This seasonal habit promotes healthy aging and may reduce dementia risk in older people

 You competent? doctor has kept you up-to-date on all appropriate vaccines, right?

This seasonal habit promotes healthy aging and may reduce dementia risk in older people

Aging is inevitable, but there’s increasing evidence that it may be possible to prevent, or at least delay, age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.

Although life expectancy has soared in the United States over the past century, many people are living longer in poorer health.

That’s why many aging experts are shifting the focus away from lifespan. Instead, the goal is to maximize our “healthspan,” aka the number of years spent living into older age in good health.

And slowing down biological aging often boils down to simple, healthy choices and preventive healthcare.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, previously spoke to TODAY.com about evidence-based habits to promote longevity, including staying up to date on routine vaccinations.

There’s one vaccine in particular that’s especially important for adults over the age of 50, says Emanuel.

Longevity Tip of The Day: Stay Up To Date With Your Flu Vaccine to Promote Healthy Aging

If you’re an adult who wants to age healthier, get your annual flu shot, says Emanuel, who authored “Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.”

The seasonal influenza vaccine is the most effective way to protect against severe illness, complications and death from flu.

In addition to these benefits, there’s growing evidence that the flu shot may protect against age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

“Cognitive decline is a serious worry, so (getting the flu shot) is one thing you can and should do,” says Emanuel.

Why It Matters

As we get older, our body’s natural immune defenses gradually weaken, making it harder to fight off infections. People over the age of 65 face a much higher risk of getting very sick, becoming hospitalized or dying from the flu.

“Thousands of people die every year from influenza,” says Emanuel.

There’s increasing evidence showing that routine adult vaccines like the flu shot are associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s in older adults, TODAY.com previously reported.

“Especially for people over 50, vaccines may reduce your risk of cognitive decline and dementia,” says Emanuel.

In a 2026 study published in Neurology, researchers found that the high-dose flu shot is associated with a 55% lower risk of Alzheimer’s in adults over 65 in the years following vaccination.

In addition to the flu shot, three other routine adult vaccines may cut dementia risk, says Ezekiel. These include the shingles vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, and the diptheria, pertussis tetanus vaccine (Tdap).

So if you’re looking to protect your body and brain as you get older, staying up to date on these shots is crucial, Emanuel says.

How to Get Started

If you have questions about the flu shot or which vaccine is appropriate for you, talk to your doctor.

The 2026-2027 seasonal influenza vaccines are available and being rolled out at pharmacies, doctors’ offices, hospitals and clinics nationwide.

There are multiple options available, including egg-based standard dose flu shots, high-dose flu shots and cell-based shots. For the first time, there is also an mRNA flu shot available to those 50 and older this year (though the dementia reduction findings only apply to the other types of flu vaccines.)

They protect against three flu viruses (two influenza A and one influenza B strain), which are expected to circulate this winter.

The best time to get a flu vaccine is in late September or October, before flu activity peaks.

It takes about two weeks for the flu shot to take full effect, and this protection generally lasts about six months through the end of flu season.

TODAY’s Expert Tip of the Day series is all about simple strategies to make life a little easier. Every Monday through Friday, different qualified experts share their best advice on diet, fitness, heart health, mental wellness and more.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

RSV vaccination linked to marked reduction in thromboembolic events in older adults

 Did your competent? doctor immediately give you all the appropriate vaccination upon entering the hospital?

Do you prefer your doctor, hospital and board of director's incompetence NOT KNOWING? OR NOT DOING? Your choice; let them be incompetent or demand action!

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The latest here:

RSV vaccination linked to marked reduction in thromboembolic events in older adults

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination provided substantial protection against RSV-associated thromboembolic complications in older adults during the same season as vaccination, according to a large US retrospective cohort study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Ryan E. Wiegand, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues evaluated community-dwelling fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 years between October 1, 2023 and March 30, 2024. The analysis included 15,558,386 beneficiaries, of whom 58% were women, 80% lived in urban areas, and 13% had immunocompromising conditions. 

RSV-associated thromboembolic events were defined as myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke, or venous thromboembolism occurring from 7 days before to 30 days after an RSV diagnosis.

After adjusting for confounders, RSV vaccination demonstrated vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 79% (95% confidence interval [CI], 74%-83%) against RSV-associated thromboembolic events among all beneficiaries. Consistent protection was observed across major subgroups, with VE of 82% (95% CI, 77%-86%) in immunocompetent individuals and 69% (95% CI, 56%-78%) in immunocompromised patients. Protection was similar by age -- 75% (95% CI, 63%-83%) in adults aged 65-74 years and 80% (95% CI, 74%-84%) in those aged ≥75 years.

Effectiveness was stable over time, with VE of 80% at 14-59 days, 79% at 60-119 days, and 75% beyond 120 days after vaccination, suggesting minimal waning over the first 4 months. Comparable results were observed for both licensed products, with VE of 76% for Arexvy and 85% for Abrysvo. Sensitivity analyses extending follow-up and restricting to periods of high RSV circulation produced similar estimates.

By contrast, VE against all-cause thromboembolic events, regardless of RSV diagnosis, was lower at 21%.

“This study demonstrates the effectiveness of RSV vaccines against RSV-associated thromboembolic events, including myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke, and venous thromboembolism,” the authors concluded. “Our findings are consistent with studies demonstrating that influenza and COVID-19 vaccines reduce the likelihood of thromboembolic events in adults.”

Source: Emerging Infectious Diseases

Heart Attack, Stroke Risk Rises After Serious RSV, Study Says

 Your competent? doctor IMMEDIATELY got you the RSV vaccine when available, right? 

Shingles, RSV vaccines may lower dementia risk July 2025 

The latest here:

Heart Attack, Stroke Risk Rises After Serious RSV, Study Says

Level of risk peaked in the week after a hospital admission but lingered through 6 months

Key Takeaways

• In this self-controlled case series, myocardial infarction rates were nearly 9 times greater in the week after an RSV-related hospitalization compared with a control period prior to infection.
• Stroke rates were more than 7 times higher compared with the control period.
• Recent research has suggested that RSV vaccination lowers the risk of cardiorespiratory hospitalizations.

Adults hospitalized with an acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection may face a sharp risk of cardiorespiratory events such as heart attack or stroke in the weeks afterward, according to a retrospective self-controlled case study.

Compared with a control period preceding infection and after 6 months and beyond, patients had myocardial infarction (MI) rates 2.6 to 8.7 times greater during each of the first 3 weeks following an RSV-related admission (P<0.001 for all), with the level of increased risk highest over those initial 7 days, reported researchers led by Caihua Liang, MD, PhD, of Pfizer in New York City.

Stroke rates increased 7.4-fold in that first week, while rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or congestive heart failure (CHF) exacerbations were over 23 times and 12 times higher, respectively. Rates of arrhythmia were 16.5 times greater as well (P<0.001 for all), findings in JAMA Network Open showed. Relative risks remained significant even among patients who had no prior history of cardiorespiratory events.

Adults 75 and older saw even greater cardiorespiratory event risks, with MI rates 10.1 times greater and CHF exacerbation rates 14.6 times greater in the first week after an RSV-related admission (P=0.01 for both).

"Results of our study support a potential role of RSV infection in triggering cardiorespiratory complications in adults, especially older adults, and present a clinical and economic burden beyond the acute phase of the illness," Liang and colleagues wrote. "Additionally, our study highlights the importance of preventive efforts, such as vaccinations, in decreasing the risk of RSV infection and its complications in adults."

RSV infection in the U.S. causes an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 hospitalizations annually among adults 60 and older.

Of note, the current study was sponsored by Pfizer, which markets a bivalent RSV prefusion F vaccine (Abrysvo), one of the three RSV vaccines to have received FDA approval. The CDC currently recommends a one-time dose for all adults 75 and older, as well as a single dose for those ages 50 to 74 who have an increased risk of developing severe disease.

Researchers from Denmark recently reported trial results showing that RSV vaccine recipients were less likely than the unvaccinated to experience all-cause cardiorespiratory hospitalizations.

RSV is not alone, as respiratory illnesses such as influenza and COVID-19 have been linked to greater cardiorespiratory risks.

For their study, Liang and colleagues used the Optum Market Clarity Dataset to analyze 11,887 adult patients ages 18 and older who had an RSV-related hospitalization and a cardiorespiratory event. Cardiorespiratory events included MI (2,421 events), stroke (1,622 events), COPD exacerbations (5,018 events), CHF exacerbations (4,204 events), and arrhythmia (5,844 events).

Patients were their own cases and controls, with two observation periods. The control period included more than 21 days before hospital admission or RSV diagnosis, plus more than 180 days after admission or diagnosis. The case period ran from the date of hospital admission or RSV diagnosis to 180 days after.

Patients' mean age was 69 years, 61% were women.

Post-hospitalization cardiorespiratory event rates at 180 days fell for all conditions, though they remained significantly greater than the control period for stroke (incidence rate ratio 1.6, P<0.001).

The researchers cautioned that the study findings may not be applicable to uninsured populations and that the use of ICD-10-CM codes only to identify cardiorespiratory events may have led to misclassification and bias. In addition, limited RSV testing led to low sensitivity among older adults, which may have excluded some RSV cases with cardiorespiratory events.

Shingles, RSV vaccines may lower dementia risk

 Didn't your competent? doctor get you the newer shingles vaccine a while ago? I've had both. 

Shingrix vaccine (4 posts to October 2017)

Shingles, RSV vaccines may lower dementia risk

Older adults who had received AS01-adjuvanted shingles and RSV vaccines may have a reduced risk of dementia over the next 18 months, according to a study published in npj Vaccines.

Using electronic health records from 436,788 individuals, researchers led by Maxime Taquet,  University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, investigated whether AS01-adjuvanted vaccines affect dementia risk. The study included recipients of shingles vaccine (Shingrix; n = 103,798), RSV vaccine (Arexvy; n = 35,938), or both vaccines (n = 78,658), with matched influenza vaccine recipients serving as the comparison group.

All groups were balanced across key demographic and clinical characteristics (standardised mean differences < 0.1). The mean age of the cohorts ranged from 69.20 to 72.91 years. 

Over an 18-month follow-up period, individuals who had received RSV vaccine and shingles vaccine had a 29% (ratio of restricted mean time lost [RMTL] = 0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-0.83; P = 2.8 x 10⁻⁵) and 18% (RMTL: 0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.91; P = .00027) lower risk of dementia, respectively, while those who had received both vaccines had a 37% lower risk (RMTL = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.55-0.72; P = 4.7 x 10⁻¹²), compared with those who had received influenza vaccines. These findings corresponded to an additional 87, 53, and 113 days free of dementia diagnosis within the 18-month period, respectively.

No significant difference in dementia risk was observed between individuals who received either AS01-adjuvanted vaccines and those who received both vaccines. The reduction in risk was consistent across sexes and remained robust when including individuals diagnosed with dementia within the first 3 months of follow-up. A similar protective association was also seen for the composite outcome of dementia or death.

“It is likely that both the AS01 shingles and RSV vaccines provide some protection against dementia,” the authors remarked. “The mechanisms underpinning this protection remain to be determined. Our data provide support for the hypothesis that, besides protection against their target infection, these vaccines could well protect against dementia via the action of the AS01 components through specific immunological pathways.”

Given the implications for ageing populations, the authors called for further clinical and mechanistic studies to validate and elucidate the durability and pathways of this observed protective effect.

Source: npj Vaccines