Flu, COVID Are Spreading: 8 Tips For Protect Your Heart

Flu and COVID are sweeping across the country, posing a particular hazard to people at risk for heart disease. These respiratory infections can trigger heart complications from fever, dehydration, and inflammation, according to experts from Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital. Mount Sinai doctors are seeing an increase in heart problems prompted by respiratory infections, and it’s happening across all age groups – even among young adults in their 20s. Inflammation can prompt heart attacks in people with clogged arteries, and it can also exacerbate symptoms related to heart failure or heart rhythm disorders, doctors said. “Winter can raise cardiovascular risks in a number of ways, including due to flu season,” according to Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital. “People with cardiovascular disease or multiple risk factors for heart disease are particularly susceptible to developing cardiac problems if they get really sick from a respiratory infection,” Bhatt said in a hospital news release. “Identifying and controlling cardiovascular risk factors, as well as basic measures to try to prevent infections, are ways to avoid a potential double whammy of a bad infection triggering a heart attack.” Heart disease is the leading cause of death among U.S. men...