STORY BYSo—another flu season came and went, and, like the vast majority of Americans, you didn’t get your vaccine. You figured, why would anybody ever get a shot that they didn’t absolutely need? Besides, it’s just the flu, right?
Wrong. The flu shot can do more than prevent you from feeling lousy for a few days or weeks—it can possibly save your life.
Researchers are now making connections between influenza and both heart attacks and strokes. It appears that an annual flu shot is one of best (and cheapest) ways of keeping these killers at bay.
The connection between the flu and heart disease was first studied by a team of doctors at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Cardiologist S.Ward Casscells, said in a recent interview with heartwire, “Time and time again, we were seeing people in our practice who had had an upper-respiratory infection and then suffered a heart attack. When we dug into the literature, we saw reports that many heart attacks, as many as 35 percent, were preceded by an upper-respiratory infection. We also saw that patients who had received their flu shots were less likely to have a heart attack.”
Casscells, Dr. Mohammad Madjid, assistant professor of medicine at the
UT-Houston Medical School, and Dr. Morteza Naghavi (formerly with UT-Houston),
conducted a case control study (comparing two groups of patients with heart
disease who did and did not develop secondary heart attacks, in terms of
influenza vaccination) which indicated that patients with heart disease
who were vaccinated were 67 percent less likely to suffer future heart
attacks than those who were unvaccinated.
The report was received with some skepticism, as case control studies are
considered less definitive than clinical trial studies, where trial subjects
are taken at random from the general public, with half given the test medicine,
and the other half a placebo (or a different medication) and their results
can be used in clinical practice.
But as so often happens, results started coming in around the
same time from other, related studies. Four more studies suggested
that the flu vaccination does in fact protect against atherosclerosis,
Most recently, a large study (280,000 patients) by the New England Journal of Medicine established that the flu vaccination may significantly reduce both mortality rates (from all causes!) and the rate of hospitalization for stroke and heart disease.
Encouraged and intrigued by these results, the UT-Houston recently held “The First Symposium on Influenza and Cardiovascular Disease: Science, Practice, and Policy,” which brought together experts in the various fields to discuss both the data and the need for better vaccination policies. “Only 30 percent of heart patients are vaccinated,” says Madjid. “We have some difficulty in getting the message out, both with patients and doctors.”
This, despite the fact that, as Casscells notes, “Getting the flu shot probably reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, or sudden death by 20 or 25 percent. If you had to choose between a lifetime supply of ACE inhibitor, beta blocker, statin, or a flu shot, you’re going to choose the flu shot.”
But, why would a flu vaccination have any impact on strokes or heart attacks? Aren’t these medical conditions vastly different?
There is a powerful connection, according to Madjid. “Influenza
begins as a severe and acute inflammation in the body which can also inflame
the plaque in the arterial wall.” This inflammation can destabilize
the plaque, thus leading to stroke or heart attack. It also increases the
possibility of clot formation.
The relationship between the flu vaccine and heart disease has “great clinical implications,” according to Madjid, and it is important to “educate the doctors and the public” about what we already know.
But the final word on the topic still hasn’t been spoken. “We need to do clinical trials,” Madjid says, and to test the vaccine’s effectiveness on patients “who are at high risk of myocardial infarction such as those with multiple risk factors.”
But in the meantime, we’ve all been given another extremely compelling reason to get our shots before the next flu season begins, now that we are beginning to understand yet another way that influenza can hurt us.
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Cardiologist Samuel W. Casscells is the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the UT Medical School.
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Eating healthy
reverses metabolic syndrome
Dr. Tasnime Akbaraly of University College London and her colleagues were interested if healthy eating could actually turn-the-tide and reverse metabolic syndrome, which is having 3 or more of the following risk factors: excess abdominal fat; high triglycerides, hypertension, low levels of HDL the “good” cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes. Having metabolic syndrome doubles a persons’ risk of heart disease and greatly increases the odds of developing type 2 diabetes.
The researchers studied 339 British civil servants with metabolic syndrome, and how closely the adhered to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to see if it could help reverse metabolic syndrome. The AHEI is a set of published nutritional guidelines by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002 that emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables and decreased red meat consumption.
Five years into the study, nearly 50% no longer had metabolic syndrome. People who followed the AHEI guidelines the closest were nearly twice as likely to have reversed their metabolic syndrome. The results of the study were published in Diabetes Care, online July 29, 2010.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, an expert on diet and heart health from Tufts University in Boston who was not involved in the study said, "It's not about focusing on individual components of the diet, it's really the whole package, and that becomes important because it means that if one of the components of a healthy diet is to eat more fruits and vegetables, just buying a pill saying that there's a concentrated extract of fruits and vegetables is probably not what's going to help you."
Call and make an appointment with Wellness Coach Sam Hester, CWC, CPT, LWMC, at 713-500-3327. It's confidential and free. For more information on the wellness services provided, visit UT Counseling and WorkLife Services.
