Tag: cardiovascular disease

Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: October 29, 2025
By Nina Agrawal

A number of viral infections, including flu, Covid-19 and shingles, are linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study affirmed.

The risk of a heart attack triples within the first few weeks after a Covid-19 infection, the study suggested, and quadruples in the month after a flu infection. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, was a large review and analysis of existing research.

“It endorses a general idea that we’ve been thinking about and talking about for the past several years — that infections are generally not benign,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study.

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research

COVID ages women’s blood vessels, according to a study

Published October 2, 2025

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: October 2, 2025
By Marie-Pier Mercier

COVID-19 causes women’s blood vessels to age prematurely, according to an international study involving two researchers from Université Laval. The disease should therefore be considered an additional risk factor in cardiovascular health analyses. Specifically, in those who have developed severe symptoms, they warn.

The aging of blood vessels results in greater rigidity, which can increase the risk of certain cardiovascular diseases.

“The heart must work a little harder to propel blood through the arterial system, and this causes variations in pressure that can damage sensitive organs, including the brain and kidneys,” explains Catherine Fortier, a kinesiologist and researcher in vascular aging at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval.

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wildfires

What’s all this wildfire smoke doing to your health? Here’s what experts have to say

Published August 6, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: August 6, 2025
By Heather Kitching

People who breathe air polluted with large amounts of wildfire smoke visit hospital emergency rooms more often for respiratory symptoms, according to a Canadian emergency room physician and chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.

Rates of heart attack and cardiac arrest also increase after a couple of days of exposure, Dr. Courtney Howard said.

“So don’t just attribute that feeling of heaviness in your chest to asthma,” said Howard, who works in Yellowknife and is president of the Northwest Territories Medical Association.

“If you have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease especially, go see your friendly local emergency department.”

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air quality

Toronto has some of the worst air quality in the world right now — and a new study says smog and wildfire smoke can damage your heart

Published July 14, 2025

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: July 14, 2025
By Omar Mosleh

With the city once again blanketed in wildfire smoke, experts are warning that long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to higher risk of heart failure.

Environment Canada issued a special air quality statement on Sunday night due to wildfire smoke from northern Ontario pushing Toronto’s Air Quality Health Index to 10+, classified as “very high risk.” Poor air quality was expected to persist Monday and possibly into Tuesday.

The effects of air pollution on the heart are underscored in a recent study, which found that long-term exposure to air pollution, in particular fine particulate matter, was linked to higher levels of diffuse myocardial fibrosis, a type of heart scarring that can lead to higher risk of heart failure.

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cardiovascular disease

COVID-19 linked to more heart complications than flu, RSV

Published December 16, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: December 16, 2024
By Stephanie Soucheray

A new study published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders shows that pediatric and young adult COVID-19 patients are more at risk for cardiac complications than flu or RSV patients of the same age.

The study was based on hospitalized US patients from 2020 through 2021 tracked through the National Inpatient Sample. In total 212,655 respiratory virus admissions were recorded, including 85,055 from COVID-19, 103,185 from RSV, and 24,415 from influenza.

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heart disease

Covid Can Raise the Risk of Heart Problems for Years

Published November 22, 2024

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: November 22, 2024
By Nina Agrawal

Since nearly the start of the pandemic, scientists have known that a Covid-19 infection increases the risk of heart problems. A growing body of research now suggests that this risk can last until well after the infection has cleared.

One recent study, conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California and Cleveland Clinic, found that a Covid-19 infection doubled the risk of a major cardiovascular event for up to three years afterward. What’s more, the study found that infections severe enough to require hospitalization increased the likelihood of cardiac events as much as — or more than — having previously had a heart attack did.

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cardiovascular disease

Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests

Published October 9, 2024

Published by: CNN
Published on: October 9, 2024
By Brenda Goodman

Covid-19 could be a powerful risk factor for heart attacks and strokes for as long as three years after an infection, a large new study suggests.

The study was published Wednesday in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. It relied on medical records from roughly a quarter of a million people who were enrolled in a large database called the UK Biobank.

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data suppression

There’s a gaping hole in Canada’s COVID tracking

Published August 22, 2024

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: August 22, 2024
By Iris Gorfinkel

The Government of Canada’s website tracks the number of hospitalizations and deaths from acute COVID-19. What it fails to include are the hospitalizations and deaths that result from COVID’s longer-term health consequences.

Even mild cases carry risk, but COVID most frequently wallops people after severe cases, especially when hospitalized. Of the nearly 300,000 Canadians hospitalized so far, over half likely have — or will — suffer life-changing health consequences, sometimes years after having recovered from the acute illness. These risks climb with repeated infections.

Hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are often delayed. Like high blood pressure, SARS CoV-2 can gradually damage the inner lining of blood vessels. This by itself, is painless. While it happens to people following mild cases of COVID, it’s far more likely after severe ones, especially after hospitalization. This doubles the downstream risk of having a heart attack, stroke or blood clot in the lung. It triples the risk of developing an abnormal heart rhythm, including atrial fibrillation.

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long COVID

New studies estimate long-COVID rates, identify risk factors

Published August 12, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: August 12, 2024
By Mary Van Beusekom

As new variants continue to emerge and infect people, older adults remain highly vulnerable to long-term health effects from this pathogen. Continued multidisciplinary research is needed to understand and prevent long COVID to reduce morbidity and mortality and maintain quality of life in older adults.

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climate crisis

Wildfire smoke may increase the risk of dementia, study finds

Published July 29, 2024

Published by: The Guardian
Published on: July 29, 2024

A new US study has found that wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution and even increase the risk of dementia.

The findings, reported on Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as millions spent the weekend under air quality warnings from wildfires spewing smoke across the western US, including a huge wildfire in California that has grown to more than 360,000 acres.

At issue is fine particulate matter or PM 2.5 – tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and move to the bloodstream. This pollution – from traffic, factories and fires – can cause or worsen heart and lung diseases, and the new study adds to evidence it may play some role in dementia, too.

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long COVID

COVID can cause new health problems to appear years after infection, according to a study of more than 130,000 patients

Published May 30, 2024

Published by: Fortune
Published on: May 30, 2024
By Carolyn Barber

Even as national institutions struggle to coordinate meaningful trials for possible long COVID treatments, researchers continue to tally the damage. New findings suggest that the disease’s reach isn’t merely long—it’s still growing.

Three years after their initial bouts with COVID-19, patients who’d once been hospitalized with the virus remained at “significantly elevated” risk of death or worsening health from long COVID complications, according to a paper published May 30 in Nature Medicine.

Even among those whose initial cases didn’t require a hospital stay, the threat of long COVID and several of its associated issues remained real, the researchers found. And cumulatively, at three years, long COVID results in 91 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per 1,000 people—DALYs being a measure of years lost to poor health or premature death. That is a higher incidence than either heart disease or cancer.

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cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular risks and COVID-19: New research confirms the benefits of vaccination

Published March 25, 2024

Published by: The Conversation
Published on: March 25, 2024
By Glen Pyle

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease. Yet, from the earliest days of the pandemic, the cardiovascular risks associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection were clear: individuals with severe cases of COVID-19 often died from cardiovascular complications, and those with pre-existing cardiovascular disease were more likely to have severe illness or die.

In short, the cardiovascular system has played a central role in COVID-19 since the beginning.

It is not surprising that as debate over COVID-19 and vaccines flared that cardiovascular disease was a central issue. Those opposed to vaccination often make claims of cardiovascular risks that exceed any benefits. But when data on COVID-19, vaccines and cardiovascular health are reviewed, the conclusions are clear: vaccines are safe and effective at reducing the cardiovascular complications that are a hallmark of COVID-19.

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cardiovascular disease

Healthy runner’s stroke followed a bad bout of COVID-19

Published February 27, 2024

Published by: American Heart Association
Published on: February 27, 2024
By Diane Daniel

On a ride to high school one morning, Shelley Marshall asked her daughter how things were going with her field hockey team.

At least, that’s what she intended to say. The words came out so garbled that her daughter said, “Mom, what is going on? Are you having a stroke or something? Look at me.”

Marshall looked fine. Although slurred speech is a classic stroke symptom, she didn’t have a droopy face or arm weakness. In a clear voice, she told her daughter not to worry.

Marshall, though, was concerned.

Two days earlier, she noticed that she’d slurred her own name. Her blood pressure had recently been slightly elevated. And she was still recovering from a serious bout of COVID-19, her third. All of this was unusual for Marshall, then 47 and in excellent health, thanks in part to running nearly every day.

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Australia

Queensland GPs flooded with patients reporting heart problems after long Covid

Published January 14, 2024

Published by: The Courier Mail
Published on: January 14, 2024
By Jackie Sinnerton

Queenslanders are flooding GPs practices with heart problems sparked by long Covid, the state’s peak medical body has revealed.

Doctors are seeing more patients with myocarditis and pericarditis due to inflammation caused by the virus that can cause palpitations chest pain or shortness of breath.

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the pandemic is not over

COVID levels are up to 19 times higher than reported, WHO says as it warns of the potential dangers of repeat reinfection: ‘We don’t know everything about this virus’

Published January 12, 2024

Published by: Fortune
Published on: January 12, 2024
By Erin Prater

Five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, what are we going to see in terms of cardiac impairment, pulmonary impairment, neurologic impairment? It’s year five in the pandemic, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about it.

—Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove

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heart failure

Post-COVID ‘heart failure pandemic’ possible: Japan researchers

Published December 26, 2023

Published by: The Mainichi
Published on: December 26, 2023

After contracting COVID-19, patients may have higher risk of heart failure from persistent viral infection in their hearts, even without developing notable heart disease, according to study results announced by Japanese researchers on Dec. 23.

The team including researchers from Riken, Japan’s largest scientific institute, pointed out the possibility of a “heart failure pandemic” in the near future, and is stressing the need for countermeasures.

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Why some doctors see COVID as a new risk factor for cardiovascular disease

Dr. Peter Liu, chief scientific officer and vice-president of research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

cardiovascular disease

Why some doctors see COVID as a new risk factor for cardiovascular disease

Published December 22, 2023

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: December 22, 2023
By Elizabeth Payne

The severity of the infection doesn’t seem to make a difference. These complications can occur even in people who have very mild symptoms. The big surprise is how much this can affect younger people. Studies are showing that even young, active people can experience heightened risk of these complications.

—Dr. Peter Liu, University of Ottawa Heart Institute

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity: These are some of the well-known risk factors that can put people at heightened risk for heart attack and stroke.

Now some health experts say COVID-19 should be added to that list.

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heart failure

コロナ感染、心不全のリスク高まる可能性　理研など研究

Published December 22, 2023

Published by: Mainichi Shimbun
Published on: December 22, 2023

On December 23, a research team from Riken and other institutes announced the results of a study showing that after infection with the novel coronavirus, the heart may be persistently infected with the virus and the risk of heart failure may increase, even if the patient does not develop noticeable heart disease. The team points to the possibility of a sharp increase in the number of heart failure patients in the near future and calls for countermeasures to be taken.

Infection with the novel coronavirus occurs when a protruding “spike protein” on the surface of the virus binds to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of human cells. According to the team, the heart is more likely to express ACE2 compared to other organs. It has also been reported that some people infected with the novel coronavirus have reduced cardiac function, but the detailed mechanism is not known.

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