
THURSDAY, June 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If you've survived a painful bout of shingles, at least you won't have to worry that it might raise your future risk of dementia, new research indicates.Shingles, caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox virus, results in a blistering rash from nerve inflammation, and there has been speculation that the inflammation may boost the chances of a dementia diagnosis down the road, so a team of scientists decided to investigate. They analyzed data from more than 247,000 people in Denmark who visited a hospital or were prescribed antiviral medication for shingles over the course of 20 years, and 1.2 million age- and sex-matched people without the illness. The average age of people in the study was 64. Of those who had shingles, 9.7% developed...