Researchers at the University of Toronto have published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that links heart attacks with flu, showing that the flu injection may yield many benefits that could be used to avoid "fatal" heart attacks.
The study, conducted by Jeffrey Kwong and colleagues, examined about 20,000 patients with influenza.
They found that the risk of a heart attack increases by 600 percent within a week of influenza infection, while the risk rises with other respiratory infections, which multiply when they get the flu.
Scientists found that the flu exposed the risk of heart attack.
What can be done to protect the heart? It turned out that something as simple as an influenza vaccine may act as an integrated "heart".
In another study, researchers from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Disease Examination in Taiwan examined the medical records of 80,000 elderly patients over 13 years.
The study found that annual vaccination against influenza reduced the risk of a heart attack by 20 percent and provided similar protection against strokes.
Not only does the injection reduce the risk of heart attacks, it also protects patients who already have heart disease before contracting the flu.
