“This blood test clearly identifies Alzheimer’s tau tangles, which is our best biomarker measure of Alzheimer’s symptoms and dementia,” co-senior author Dr. Randall Bateman, a professor of neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a news release.

It wasn't that long ago that the only way to test for Alzheimer's disease was to perform an autopsy on someone who had been suffering from dementia to look for the telltale tangles of tau and amyloid proteins in the brain.

Lower levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol could mean a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, a new study says.

The findings suggest that the shingles virus might play a role in causing at least a subset of dementia cases, Geldsetzer says, and the vaccine may protect against that. Alternatively, it could be that certain vaccines, such as the one for shingles, lead to a broader immune system activation that lowers the risk of dementia developing.

One factor that may increase the risk of dementia is high levels of blood cholesterol. Now, a study has found that low levels of LDL-C, or ‘bad’ cholesterol, may reduce the risk of developing dementia.

Getting vaccinated against shingles can reduce the risk of developing dementia, a large new study finds. The results provide some of the strongest evidence yet that some viral infections can have effects on brain function years later and that preventing them can help stave off cognitive decline.

They compared people born before and after they were eligible to take the shingles vaccine in a certain part of the UK, finding that vaccinated people were 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over a seven year period.

A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one — shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains.

And over the past couple of years, observational studies have suggested that the vaccine against shingles may have a protective effect. But it's extremely difficult to do a clinical trial given that the onset of dementia may happen decades after most people first receive the shingles vaccine.

A new study suggests that getting vaccinated against shingles not only lowers the risk of infection but may also offer some protection against dementia. The new research found that people who got the original shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia of any type than those who were not vaccinated.

A vaccine for shingles could protect against dementia according to a new study that took advantage of a quirk in Wales' vaccine rollout scheme.