A newly published study shows an association between the shingles vaccine and slower healthy biological aging. I have written several articles about the shingles vaccine and the risk of dementia, but that is not the only aspect of aging that seems to be affected by the shingles vaccine.

I am not saying that the shingles vaccine is some miracle “Fountain of Youth,” but it seems to have some significant effects on aging. But this is all a bonus because the vaccine happens to prevent shingles, a disfiguring and dangerous disease.

This post will examine this new study to determine whether the shingles vaccine indeed promotes healthy aging.

What is shingles and the vaccine?

Shingles is a complication of chickenpox, caused by the Varicella zoster virus (VZV). The body’s immune system does not eliminate VZV after chickenpox. Once the symptoms of chickenpox disappear, the virus stays in the dorsal root ganglion, a bundle of nerve fibers at the bottom of the spinal column. The virus stays there, hidden from the body’s immune system.

Even though the body developed an immune response to the original zoster virus infection, several years or decades after the initial infection, the adaptive immune response against the virus wanes or disappears. Due to other unknown factors, possibly stress or other infections like COVID-19 or VZV, the virus “moves” along nerve bundles and initiates a secondary infection with much more serious consequences for the individual.

This second VZV infection, called herpes zoster, is more commonly known as shingles. Shingles usually occurs in adults older than 50, although it can occur at any age, even in young adults. 

Even though the same virus causes chickenpox and shingles, shingles was given a different name, herpes zoster, probably because it was originally thought to be caused by a similar, but unrelated virus.

Shingles is an entirely unpredictable disease. It reactivates due to unknown causes. Once shingles appear, they can be painful, depending on the location of the outbreak. It can cause blindness (from herpes zoster ophthalmicus), disfigurement of the infected area, permanent pain (postherpetic neuralgia), and other conditions.

Shingles can be treated with antiviral drugs, but only if the infection is recognized and treated within 24-72 hours, so treatment has to begin very quickly.

Post-herpetic neuralgia pain may last for weeks, months, or even years after the blisters have healed – this is not a trivial disease.

Shingles is not a one-time event. After you recover from shingles, it may return within a few months or years, so it is important to be vaccinated even if you have had shingles.

Almost all individuals in the US aged 50 years and older have been infected with VZV (from chickenpox) and are therefore at risk for shingles. There’s a growing body of evidence that herpes viruses, including VZV, may be linked to cognitive decline.

The only way to prevent a shingles infection is to boost the immune system with a vaccine against the zoster virus. The CDC recommends Shingrix (also known as the zoster vaccine, available in the USA), a relatively new, safe, and effective vaccine that prevents shingles. Shingrix has replaced the older shingles vaccine, Zostavax, because Shingrix is much more effective.

There is another way to prevent shingles — never get chickenpox in the first place. Of course, we have a vaccine for that, the chickenpox (or varicella) vaccine.

The CDC recommends the shingles vaccine for individuals 50 years or older. Additionally, the vaccine should be given to individuals 19 years or older with a compromised immune system. Other countries have different recommendations for the shingles vaccine.

So let’s be clear about a couple of things. First, you are only at risk for shingles if you have had chickenpox. Second, children who have received the chickenpox vaccine are at a very low risk of developing shingles as they age.

Shingles vaccine and healthy aging research

In a paper published on 20 January 2026 in The Journals of Gerontology Series A, Jung Ki Kim, PhD, and Eileen M Crimmins, PhD, Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, studied the composite biological aging score using data from the US Health and Retirement Study. A total of 3884 adults aged 70 years and older in 2016 were included in the analyses, with biological measures drawn from venous blood, flow cytometry, and physical assessments.

The key results were:

• Shingles vaccination was significantly associated with lower inflammation scores, b = -0.14.
• Slower epigenetic aging, the changes in gene expression and cellular function that occur as we age, influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle choices, b = -0.17
• Slower transcriptomic aging, the process by which the expression of genes in a cell changes over time, b = -0.19
• Lower composite biological aging score, a novel measure that integrates various markers of biological aging into a single, quantifiable metric, b = -0.18.
• Higher adaptive immunity scores, effectiveness of the adaptive immune system in responding to specific pathogens, b = 0.09.
• The improvements in epigenetic, transcriptomic, and overall composite biological aging were most pronounced within 3 years post-vaccination; beyond this window, slower aging persisted.

The authors concluded:

Timing analyses indicated that epigenetic, transcriptomic and overall composite biological aging improvements were most pronounced within three years post-vaccination, with slower aging persisting beyond this window. The results support the hypothesis that shingles vaccination may influence key biological systems relevant to aging, though effects appear domain-specific and vary over time.

Summary

The results suggest that the shingles vaccine provides significant benefits for healthy aging, including lower systemic inflammation, molecular, and overall biological aging. This is great news if you are a senior.

However, it is important to note that this study shows correlation, not causation. It is possible that individuals who choose to get the shingles vaccine take better care of their health by exercising more and eating a better diet. On the other hand, shingles may negatively affect the aging process, and preventing it is associated with lower age-related scores.

Given the growing body of evidence on the health benefits of the shingles vaccine, beyond its primary job of preventing shingles, if you’re of the appropriate age, you should get it. It’s very safe and very effective.

Citations

• Kim JK, Crimmins EM. Association between shingles vaccination and slower biological aging: Evidence from a U.S. population-based cohort study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2026 Jan 20:glag008. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glag008. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41556115.
• Li T, Mani M. A physically inspired approach to coarse-graining transcriptomes reveals the dynamics of aging. PLoS One. 2024 Oct 29;19(10):e0301159. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301159. PMID: 39471158; PMCID: PMC11521254.

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