Get a flu shot - and perhaps decrease your stroke risk

Have you had your flu shot yet?

Especially if you're an older adult, the flu increases your risk of stroke or heart attack. Flu can have a dangerous domino effect on older adults:

"Not as well known: In the two weeks to a month after you recover from influenza, you have a three to five times increased risk of having a heart attack," Schaffner said in a university news release. "You have a two to three times increased risk of having a stroke.

"Nobody wants a heart attack or a stroke, so by preventing flu, you prevent this inflammatory response and you can help prevent those strokes and heart attacks," Schaffner said.

Seniors account for more than half of flu-related hospitalizations caused by influenza and more than 80 percent of flu-related deaths, he said, so it's especially important for seniors to get a flu shot.

Perhaps another reason for a flu shot

I have no desire to get the flu, so flu shots are a matter of course for me every fall.

Now, another possible reason, too. Flu shots may lower stroke risk, too:

Photo from the National
Library of Medicine

The researchers analyzed data from more than 47,000 people in the United Kingdom who suffered a stroke or mini-stroke (transient ischemic attack) between 2001 and 2009. The investigators found that having a flu shot was associated with a 24 percent lower risk of stroke. However, this association does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The stroke risk reduction was strongest if a person received a shot early in the flu season, the study authors noted.

Note that, as the story notes, association does not mean cause. Still, not a bad move to make.