Lower Your Heart Attack Risk with a Flu Shot

One of the best things you can do for your heart health this season? Get a flu shot.

A flu shot could help prevent a heart attack. (Photo: Getty Images)

Researchers in the Netherlands published a study this summer that confirmed the risk for myocardial infarction (heart attack) can be up to six times higher than usual in the week after a patient contracts the flu.

While this news isn’t surprising to cardiologists, it is a stark reminder that influenza infection and the body’s resulting inflammatory response can pose real risks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that about 8 percent of the U.S. population — almost 2.7 million people — get the flu each year. About 360,000 people were hospitalized and 21,000 died from the flu in the 2022-23 season.

During flu season, it is important to take steps to stop transmission. After all, even if influenza doesn’t impact your heart, your family, friends and neighbors are at risk too.

The role of inflammation in a heart attack

When you contract the influenza virus, your body releases chemicals to fight off the infection that also trigger inflammation. This inflammation causes common flu symptoms such as body aches, headache or joint stiffness.

Just like your muscles are sore and achy, your arteries feel the effects of inflammation, too. The short-term spike in inflammation can cause plaques in the arteries to open up, leading to a clot. When this clot blocks blood flow to the heart, a heart attack results.

The good news is, just like getting the flu can raise your acute risk of a heart attack, not getting the flu lowers your risk — and getting a flu shot is a powerful way to protect your health.

The best way to prevent the flu, or at least keep from getting really sick from it, is getting a flu shot. (Photo: iStock)

The flu vaccine protects your heart

The flu is a respiratory illness that can be passed from person to person through tiny droplets in the air. It can have serious complications, such as pneumonia and ear and sinus infections. It can make some conditions worse, like asthma, diabetes, and heart failure.

The best way to avoid the flu is to get a vaccine each season.

Research has shown the vaccine lowers the need to visit the doctor for flu by 40-60 percent. It can keep you from getting sick, and it can make the flu less severe if you do catch it. Plus, the flu vaccine has been shown to lower the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attack.

Almost everyone older than 6 months of age in the U.S. should get a flu shot every year — the vaccines are tailored to the viruses projected to circulate each year. Different vaccines are approved for different age groups, especially people under 2 and over 65.

With all the protection the flu shot can provide, it is a great way to keep your heart healthy this season—but it’s not the only way.

Healthy habits keep your heart happy

Heart health should be top of mind for all of us, year-round. Here are a few tried-and-true ways to reduce your risk of heart disease:

• Eat whole foods: Base your diet on fresh vegetables and fruits, lean meats, and other whole foods. Avoid processed foods such as baked goods, snacks, and beverages that can be loaded with sugar, sodium, and who-knows-what.
• Get active: Whether it’s counting your steps, taking up a sport, or joining a gym, movement is critically important for heart health. Exercise that blood-pumping muscle with at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (that’s half an hour a day five days a week) to get the benefits.
• Stop smoking: Quitting cigarettes, vaping and other inhaled nicotine products can have immediate and long-term benefits for your heart, your lungs and the people around you. A healthcare provider can connect you with resources to make quitting easier.
• Get some sleep: Studies have shown that people who sleep less than six hours per night are 27 percent more likely to have atherosclerosis than people who get seven to eight hours.
• Control your weight: Managing your diet and exercise can help you shed extra pounds, which can reduce strain on your heart and blood vessels over time.
• Manage chronic conditions: Work with your doctor to ensure your cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure are within healthy ranges, and take steps to get them under control if not. Lifestyle modifications and medications can help.

 
Flu season is upon us, and influenza can be more serious that just a case of the sniffles. Practice heart healthy habits, and be sure to get the flu shot as soon as it is available to reduce your risk of a heart attack this season and help keep your family and friends healthy, too.

Article written by Allen J. Taylor, MD, Chairman of Cardiology, MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute