Getting sick with the flu is not fun for many reasons, and recently researchers from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) found another extremely unpleasant consequence of the flu – it significantly increases the likelihood of a heart attack.
In their study, the scientists relied on test results from 16 laboratories covering about 40% of the Dutch population, as well as hospital death records recorded between 2008 and 2019.
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Research resultsto be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases showed that 419 patients had at least one heart attack within a year of being diagnosed with influenza. The researchers calculated that study participants were 6.16 times more likely to have a heart attack within a week of being diagnosed than in the year before or after.
Experts suggest that this effect of the flu on the risk of a heart attack is due to the fact that the virus increases blood clotting and increases the likelihood of blood clots that block blood flow to the heart.
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