infection estimated to kill one in every 1,000 patients over 70 who contract it.
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