Luke O'Neill

Again, it's not all positive, but it is very positive if you're obese or you have diabetes.

Now, let's talk about the medical advice on shingles.

Yeah, it was a bit disappointing this week, Pat, because HICWA came out and said that the phrase was, it's not possible to determine if the shingles vaccine is protecting against dementia and Alzheimer's.

Now, strictly speaking, that's true.

There hasn't been a randomised control trial, but the evidence, it's an association really between taking the vaccine and decreasing risk is really compelling, you know, so I didn't like the headline from them, really.

I felt, hang on, big consensus that it is having beneficial effects for Alzheimer's and

dementia now one of the the ways in which you can determine it is when people take the vaccine and you've got a huge number a huge sample has that happened it has yeah the one study that was great pat was in wales 280 000 people now the quirk of the welsh system pat is anybody born after september 3rd 1933 was given the shingles vaccine and those before born before that weren't

And there are a huge number of people.

Now, those people are pretty similar.

Same exercise overall.

And guess what?

The ones with the vaccine, 20% decreased risk of Alzheimer's over a seven-year period.

Now, it's a natural experiment, we call this.

Now, they have to take into account that, obviously, the people born before that date in 1933 are older.

And therefore, you know, there's a greater incidence of dementia there.

Yeah.

As you get older.

So they have to account for that.

Slightly, yeah.

But even still, it was a very clear mark between the two groups.