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Two studies presented Monday (July 27) at this year’s virtual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference have demonstrated that flu and pneumococcal vaccines are linked with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
In both studies, individuals who had received at least one vaccination—a flu shot in one study, and a pneumonia vaccine with or without a flu shot in the second—were less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s later in life. While the studies are slightly different, their similar conclusions suggest that vaccines may play a broader role in strengthening a person’s lifelong resistance to some diseases.
“This is an encouraging finding that builds upon prior evidence that vaccination against common infectious diseases—such as the flu—is associated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s and a delay in disease onset,” Richard Isaacson, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center who was not involved in either study, tells CNN.
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