• Posted August 29, 2025

Shingles Vaccine Might Protect Against Heart Attack, Stroke

The shingles vaccine not only protects against the painful skin infection, but also might provide heart health benefits, a new study says.

Shingles vaccination also appears to lower a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke, according to an evidence review presented Thursday at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Madrid.

“We looked at the currently available evidence, and found that in this analysis, vaccination against herpes zoster was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or strokes,” researcher Dr. Charles Williams said in a news release. Williams is global associate medical director for global medical affairs-vaccines at the pharmaceutical company GSK.

Shingles is caused by a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox, researchers explained in background notes.

After a person has chickenpox, the virus remains dormant in their nervous system for decades. As aging dulls the immune system, the virus can reactivate and cause shingles.

About 1 in every 3 people who’ve had chickenpox can expect to have shingles, unless they’re vaccinated, researchers said.

The shingles vaccine is recommended in people 50 and older by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s also recommended for people 19 or older who have immune system deficiencies.

For the review, researchers pooled data from nine previous studies regarding the potential benefits of vaccination against shingles.

Results showed that vaccination against shingles reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke or other heart-related health events by 18% among adults 18 and older.

Further, vaccination reduced risk by 16% among adults 50 and older.

Shingles outbreaks have been shown to increase the risk of heart attack, researchers said. The virus also can invade large and small blood vessels in the head, potentially increasing risk of stroke.

However, researchers noted that eight of the studies they reviewed were observational, so their data can’t be used to draw a direct cause-and-effect link between vaccination and lower risk of heart-related health problems.

“All the studies used in the meta-analysis aimed primarily to investigate the use of herpes zoster vaccine to prevent shingles in the general population, which may limit the ability to generalize this research to people with a higher risk of cardiovascular events,” Williams said. “This demonstrates the need for more research in this area.”

GSK is the maker of the shingles vaccine Shingrix.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The AARP has more on shingles and heart disease.

SOURCE: European Society of Cardiology, news release, Aug. 28, 2025