They’re uncomfortable, embarrassing and tough to get rid of, but cold sores may also be a warning sign of dementia.
Scientists from Sweden published a paper linking the virus behind cold sores, herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), to an increased risk of the memory-robbing disease.
This is just the latest in a series of papers investigating a connection between common viruses and the risk of dementia later in life.
Cold sores are caused by Herpes simplex virus 1.
She said: ‘Given how common herpes virus infection is [in] young people, I would not let this study concern you too much.’
Cold sores are difficult to remove, uncomfortable, and embarrassing, but they can also be an early indicator of dementia.
A Swedish study found a link between a higher risk of the memory-robbing illness and the herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), which causes cold sores.
Those who had been infected with HSV-1 were twice as likely to develop dementia as those who had not, according to a study conducted on over 1,000 elderly individuals over a 15-year period.
The reason for the possible connection between the two conditions is unknown to the scientists, but it might be because it lives in hiding in your nervous system.
At any time, flare-ups may happen, which could lead to inflammation within the nervous system, pressing on and harming the brain’s and nervous system’s fragile tissue.
According to the theory, this may eventually cause some of the symptoms of dementia, such as confusion, memory loss, and the breakdown of brain tissue.
A number of studies have looked into the relationship between common viruses and the likelihood of developing dementia in later life, and this is just the most recent.
The virus that causes shingles and chicken pox, varicella-zoster, has also been connected recently by researchers to alterations in brain function.
Herpes simplex virus 1 is the cause of cold sores. Genital herpes is caused by an STD caused by a different strain of the same virus.
When Jim Carrey’s ex-girlfriend filed a lawsuit in 2017, alleging that the actor failed to disclose his HSV-1 and HSV-2 diagnosis, the information was made public.
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However, other studies have not found any connection between the virus and cognitive decline, and experts say the evidence is conflicting.
According to Johns Hopkins, between 50 and 80 percent of American adults are infected with HSV-1. Although they are not the same, this virus is comparable to HSV-2, the virus that causes herpes.
Although it can occasionally be transmitted through sharing drinks, the virus is primarily transmitted through close, personal contact such as kissing or oral sex.
Additionally, it can be transferred from mother to child during pregnancy and have major negative effects on offspring.
After contracting the illness, a lot of the symptoms are mild and controllable. Fever, enlarged lymph nodes, a sore throat, and oral and gum sores are among the early symptoms.
The symptoms may go away entirely after the initial flare-up, then reappear on the side of the mouth or lip occasionally as a red, ulcerous sore.
During one of these flare-ups, physicians may advise patients to take over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen to control inflammation or prescribe antiviral drugs or ointments to relieve discomfort.
For many years, physicians believed that this unsightly guest was one of the disease’s only aftereffects.
But in the last few years, a more concerning connection has surfaced.
Among them is the group of researchers from Uppsala University, whose work was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in December 2023.
For 15 years, they tracked 1,002 Swedes over 70 years of age, 80 percent of whom had HSV-1.
They made allowances for things like educational attainment and genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease.
In total, 32 participants had Alzheimer’s disease and 63% had another type of dementia by the end of the study, which accounted for 11% of the participants. Herpes was present in 89% of those individuals.
At the end of the study, 82 percent of participants had herpes, and researchers compared these individuals to the rest of the group, which had not developed dementia.
During a shopping trip in July 2010, Victoria Beckham was seen seemingly concealing a cold sore.
Viewers speculated that Katie Holmes had a cold sore when she attended the Broadway production of “The Other Place” on its opening night in 2010.
The researchers came to the conclusion that individuals who contracted herpes had a twofold increased risk of developing neurodegeneration after controlling for a few variables that might have influenced the data.
They acknowledge that they were unable to account for the potential impact of age on the data and were unable to rule out additional variables such as diabetes, heart disease, and prescription drugs.
Dementia is thought to affect 4% of adults over 65 in the US. According to Johns Hopkins experts, HSV-1 is present in 50–80% of the population.
The two have been linked before in other papers.
According to a 2024 study by South Korean researchers, who used data from a national health insurance program that covered over 750,000 people, dementia was more common in those with HSV and varicella zoster virus (VSV).
Not all of the research examining these two variables has discovered a connection, though. An inconclusive review conducted in 2019 by several UK universities found no strong correlation between HSV-1 and dementia.
The research is insufficiently compelling to draw the conclusion that herpes could cause dementia, according to Dr. Jagan PillaI, a cognitive neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who spoke to Parade. “It supports the need for better quality future studies,” he said of the UK’s 2019 study. “…
Furthermore, Medical News Today was informed by Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, that the prevalence of herpes infections is significantly greater than that of dementia.
She claimed that this discrepancy is proof that they may not be connected.
She stated: “I would not let this study worry you too much, considering how common herpes virus infection is [among] young people.”. “.”.
