Flu Doubles Risk Of Heart Attack And Stroke

A bout of flu doubles the immediate risk of having a heart attack or stroke, a groundbreaking study has found.

Sufferers are four times more likely to be affected within three days of falling ill with the flu and are at double the risk for up to a week, according to the study of two million people.

More than 15 million flu jabs will be given to elderly and vulnerable patients in the next two months

Flu dislodges fatty deposits that build up in the arteries, leaving them free to move around the body and get stuck in the brain or heart, where they block the blood flow.

Researchers describe the increased risks associated with flu as a "substantial public health problem" that is killing thousands of elderly people every year. The risks also apply to other serious respiratory infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

Prof Tom Meade, the co-author of today's study, said heart attacks and strokes brought on by flu and other respiratory infections would account for "several thousand" of these deaths.

More than 15 million flu jabs will be given to elderly and vulnerable patients in the next two months. Prof Meade, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is calling for as many as possible to have the vaccine to guard against the risks.

Prof Meade stressed that the risks did not apply to colds, only serious bouts of flu or other infections such as bronchitis which were severe enough for patients to see their GP.

Dr Tim Clayton, the lead author of the report, said the results suggested that putting more effort into preventing infection through vaccination and treating diseases sooner could save many lives. He said: "Since there may be a large number of vascular deaths attributable to respiratory infection … the benefits of reducing respiratory infection particularly in the winter months could be substantial."

The study, published online today in the European Heart Journal, was funded by the British Heart Foundation.

Its spokesman, Dr Mike Knapton, said: "We recommend that anyone with heart disease has the flu jab."

Joe Korner, of The Stroke Association, said it was "vital" that anyone at high risk of stroke or other cardiovascular conditions had the vaccine.

Of the two million people whose GP records were studied, 11,000 had suffered a heart attack. They were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with flu or a respiratory infection in the previous month.

Around 9,000 had suffered strokes. They were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with a respiratory infection in the previous three days. The risk tailed off with time and three months after being diagnosed with flu, patients were at only slightly increased risk.

The winter flu season usually starts in December or January and lasts up to two months. Vaccines are available on the NHS for the over-65s and for patients with certain illnesses, such as asthma.

The UK has not suffered a seasonal flu epidemic in seven years. However, experts warn that one is due

A peculiar phenomenon might eventually help rapidly and safely clear severe deposits in blood vessels, in an odd manner.

Several drugs have been discovered to act like Drano in the blood vessels, stripping off deposits and sending large, dangerous chunks of plaque into the bloodstream. So why not take advantage of the situation in a non-harmful manner?

The key is artificial blood (oxygen therapeutics). Strange stuff, it carries far more oxygen to tissues than regular blood, but it is tricky in its own right. You want to avoid passing it through internal organs if at all possible.

But what if by combining these two things, you could safely remove large plaque deposits? That is, set up a blood bypass, so the patient’s blood doesn’t travel through a long stretch of heavily plaque-throttled pipe, in say, their leg.

Instead, have the tissues in that area be oxygenated with artificial blood through a secondary system. And add those chemicals that cause catastrophic failure of plaque deposits to the artificial blood. The artificial blood can be thoroughly filtered for them. So the blood vessels are cleaned out thoroughly, until there are no more pieces of plaque floating in it, then the patient’s own blood is redirected back through their own, cleaned blood vessel.

Doing it this way, you don’t need to use enormous amounts of donated blood.

Eventually, if a system like this was mastered, a more complex method could be used to clear interior blood vessels, a small section at a time. An outer tube through which would flow the cleaning solution, and an inner tube that would carry the bypassed blood flow. It would slowly inch its way down the blood vessel, clearing a small section, and taking away its plaque, at a time.

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