X-Message-Number: 18464 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: There is a theory linking infectious disease with atherosclerosis Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 23:12:16 -0000 From Infobeat >>> Study Finds Flu Shots Prevent Strokes A flu shot can protect you against a stroke, a French study finds. The risk was 40 percent lower for people who had the influenza vaccine compared to a carefully matched group of people who didn't, researchers at the Denis Diderot University in Paris report in the February issue of Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association. "There is a theory linking infectious disease with atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries]," explains Dr. Pierre Amarenco, professor of neurology at the university and a member of the study group. "Especially, it says that infections can promote or trigger occlusions of blood vessels, either coronary arteries or brain arteries." "We hypothesized that patients vaccinated against influenza may be at less risk of brain infarction [stroke] because they are at less risk of infection. So, we asked patients admitted for brain infarction whether they had been vaccinated against influenza and compared them with control persons who were matched for age, sex and place of residence. We found that the stroke patients were much less likely to be vaccinated than the controls." That result verifies what was once regarded as a heretical link between the flu vaccine and protection against both stroke and heart attack after it was first reported in 2000 by Dr. S. Ward Casscells, a professor of medicine and leader of a research group at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School. <<< -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://www.deRivaz.com my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt http://www.autopsychoice.com - http://www.cryonics-europe.org - http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18464