Risk Was Halved In Those Vaccinated More Than Three Times
- Date:
- European Society of Cardiology
- Summary:
- Influenza vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia in patients with heart failure, according to a new study in more than 20,000 patients.
Influenza vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia in patients with heart failure, according to a study in more than 20,000 patients presented today at Heart Failure 2016 and the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure by Dr Ju-Chi Liu, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Taipei Medical University — Shuang Ho Hospital, in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
“Previous studies have shown that there is link between impairment in cognitive function and heart failure,” said Dr Liu. “Some reports have also suggested that inflammation after getting the flu might contribute to dementia. However, there are no solid data to demonstrate that influenza vaccination could decrease the relative risk of dementia in patients with heart failure.”
The current study investigated whether heart failure patients who had received the flu vaccine had a lower risk of dementia. The study included all patients over 60 years of age who visited healthcare facilities in Taiwan with a diagnosis of heart failure during 2000 to 2012. Those who had dementia prior to being diagnosed with heart failure were excluded from the study. Patients were recruited from the National Health Insurance Research Dataset, which holds information on 98% of Taiwan residents.
Pneumonia Vaccine Linked With Reduced Risk Of Alzheimers
Researchers in the US have found that vaccination for infection by the pneumonia bacteria reduces the risk of dementia.
The scientists took into account the sex, age, race and education of study volunteers, as well as a genetic risk factor that could have influenced the results.
They found vaccinating against pneumonia and the flu between ages 65 and 75 was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimers.
Who Is J Bart Classen
It turns out that hes been a subject on this particular blog before, primarily as scientist who gave antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ammunition for his false claim that vaccines are responsible for the obesity epidemic. According to Wikipedia, Dr. Classen received his MD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1988 and also has an MBA from Columbia University. Unsurprisingly, hes been quoted by Sharyl Attkisson, a reporter whos become an antivaccine activist and conspiracy theorist in her own right. Classens website, Vaccines.net, is pretty rudimentary but does proclaim:
The content of this site is not intended to be anti-immunization but instead to promote the concept that the goal of immunization is to promote health not eradicate infections. It is hoped that through the collection and dissemination of information about the chronic effects of vaccines, safer immunization practices will become available for those who choose to be immunized.
There it is, the Im not antivaccine Im a pro-safe vaccine gambit, beloved of antivaxxers going back at least to Jenny McCarthy 14 years ago. Naturally, after proclaiming himself a vaccine safety advocate, Dr. Classen then goes on to spout antivaccine misinformation:
And now he thinks that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers disease. With zero evidence to support his idea and very close to zero biological plausibility. Of course.
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New Research Finds An Association Between Vaccinations And A Reduced Likelihood Of Dementia
by Rachel Nania, AARP, July 28, 2020| 0
En español | The flu shot may do more than keep you from getting a fever and fatigue this winter. New research shows that the annual vaccine could pack brain health benefits, as well.
A study presented at this year’s virtual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference analyzed the health records of more than 9,000 adults age 60 and older and found that having at least one flu vaccine was associated with a 17 percent reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. What’s more, adults who received the vaccination more often say, annually, compared with just once or twice had an even greater drop in dementia risk.
“The more frequently you got it, the more of a reduced risk you had, says Albert Amran, a medical student at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and the presenting author of the study.
Further research is needed to better understand what could be causing this association between the vaccine and a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults. It could be that the vaccine gives a routine boost to the immune system, which weakens with age, Amran suggests.
“It may turn out to be as simple as if you’re taking care of your health in this way getting vaccinated you’re also taking care of yourself in other ways, and these things add up to lower risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”
You Didn’t Respond Fully To The Vaccine
It is still possible to get the flu after having a flu shot, either because you were one of the few people who was not fully protected or because the strain of influenza that made you sick was not included in the vaccine.
Even so, you are less likely to have serious complications from the flu if you have had the shot. This is even more true for older adults and childrenthe two groups that are at highest risk for serious flu complications. Flu shots work in slightly different ways for these two groups, but they are still very important.
Ultimately, research has shown that a majority of people who are vaccinated against the flu have significantly less severe symptoms and fewer complications when they get sick than those who are unvaccinated.
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New Clues To Als And Alzheimer’s Disease From Physics
The first study came from a team at the University of Texas that combed through millions of medical records in a national database. The goal was to find factors that affected a person’s risk of getting certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
“And one of the things that came back was flu shots,” says Albert Amran, a medical student of the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and an author of the study.
That seemed odd. So Amran and a team of researchers took a closer look at the medical records of about 9,000 people who were at least 60 years old. Some had received a seasonal flu shot. Some hadn’t.
“We to make sure that both groups had an equal amount of, say, smoking status, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,” Amran says. Those are known risk factors for Alzheimer’s. The team also looked at factors like education and income, and indicators like the number of prescriptions a person had received, to make sure that people who got vaccines weren’t just healthier overall. They weren’t.
Next the researchers looked to see who was most likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
People who got at least one flu shot had a 17% reduction in risk, Amran says. And people who got regular vaccinations saw their risk drop another 13%.
“More vaccinations meant less Alzheimer’s,” Amran says.
Degree of brain benefit might vary
But he cautions that the amount of benefit from flu vaccination could be different in a different group of people.
The Flu Shot And Alzheimer’s
In another study this year, people who got one or more flu vaccines were 17% less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. Those who got their flu shot more often had an additional 13% lower risk. Getting the first flu shot earlier in life — at age 60 — seemed to offer better protection than waiting until age 70 to get the vaccine.
“Overall, we found that flu shots, and more frequent flu shots, were associated with less cases of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Albert Amran, a fourth-year medical student at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, who led the study.
These aren’t the only studies to link vaccines with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. An older study of 4,000 people ages 65 and older found that people who’d been exposed to the diphtheria, tetanus, polio, or flu vaccine had a lower risk for dementia. In another study, people with chronic kidney disease who got the flu vaccine were 30% to 40% less likely to get dementia, compared to those who weren’t vaccinated.
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Can The Flu Vaccine Lower Dementia Risk
- ChemistryViews
Dementia, i.e., impairment in memory, language, thinking, and problem-solving abilities, affects a significant number of elderly people. Alzheimers disease is one common cause, but there also are other diseases that can lead to dementia. The dementia risk can be related to a variety of factors that include lifestyle aspects, chronic diseases, traumatic brain injury, or pollution, for example. Reducing the risk of developing dementia is a goal for public health. There has been evidence that vaccinations commonly used in adults, such as influenza or tetanus vaccines, could lower the risk of developing dementia. However, existing studies are limited in scope and further investigations are needed.
- Timothy L. Wiemken, Joanne Salas, Daniel F. Hoft, Christine Jacobs, John E. Morley, Jeffrey F. Scherrer,Vaccine2021.
Gentamicin Sulphate & Polymyxin B
ALLERGIC reactions can range from mild to life-threatening.
These two chemicals are antibiotics, which are used in the production of vaccines to stop bacteria growing in them.
Because of this, only trace amounts of these can end up in vaccines .
These are harmless, unless of course, you are allergic to them. Antibiotics most likely to cause allergic reactions, like penicillin, arent used in vaccine production.
Allergies can cause a wide range of reactions. The NHS says Most allergic reactions are mild, but occasionally a severe reaction called anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock can occur. This is a medical emergency and needs urgent treatment.
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Vaccines: Who Should Avoid Them And Why
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend a range of vaccinations for Americans of all ages. These vaccines help prevent dangerous diseases that in the past would sicken countless people each year.
However, these vaccines may not be right for everyone. The CDC advises that certain people not get specific vaccines, or to wait before getting vaccinated. This is because different vaccines contain different components, and each vaccine can affect you differently. Your age, health conditions, and other factors all combine to determine if you should get each vaccine.
The CDC has prepared a detailed list of vaccines that specifies who should avoid getting each one and who should wait to get it. Certain individuals with a compromised immune system are typically advised to wait. And people who have experienced allergic reactions to a particular vaccine are generally told to avoid follow-up doses.
Here are guidelines for those who should avoid or delay some of the more common vaccines.
You should not get vaccinated for influenza if you:
- Mexico
How Does The Flu Vaccine Work
The flu vaccine helps your body protect itself against the flu. It works by training your immune system on how to fight the flu virus.
The immune system is like a defense system, with white blood cells as soldiers. Typically, if germs enter the body, white blood cells recognize them as bad guys. This is because germs carry proteins antigens that are different from normal body cell proteins. In response, white blood cells start making defense proteins antibodies. These antibodies help white blood cells destroy the germs.
Making the right antibodies can take a few days. In the meantime, the germs keep making you sick. In most cases, the immune system clears the infection and retires the antibodies except for a few stored as a memory for future infections.
Vaccines work by harnessing our bodys natural defense system. A vaccine contains a harmless amount of a virus or bacteria. By introducing it into the body, the immune system learns to make and store antibody memory against it.
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Vaccines Protect Against Cognitive Decline
The first study, which came out of the University of Texas, set out to understand if vaccinations provide some degree of protection against Alzheimers.
The researchers looked at the health records of over 9,000 people aged 60 and older and found that people who received one flu vaccination had a 17 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimers. Those who got two or more flu shots had an additional 13 percent lower risk.
The second study was conducted by researchers from Duke University and the University of North Carolina. They looked at the health records of over 5,000 people ages 65 and up and found that people who got a pneumonia vaccine before age 75 were about 2530 percent less likely to develop Alzheimers.
According to the researchers, the findings suggest the pneumococcal vaccine may be a promising Alzheimers prevention tool.
A third study presented at the conference spoke to the value of vaccines in people with dementia.
Looking at the health data of over 1.4 million people, researchers from Denmark found that people with dementia who were hospitalized with an infection were 6.5 times more likely to die compared to people who didnt have an infection or dementia.
That heightened risk of mortality among people with dementia existed in both the short term, within 30 days of contracting an infection, and the long term, or about 10 years after the first infection.
Flu Pneumonia Vaccinations Tied To Lower Risk Of Alzheimer’s Dementia
CHICAGO, JULY 27, 2020 Flu and pneumonia vaccinations are associated with reduced risk of Alzheimerâs disease, according to new research reported at the Alzheimerâs Association International Conference® 2020.
Three research studies reported at AAIC 2020 suggest:
- At least one flu vaccination was associated with a 17% reduction in Alzheimerâs incidence. More frequent flu vaccination was associated with another 13% reduction in Alzheimerâs incidence.
- Vaccination against pneumonia between ages 65 and 75 reduced Alzheimerâs risk by up to 40% depending on individual genes.
- Individuals with dementia have a higher risk of dying after infections than those without dementia .
âWith the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are at the forefront of public health discussions. It is important to explore their benefit in not only protecting against viral or bacterial infection but also improving long-term health outcomes,â said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimerâs Association chief science officer.
âIt may turn out to be as simple as if youâre taking care of your health in this way â getting vaccinated â youâre also taking care of yourself in other ways, and these things add up to lower risk of Alzheimerâs and other dementias,â Carrillo said. âThis research, while early, calls for further studies in large, diverse clinical trials to inform whether vaccinations as a public health strategy decrease our risk for developing dementia as we age.â
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The Vaccine Did Not Have Time To Provide Full Immunity
It takes two weeks to develop immunity to influenza after you get the vaccine. If you get the flu within two weeks of getting the shot, you were probably exposed to the virus right before or right after you were vaccinated.
It is easy to see why someone would believe the flu vaccine gave them the flu right after receiving the vaccine. However, the vaccine is made from killed or inactivated virus and can’t give you the flu.
Where And When Can I Get The Flu Vaccine
The flu vaccine is available for free on the NHS topeople who are most at risk, most commonly from your GP or care home.
You can also get it at local pharmacies that offer this service. If you are not eligible for the free vaccine or want to get it sooner, you can pay to have it at your local pharmacy instead. Expect to pay under £20.
The NHS advises that autumn is the best time to have a flu vaccine, but you can also have it later in winter. The sooner you have the vaccine, the sooner you will be protected.
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You’re Over The Age Of 65
Anyone over the age of 65 is considered to be in a high risk category and should have a flu vaccine every year . This is despite the fact that the vaccine is not quite as effective at preventing the flu in this age group.
Among older adults who do not have chronic illnesses and who do not live in nursing homes, the shot is 40% to 70% effective at preventing flu-related doctor visits.
Older adults who do live in nursing homes or have chronic illnesses have a 50% to 60% higher chance of being hospitalized from pneumonia and the flu. Additionally, 70% to 90% of seasonal flu-related deaths have occurred in people over age 65.
Why It Matters For People Affected By Dementia
People living with dementia are at particular risk of severe illness if they catch flu. Dementia can make people less able to fight off infection. This means that patients are more likely to develop serious complications, including pneumonia, and are more likely to be admitted to hospital.
For more information on this story please visit the Alzheimers Society website.
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