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Updated on October 8, 2024
If you’re living with heart disease, you make lots of decisions every day to help keep your heart in good shape. Maybe you’re maintaining a healthy diet, avoiding tobacco, and taking your medications faithfully.
But you may not be aware of another key step to protect your heart: staying up-to-date on your vaccines.
Safeguard your heart from inflammation
People with cardiovascular disease are at a greater risk for complications that stem from common infections such as the flu, COVID, shingles, whooping cough, and pneumonia, to name a few. Why? Even though your immune system does its best to protect your health, it also responds with inflammation. That's not good news for your heart, and in some cases may endanger your life. Inflammation can further damage your heart and increase the likelihood of a heart attack.
The reverse is true, too. Heart disease makes it harder to fight off infections like pneumonia and the flu. Developing these illnesses can raise your chances of hospitalization and severe complications.
Despite these benefits, vaccination rates in the United States remain low. In 2022, just 23 percent of U.S. adults at high risk for pneumonia—which includes people with heart disease—were vaccinated for the illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What’s more, just 44.9 percent of U.S. adults received the flu vaccination for the 2023-2024 season.
Many people don't keep a schedule of what vaccines they may need and when to get them, ether. However, now is time to finally take a stand, protect your heart, and maybe even live longer.
Empower your total health
Some may worry about the safety of vaccines and their side effects. But you should know that vaccines are constantly tested and monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC. They remain one of the safest ways to protect your heart health—and your overall health, too.
Talk to your healthcare provider (HCP). Whether you regularly see a cardiologist or another type of HCP, be sure to get your vaccination questions answered so they can help you make the right decisions.
Stay up to date. Keep a schedule of the vaccinations you’ve received. The CDC has also issued an easy-to-read vaccine schedule that you can refer to at your HCP’s office.
