A scientific study showed that vaccination against influenza reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 40%.

Science continues to advance to discover the causes and possible treatments for brain diseases. Now, US researchers have found that people who received at least The flu vaccine was 40% less likely than their unvaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the course of four years.

According to new study from UTHealth Houston led by first author Avram S. Schulze, MD, Rick McCord Professor of Neurology at McGovern School of Medicine, Comparison of Alzheimer’s disease risk among patients with or without a previous influenza vaccine in a large sample of US adults age 65 or older across the country.

“We found out Influenza vaccination in older adults reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease for several years. The strength of this protective effect increased with the number of years a person received their annual flu shot.; In other words, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease was lowest among those who received the flu shot each year,” said Buchbinder, who remains part of Schulze’s research team while in his first year of residency in the department of pediatric neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Future research should evaluate whether the influenza vaccine is also associated with the rate at which symptoms develop in patients who already have Alzheimer’s dementia.The expert added in the article that explains the results in detail and is available prior to its publication in the August 2 issue of the journal magazine Alzheimer’s Disease Journal.

The study, which comes two years after researchers at UTHealth Houston potential link Between influenza vaccination and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Analyzing a much larger sample than previous research, including 935,887 influenza vaccinated patients and 935,887 unvaccinated patients.

During the four-year follow-up appointments, It was found that about 5.1% of patients who were vaccinated against influenza developed Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, 8.5% of unvaccinated patients developed Alzheimer’s disease during follow-up.

These results Emphasis on the powerful protective effect of influenza vaccine against Alzheimer’s diseaseAccording to Buchbinder and Schultz. however, The mechanisms underlying this process require further study.

“Because there is evidence that different vaccines can protect against Alzheimer’s disease, we believe it is not a specific effect of the influenza vaccine,” said Schulze, who is also the Omphrey Family Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases and director of the Division of Disorders. Medical School.

“Instead, we believe that the immune system is complex and that some disorders, such as pneumonia, can activate it in a way that exacerbates Alzheimer’s disease.. But other things that activate the immune system may do so in a different way, a way that protects against Alzheimer’s diseases. We obviously have more to learn about how to worsen the immune system or improve outcomes in this disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 6 million people living in the United States and the number of people affected is increasing due to the aging of the country’s population. Previous studies have found a reduced risk of dementia associated with prior exposure to several vaccines in adulthood, including tetanus, polio, and herpes vaccines, as well as influenza and other vaccines.

Additionally, as more time has passed since the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine and more comprehensive follow-up data is available, Bakhinder said that Whether there is a similar association between the COVID-19 vaccine and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is worth investigating.

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