alt Hacker NewsI'm not skilled, but it feels like a validation for the virus theory of dementia
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/03/shingles-vacc...
"The remarkable findings, published April 2 in Nature, support an emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further confirmed, the new findings suggest that a preventive intervention for dementia is already close at hand."
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A lot of things can cause dementia. IIRC, men who use Cialis have a lower risk of dementia, which indicates that better blood flow is beneficial as well.
Our skulls are hard for a reason. Brains are sensitive.
Perhaps worth noting because I'm not sure how many people realize it:
Chickenpox is actually a neurological disease; that's how it re-emerges as shingles later in life. The virus infects nerve cells but (as far as we know) hides out in them without damaging them. Because nerves are critical to bodily function and don't regenerate nearly as efficiently as (for example) skin, liver, or other "sheet tissues" (tissue made of small cells is easier to regenerate; nerves can be as long as a meter and regeneration involves growing a new cell that entire distance), the body has a pile of immunosuppressant signals to prevent killing the nerve while trying to fight an infection. "Hey white blood cells: I know we hate chickenpox, but we hate not being able to swallow more, so maybe lay off the throat nerves, right?"
... but as a result, one doesn't generally purge the chickenpox infection after it occurs. Breakouts into other tissue are swiftly suppressed by our immune systems our whole lives (so swiftly that you don't get symptoms or become contagious), but as we age and the immune system weakens, a breakout can become a full infection and the result is shingles.
... and now, it seems that the "infects nerves without damaging them" hypothesis should be up for question.
Taking valacyclovir should help prevent or delay as well.