(This is an excerpt from the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present the latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)
By Nancy Lapid
Dec 5 (Reuters) – People with dementia who received the shingles vaccine were significantly less likely to die from dementia than those who did not get the shot, according to the findings of a large study, which suggests the vaccine may slow the progression of the disease.
Overall, almost half of the more than 14,000 older people in Wales who had dementia at the start of the vaccination program died of dementia during nine years of follow-up.
But receipt of Merck’s Zostavax vaccine reduced the risk of death from dementia by nearly 30 percentage points, researchers reported in Cell.
Earlier this year, researchers in Wales found that older adults who received the Zostavax vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia in the first place, compared to similar older adults who did not receive the vaccine.
“The most exciting part (of the newest findings) is that this really suggests that the shingles vaccine has not only preventive and delaying benefits for dementia, but also therapeutic potential for those who already have dementia,” study leader Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University in California said in a statement.
Whether the shingles vaccine protects against dementia by boosting the immune system in general, by specifically reducing reactivations of the virus that causes shingles, or by some other mechanism is not yet known, the researchers said.
It is also not known whether the newer shingles vaccine, Shingrix from GlaxoSmithKline, which contains only certain proteins from the virus and is more effective at preventing shingles, may have a similar or even greater impact on dementia than the older vaccine received by the participants in the Welsh studies.
Protection against shingles with Merck’s vaccine has been found to wane over time and is no longer used in many countries after Shingrix was shown to be superior.
The researchers say that in the past two years, they have replicated the Welsh findings in health records from other countries, including England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
“We continue to see this strong protective signal for dementia in dataset after dataset,” Geldsetzer said.
DIABETES IN PREGNANCY BETTER MANAGEMENT WITH CONTINUOUS MONITORING
Women who develop pregnancy-related diabetes can reduce their risk of having a newborn with a higher-than-average birth weight by wearing continuous glucose monitors, new trial data shows.
“Gestational diabetes can lead to excessive growth of the child, which can contribute to birth problems but also to a predisposition in early childhood to obesity and metabolic diseases,” the researchers noted in a report in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
They randomly assigned 375 women with gestational diabetes to wear a continuous glucose monitoring device from Dexcom or to self-monitor their blood sugar levels through intermittent finger pricks.
The researchers found that babies of above average weight were born to 4% of women in the CGM group and to 10% of those in the finger-prick group.
In addition, the percentiles of average birth weight were lower in the CGM group, indicating that the children of these women were less likely to grow excessively, the researchers said.
“Continuous glucose monitoring via a sensor placed under the skin allows patients to check their blood sugar levels at any time,” study leader Dr. Christian Göbl of MedUni Vienna/University Hospital said in a statement. “This allows them to make specific adjustments to their lifestyle or insulin therapy, which can have a positive impact on the course of their pregnancy.”
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)