Flu Vaccination Dramatically Lowers Risk Of Alzheimer’s

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

I am always interested in headlines that are related to brain health. And though Alzheimer’s is a long way off for (hopefully) me, this still struck me as interesting.

For me this was also interesting because last year I decided to have my first ever flu jab. I had never really considered it being healthy and rarely sick. However, with the rise of COVID-19 and my subsequent vaccinations it raised my awareness of the importance of vaccinations. I know many people of turned the opposite direction, but I realised that not getting sick and protecting the immune system is a much better option in all circumstances.

So, what did these researchers at the University of Texas Health Care Centre find?

They found a strong correlation between having the flu vaccination and getting Alzheimer’s. This risk was 40% lower. That is a dramatic difference and of note is that this study was also large analysing data from 935’877 vaccinated and the same number of unvaccinated patients aged 65 or over. They were then tracked over a four-year period.

This effect was also stronger the more often the individual had been vaccinated so those who got themselves vaccinated consistently had an even lower risk of contracting Alzheimer’s within the study period.

There are multiple possible causes of this, but the researchers note that other vaccines also seem to impact propensity to getting Alzheimer’s. It could be that the protection of the immune system or alternatively activation to a safe degree has neuro-protective effects. But it does raise the possibility of vaccinating against Alzheimer’s.

But for now, you seem to be able to do that just by getting the flu jab regularly. I certainly will be!

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Avram S. Bukhbinder, Yaobin Ling, Omar Hasan, Xiaoqian Jiang, Yejin Kim, Kamal N. Phelps, Rosemarie E. Schmandt, Albert Amran, Ryan Coburn, Srivathsan Ramesh, Qian Xiao, Paul E. Schulz. 
Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease Following Influenza Vaccination: A Claims-Based Cohort Study Using Propensity Score Matching. 
Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2022; 1
DOI: 10.3233/JAD-220361

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