Severe infections increases your risk of heart failure: Study

A new study has found that severe infections such as COVID or flu increase your risk of heart failure by two times. The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. It revealed that the results of the study highlight the importance of getting recommended vaccines and keeping yourself protected during the cold and flu season. 

According to a report in US News, Sean Coady, deputy branch chief of cardiovascular sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in a news release said, "These are ‘sit-up and take notice’ findings."

Coady who was not involved in the study said, "While there’s already a reasonable body of evidence linking previous infections with heart attack, this study is focused on heart failure, which has been less studied yet affects an estimated six million Americans."

The researchers nearly 14,500 adults between 45 and 64 years for up to 31 years from from 1987 to 2018. No one had heart failure at the beginning of the study. The



results of the study showed that people who got hospitalised due to an infection have a 2.35 times higher risk of developing heart failure, on average about seven years after their initial illness

The researchers said that the link with heart failure was consistent regardless of the type of infection. These infections include respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections and infections acquired while in the hospital for another condition.

The study also says that severe infections tripled the risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) which happens when the left side of the heart is too stiff to fully relax between heartbeats.

Ryan Demmer, a professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and senior researcher in a news release said that even though the study couldn’t prove a cause-and-effect link between severe infections and heart failure, the results show that people should consider common ways to keep severe infections at bay.