Do statins interfere with the flu vaccine?

Statins are powerful, unusual, and, like El Niño and Tom Cruise, not well understood. Statins have a huge upside. They improve survival after heart attacks and lower the risk of recurrent strokes. They are also the only cholesterol-lowering medications that have been clearly shown to reduce heart attacks and deaths in high-risk patients without heart disease. In addition to reducing cholesterol, statins also lower levels of inflammation in the body. Reducing inflammation probably helps statins to prevent heart attack and stroke. However, evidence is emerging that these statin effects may also have a downside, hindering the ability of the immune system to fight infections. Teasing out the relationship between statins and immune response Two recent studies examined the relationship between statins and the immune response to the influenza vaccine. For the first study, researchers at Emory University looked at a large database of patients in a managed care organization to see if there was a connection between statin use, flu vaccination, and the frequency of doctor visits for flu-like illnesses. They found that patients who received the flu vaccine were more likely to seek treatment for a respiratory illness during flu season if they were also taking a statin, compared with patients who had received the flu vaccine but were not taking statins. This suggests that patients on statins may not have responded as well to the flu vaccine as those who didn’t take the cholesterol-lower...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Cold and Flu Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Vaccines flu vaccine statins Source Type: news