Shingles Vaccine May Help Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke
Researchers think the virus that causes shingles may increase the risk of heart disease by damaging blood vessels and causing inflammation and blood clots.
The investigators examined data on more than a million South Korean adults age 50 and older, half of whom received the shingles vaccine and half of whom did not. Those who did get vaccinated received what’s known as a live zoster vaccine, an older option that contains a weakened form of the varicella zoster virus that causes shingles.
After a follow-up period of six years on average, vaccinated people were 23 percent less likely to have cardiovascular issues like heart attack and stroke than individuals who didn’t get vaccinated, according to findings published in the European Heart Journal.
Key Study Findings
In the study, shingles vaccination was associated with the following risk reductions:
26 percent lower risk of stroke
35 percent lower risk of heart attacks
26 percent lower risk of heart failure
29 percent lower risk of the heart rhythm disorder known as atrial fibrillation
Overall, the risk reduction was more pronounced for males, dropping 27 percent compared with 20 percent for females.
People younger than 60 saw a greater benefit than older people, with their risk dropping 27 percent compared with 16 percent for individuals 60 and older.
These protective effects lasted up to eight years, the study found, with the greatest risk reduction observed two to three years post-vaccination.
How Might the Shingles Vaccine Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke?
Shingles can lead to blood vessel damage, inflammation, and blood clots that could result in heart disease, says Sharon Curhan, MD, a physician and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston who wasn’t involved in the new study.
“By preventing shingles, vaccination may lower these risks,” Dr. Curhan says. “There is evidence that the shingles vaccine may help lower the risk of heart disease even in people without known cardiovascular disease risk factors. This suggests that shingles vaccination could provide health benefits beyond preventing shingles.”
The Study Has Some Limitations
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the shingles vaccine might directly prevent heart disease. It’s also possible that results from Korean adults might differ from what would happen with people from other racial or ethnic groups — and that results with the older live virus vaccine used in South Korea might differ from results with the new Shingrix vaccine used in the United States.
Even so, the findings build on earlier research that has documented an increased risk of cardiovascular disease issues when people do get shingles.
One study coauthored by Curhan, for example, which followed more than 200,000 American adults for more than a decade, found people who got shingles had up to a 38 percent higher risk of stroke and up to a 25 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease.
Similarly, a meta-analysis of 12 studies that followed 7.9 million people for up to 28 years found a 31 percent higher risk of cardiac events and a 34 percent higher risk of cerebrovascular events like strokes within just three months of the onset of shingles.
Shingles increases the risk of heart attack and stroke even after accounting for other risk factors like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and smoking, says Galen Foulke, MD, an associate professor at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, who wasn’t involved in the new Korean study.
“Even when controlling for these features, we see a clear risk from shingles itself,” Dr. Foulke says.
How Does Someone Get Shingles?
Shingles develops in people who have previously had chicken pox, a virus that remains dormant in the body after acute infections clear up and can be reactivated later in life. People 50 and older and individuals with weak immune systems are most at risk for shingles.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that Americans age 50 and older get the Shingrix shot, a newer vaccine that contains a protein from the varicella zoster virus instead of a weakened form of the live virus.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
Lee S et al. Live Zoster Vaccination and Cardiovascular Outcomes: A Nationwide, South Korean Study. European Heart Journal. May 5, 2025.
Emily Kay Votruba has copyedited and fact-checked for national magazines, websites, and books since 1997, including Self, GQ, Gourmet, Golf Magazine,Outside, Cornell University Press, Penguin Random House, and Harper's Magazine. Her projects have included cookbooks (Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet), self-help and advice titles (Mika Brzezinski's Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth), memoirs (Larry King's My Remarkable Journey), and science (Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy Davidson). She started freelancing for Everyday Health in 2016.
Lisa Rapaport is a journalist with more than 20 years of experience on the health beat as a writer and editor. She holds a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and spent a year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in dozens of local and national media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, WNYC, The Washington Post,Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, The Sacramento Bee, and The Buffalo News.
