42% Lower Risk for Dementia Following Adult (Tdap) Vaccination
academic.oup.com
academic.oup.com
Every tetanus shot I've had involved a very intense sporting or outdoor injury that needed stitches. The cohort getting these are vastly more active than those who don't, in a way that's far more accurate than self reported "exercise."
Basically everything good is correlated with lower dementia risk; it doesn't take half a brain for any of the authors to have realized this.
Comorbid physical and psychiatric conditions were defined by ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes and included type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, traumatic brain injury, vitamin B12 deficiency, depression, anxiety disorder, nicotine dependence and alcohol or drug abuse/dependence.
This would significantly reduce that problem.
The authors don't think the correlation is specifically the tetanus shot either, per the conclusion in the single page abstract. This paper's abstract (not an article) is just clearly and unambiguously stating that they have found a very strong correlation. The authors suspect (but don't know) that the tetanus shot is reducing inflammation, along with several other vaccines which are believed to have similar correlations but appear to have not yet been studied. Other studies have already linked inflammation with dementia, such as the ones showing patients can have the physical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease but not exhibit the symptoms of dementia, so this line of thought is very interesting and will hopefully lead to further studies. Perhaps the right anti-inflammatory medication could act as a prophylactic against dementia or even be able to treat dementia. Perhaps it will even point to brain inflammation as the reason that 'everything good is correlated with lower dementia risk'.
Controls are mentioned, but I wonder if it's possible to correct for the reasons people might decide to get a shot.
Kaiser's recommendation: "Get a tetanus shot as soon as possible if you have a dirty cut or wound and 5 or more years have passed since your last tetanus shot." [1] (Emphasis added.)
This would tend to select for people who do more outdoor activity and are in better shape.
It sounds like doing an actual trial could be interesting, though.
[1] https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/northern-california/hea...
If you were to go for that, would they be giving you a tetanus-only shot or a combined TDP shot? That might be a significant difference that the paper should have explored.
At least in the few European countries I know of, I believe TDP is something we get by default as part of the many childhood vaccinations. Though I do believe most adults stop getting the regular boosters. In this context, I don't know how to interpret the article's "Patients either had or did not have a Tdap vaccination by the start of either of two index periods" -- what group would you be in if you had it 50 years ago? What exactly is an "adult vaccination", and does it matter if you were vaccinated as an adult but it was 30 years ago?
I will be scheduling a tdap, because why not? You are supposed to get a tetanus booster every 10 years anyway.
The idea that vaccines magically cure dementia for no particular reason is so absurb they should be embarrassed to publish this drivel. Basically everything indicative of intelligence, exercise, and health consciousness predicts lower dementia risk; it shouldn't be surprising that something associated with all of these seems correlated.
"Vaccines have magical inflammation reducing properties" is not a conclusion any halfway intelligent person (who isn't trying to sell you something) would reach.