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If you’ve ever had chicken pox — and you probably have — you are at risk for shingles later in life. An outbreak of shingles can be deeply painful, but that may not be the worst of it. A new study suggests shingles may put you at greater risk of a stroke or heart attack than researchers had previously thought.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that adults who had shingles (also known as herpes zoster):
- Had an almost 30 percent higher long-term risk of a major cardiovascular event
- The elevated risk may persist for 12 years or longer
- The risk could be greater for adults whose immune system may be weakened by disease or medication
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“Our findings suggest there are long-term implications of shingles, and highlight the importance of public health efforts for prevention,” lead author Sharon Curhan, M.D., an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a statement.
More than 200,000 study participants
The varicella zoster virus, which causes chicken pox and shingles, has been detected in large and small blood vessels, and over time that can cause inflammation as well as chronic vascular changes that could be harmful. The researchers noted that a growing body of evidence had made this connection — including 15 recent epidemiological studies from Asia, Europe and the U.S. — but there wasn’t much data on long-term risk, and the findings from the data that was available were inconsistent. Curhan and her fellow researchers used data collected through three long-term studies — the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — to address the shortfall.
The researchers followed more than 200,000 participants from these studies, who began with no prior history of stroke or coronary heart disease, for up to 16 years. Information on shingles, stroke and coronary heart disease was collected using questionnaires that participants filled out every two years. The researchers also reviewed medical records to confirm any diagnosis.
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