Getting a flu shot this season may not only greatly lower your
risk of influenza this year, it may also lower your risk of
heart disease, a new review from Canada suggests. Results show
that people who received the flu vaccine were 50 percent less
likely to experience a heart attack or stroke, and 40 percent
less likely to die from one, compared with people in the
unvaccinated control group. The flu vaccine could be an
important way to maintain heart health and ward off strokes and
heart attacks, the researchers said. They presented their
findings at a cardiovascular disease research meeting today
(Oct. 28) in Toronto. In the study, Dr. Jacob Udell, a
cardiologist at Women's College Hospital and the University of
Toronto, and colleagues looked at four previous studies
involving a total of more than 3,000 people whose average age
was 60 — some with previous heart disease, and some without such
conditions. Participants in all the studies were randomly
assigned to receive a flu vaccine, no vaccine or a placebo i