Flora Lichtman

Catch you next time.

I'm Flora Lichtman.

Hey, it's Laura Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday.

The benefits of getting a vaccine seem relatively straightforward.

Like, you get the shingles vaccine, it protects you from shingles.

But there may be more to the story.

For example, researchers have found a surprising link between getting the shingles vaccine and a lower risk of developing dementia.

And that's not the only vaccine that seems to boost health in unexpected ways.

So what's going on here?

Here to get into the details are my guests.

Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer is an epidemiologist at Stanford University who's studying the association between the shingles vaccine and lower rates of dementia.

And Dr. Helen Chu is a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Washington who studies flu, RSV and COVID-19.

Helen, Pascal, welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks for being here.

Helen, start by orienting us.

Give me some examples of some of the unintended benefits of vaccines, you know, beyond preventing the specific disease they were designed for.

Can I just dig in here for a second?

So the idea is that flu could actually trigger a heart attack or a heart health problem.

And so if you're preventing the flu, you're you're preventing this downstream effect of having that infection.

Okay, so that's one potential reason you see these downstream effects.