Over the years, many studies have shown a tie between heart disease and influenza. In one 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a study group with various types of heart issues that received the flu vaccine were 20 % less likely to die from heart problems in a hospital, and 50 % less likely to die in the year after the vaccination. The study results were remarkable but logical. The heart works harder if the body suffers of any kind of viral infection, including the flu, and heart sufferers, which had heart attacks or operations to forestall them, have weakened hearts.
The study analysts also discovered that the life extension rate is not connected only to avert the flu, but in their opinion, influenza vaccine could have auxiliary features that guard heart patients from suffering any heart related problems in the year after the vaccination. The study concluded that this finding does not mean that people who did not take the shot, and died from a heart disease, had influenza. (The shot was approved for heart patients, NOT the nasal spray)
The study findings were observational and not laboratory, meaning the investigators had less control over the conditions. Moreover, at least four studies since 2003 discovered that individuals vaccinated against the flu had less hospitalization and mortality rates diminish in the year after vaccination, compared with heart patients that did not get the flu vaccine. The collected data showed a 25% to 50% decline in mortality and morbidity (the rate of hospitalization) from events connected to heart for vaccinated patients. One study discovered that heart attacks increase during flu season and decrease in the off season.
The conclusion is that influenza is extremely dangerous for patients with heart issues. Therefore, averting complications related to flu, such as lung infections, which diminish the oxygen intake making the heart pump harder, would reduce the number of heart attacks in individuals with weakened hearts. Moreover, while the immune system fights against the spread of infection like influenza, it discharges chemicals that inflame the affected tissue. This inflammation alters the vascular and blood clotting efficiency that can cause heart illness complications, including death.
Why the influenza vaccine appears to shield heart patients from complications, is not understood. The study investigators put forward a few ideas about the protecting effect of the flu vaccine. Mostly, they focus on the immune system. One theory is that any boost to the immune system (as it happens with vaccination) helps heart patients reach a full recovery after heart surgery or heart attack. This, in turn, diminishes the probability of experiencing a subsequent heart attack or heart-connected hospitalization.
The other issue is inflammation that is associated with heart attacks. One possibility offered is the vaccine’s boost to the immune system helps avert infection and resulting inflammatory response.
The conclusion - if you have heart issues get a flu shot every year, unless your doctor tells you otherwise. The goal of the US government is to vaccinate as many heart patients over age 65 as possible.
