Photographer: Jesse Orrico
“Getting shingles may increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or other heart problems by as much as 40 per cent, according to Korean researchers,” wrote Thomson Reuters for CBC News on July 3, 2017.
Reuters continued, “But vaccination can help prevent shingles, which is caused by herpes zoster — the same virus that causes chickenpox, study author Dr. Sung-Han Kim of Asan Medical Center in Seoul said in an email.
Individuals should talk with their doctors about preventing shingles “until further studies elucidate the effect of vaccination on cardiovascular outcomes,” Kim said.
Kim and his colleagues analyzed the medical records of more than 23,000 shingles patients between 2003 and 2013, and compared them with the same number of patients who didn’t get shingles. People who got shingles were more likely to be female and have common heart risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and older age, the study found.
But they also were less likely to smoke and they drank less alcohol, got more exercise and were in a higher socioeconomic class, according to the report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.”
Read the full article here.
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