Every year millions of people visit their doctor to get their yearly flu vaccine. If a recent study holds true, a flu vaccine may provide an entirely different kind of disease protection. A preliminary study shows that in heart patients the flu vaccine may reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

In a study that was presented in 2003 to the European Society of Cardiology, researchers from Buenos Aires, Argentina studied the outcomes of three hundred patients who were being treated for heart disease or heart attack. Some of the patients were given a flu vaccine while others were not. The results? Those patients who received a flu vaccine had significantly lower rates of death due to heart disease than those who didn't receive the vaccine.

In another study published in the journal Vaccine in 2007, the effects of flu vaccines given to 35,647 elderly people were studied in a county in southern Taiwan. It was found that those elderly citizens who received a flu vaccine had lower mortality rates from all causes including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, pneumonia, and kidney disease. Studies have also shown that receiving a flu vaccine may lower the risk of developing a stroke by up to sixty percent.

While large randomized trials are still pending, the results of these preliminary studies suggest that a flu vaccine may hold the key to protection against a variety of diseases including stroke and heart attack. In order to draw a definite conclusion, larger, randomized studies would need to demonstrate similar results.

How might a flu vaccine protect against such unrelated disease as stroke and heart attack? Although the answer to this isn't clear, it's thought that the influenza virus may cause inflammation in the arteries which may be prevented by getting a flu vaccine.

Do these studies suggest that people at higher risk of heart disease and stroke should get a flu vaccine each year? While no definite conclusion can be drawn until larger trials are conducted, it would seem prudent to get a flu vaccine if you're not allergic to eggs or have a neurologic disease that would be a contraindication to the shot. Getting the flu vaccine is safe for most people and provides good protection against Influenza Type A, the most serious form of flu. That it may reduce the risk of dying of a heart attack or stroke would just be one additional benefit this vaccine would offer in addition to reducing your risk of flu. Those persons who have heart disease or who are at high risk for stroke or heart attack might especially want to consider getting a yearly flu vaccine both for protection against influenza and for the possibility that it may eventually be shown to reduce their risk of mortality from stroke and heart disease.