Taking flu shot may cut heart disease risk: Study.

ISLAMABAD -- US researchers suggest that taking annual flu vaccinations may cut heart disease risk.

It's well-known that the flu can lead to significant respiratory symptoms such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and bacterial infection of the lungs. But the virus' effects on the heart have historically been harder to parse out.

Studies have shown that patients are six times more likely to experience a heart attack the week after influenza infection than they are at any point during the year prior or the year after the flu infection.

But a new review of studies published in the Journal of the American Heart Association showed that not only is the vaccine effective at protecting the general population and the most vulnerable age groups (over 65 and under 2) from severe cases of the flu, but it's also protective against cardiovascular mortality as well, especially among the high-risk population, Medical Daily reported .

Researchers from Houston Methodist, writing in the review, noted that adults who received the vaccine were 37 percent less likely to be hospitalized for the flu and 82 percent less likely to be admitted to the ICU because of it.

Vaccination was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events (2.9...