The shingles vaccine is not just for older people. I’m in my thirties and I get it.

Bushra Tbakhi was in medical school when she developed an unattractive and “scary” itchy patch above one of her eyes. Even though she was on the verge of becoming a doctor herself, and even though she was exhausted and stressed, and stress is a possible trigger for shingles, her doctors didn’t immediately come up with a diagnosis. Tbakhi was 23 at the time, and even in the medical field, shingles is considered something that, well, old people get. Despite a round of antiviral medication, the flare-up developed into a painful condition, Bell’s palsy, a complication that causes muscle weakness and drooping, often on one side of the face.

Reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, aka chickenpox, into herpes zoster, aka shingles, usually occurs later in life. Yet increasingly younger, seemingly healthy people are reporting flare-ups. (Celebrities Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, and NBA All-Star Tyrese Haliburton have all made headlines with the disease, and Slate’s editor-in-chief wrote about shingles when she was just 48 years old.) Recent data bears this out — while it’s unclear why young people might get shingles flare-ups, it’s possible it’s linked to high levels of stress.

If you have had chickenpox, you may have shingles. “If you had chickenpox naturally, it will go away, but it will stay dormant. It will stay in your nerves,” said Tbakhi, now an allergy and immunology researcher at the University of Cincinnati. This means that many people (95% of American adults) have been playing host to a virus for a very long time that can cause rashes and nasty pustules. There is, as Tbakhi found, a risk of ongoing complications, as well as long-term nerve pain called postherpetic neuralgia, blindness and encephalitis.

After my dad had a bout of shingles, I started wondering if I should consider getting vaccinated myself. (It was actually this Slate article that made me realize that it might be a good idea to tell his doctors about shingles, even if by then it was too late for him to take the antiviral medications, which are most effective when taken within 72 hours of shingles onset.) Both the original shingles vaccine, which was approved in 2006, and the new vaccine, approved in 2017, were administered to people over 50 or immunocompromised, as they are the demographic groups most likely to experience the most severe effects of the disease. Even though I’m only in my thirties, I fall into the immunocompromised camp.

There’s another reason I wanted to get the vaccine, beyond its ability to help prevent a flare-up. Much new research shows that the abandoned live attenuated vaccine and the new recombinant version (Shingrix) that replaced it would offer a series of dramatic off-label benefits: reduced dementia diagnoses, protection against cardiovascular disease, and even slowing biological aging. “This will have enormous consequences for population health,” said Pascal Geldsetzer, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and a member of the team that first discovered the link between the shingles vaccine and dementia prevention.

This first study, which his team was able to repeat in several locations around the world, was based on the rollout of the live attenuated shingles vaccine in Wales in 2013. People born before September 2, 1933 were not eligible to receive the vaccine. Those born after that date were. The conditions created an ideal situation to observe the effects of the shot.

“Researchers still have this problem that those who are more motivated about their health and who have better preventive behaviors are the ones who are going to get vaccinated,” Geldsetzer explained. But, apart from being born about a week apart before or after the 1933 cut-off date, little separated the Welsh pensioners analyzed by his team. And what the researchers saw was astonishing. Those who received the vaccine showed what Geldsetzer described as “important preventative effects,” which corresponded to a 20% reduction in dementia diagnoses.

It’s unclear whether it’s something in the vaccine itself that provides this added benefit or whether it’s just the effects of reducing flare-ups of the virus in us. Geldsetzer said the research points in that direction. It appears, he says, that without a vaccine, minor reactivations throughout our lives build immunity against the virus. And it appears that these undetected flare-ups may contribute to many of the hallmark illnesses of old age.

This is all just a working theory, of course. But I have a family history of dementia and heart failure, and I’ve seen firsthand how painful shingles can be. My reaction was simple: sign me up for this vaccine!

After browsing the shingles subreddit and reading about other immunocompromised millennials who are having trouble getting vaccinated, I didn’t think I would qualify easily. When a cheerful pharmacist told me my insurance would cover it while I waited for my husband to finish browsing the aisles of a big-box store one recent weekend, I felt like I was getting away with something. A slight bump and a vaguely sore arm later, I’m now halfway to being noticeably more protected against a shingles outbreak than before. (I’ll have to take a second photo in a few months to seal the deal.)

To be clear, I’m not sitting here rubbing my hands with glee, thinking I’m immune to dementia or a heart attack and will stay young forever. First, we don’t yet know how long the vaccine provides immunity against shingles, or whether the protective qualities it appears to offer older adults apply when given to younger populations. It doesn’t even protect me 100% against shingles: I could still get an outbreak, although it would be a much less serious case. But the evidence is exciting for researchers, who want to know more.

“We have very few tools to treat dementia,” Geldsetzer said. “Here you would have a single, inexpensive, easily scalable, safe intervention that people don’t even need to take every day, let alone a lifestyle regimen that you have to adhere to for decades.” As I write, two studies and a clinical trial are underway to confirm Shingrix’s impact on dementia, cardiovascular disorders, and major adverse cardiac events.

For now, as it is studied whether approving the vaccine in younger populations is warranted, doctors recommend paying close attention to itching, even on areas of skin without a visible rash. For most outbreaks in healthy individuals, “we take an antiviral, and we should be fine,” Tbakhi said.

Experts like Tbakhi and Geldsetzer are reluctant to say that young adults should all get shingles vaccinations — both said recommendations should be left to committees such as those at the Food and Drug Administration. But the evidence is mounting, and if you’re immunocompromised like me, there’s no downside to getting it sooner than expected. later.