Eric Topol

How we exercise, how we sleep, how we have social engagement, a long list of lifestyle plus factors.

But also, we've only learned in recent times that there are other ways to keep that immune system intact.

And one of the big surprises was, for example, the shingles vaccine.

We didn't know.

And now with four huge natural experiments in four different countries around the world, in Wales and Canada and Australia and the U.S., we've learned that the shingles vaccine reduces Alzheimer's and dementia by at least 20 to 25 percent.

And it isn't because it's working against the virus herpes zoster so much.

as it's keeping the immune system intact, because people that get the vaccine are older people.

In the U.S., it's age 50.

In other countries, it's even older.

But that's just one new trick we've learned.

And now, you know, that's a segue to many other tactics we'll use in the future to keep people's immune system intact.

This is so startling.

if this was a drug to reduce Alzheimer's disease, it would be a blockbuster.

Everyone would know about it because the pharma companies would be all over it.

But because it's a vaccine and we live in an anti-vax moment, this wasn't expected.

This was a surprise.

It's not just been replicated, but now four different what we call natural experiments, which are better than even randomized trials in many respects.

So

I don't think the word is out there.

I've been trying to help get it out, but there hasn't been enough work to disseminate these very important findings.