What people with heart disease should know about vaccines today
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In some ways, the link between viruses, vaccines and heart health is simple.
Think of your heart as a house, said Dr. Jorge Alvarez, an interventional cardiologist at Methodist Cardiology Clinic of San Antonio. "You have the walls of your house, which are like the walls of your heart. You have the doors, which are the valves. And then you have plumbing and electricity.
"A virus can affect all of those aspects of your house," he said.
That makes being vaccinated against COVID-19, flu and other illnesses an important way for people with heart disease to protect themselves.
That fact can get lost in the swirl of new information, not to mention misinformation, surrounding vaccines. Now that the updated COVID-19 vaccine is available – and can be given at the same time as the flu shot – here are more straightforward answers from the experts on what people with cardiovascular issues should know about viruses and vaccines.
Viruses pose serious heart risks
Heart issues and infection are linked in many ways. One is inflammation, said Dr. Saate Shakil, an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Diseases caused by viruses, such as the coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, can cause inflammation. So can bacterial illnesses such as pneumonia.
If you have coronary heart disease, blood flow is restricted by plaque-filled arteries. In such cases, inflammation could lead to a plaque rupture, blood clot and blocked artery that causes a heart attack or stroke, said Shakil,...