5 tips to protect your heart from respiratory infections

While the common cold may not do much harm, a severe respiratory infection such as a flu, bronchitis or pneumonia more than doubles the risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to an analysis of medical records of more than two-million patients published in the European Heart Journal.

• Respiratory infections cause a body-wide inflammatory response that affects blood vessels and can precipitate rupture of plaque in artery walls.
• For this reason, doctors recommend that people with heart disease have an annual flu vaccination.
• Even if it doesn't stop you from getting the infection, it may make it less severe and reduce complications.

• Scientists believe that low-grade infection may be implicated not only in atherosclerosis, but also in a host of other conditions, such as diabetes and even some cancers.
• Evidence is also growing that infections may be an important trigger for age-related diseases and disorders.
• One team of Russian doctors has even suggested that infection may be what initiates the very process of aging. Along with many specific diseases, aging itself, they say, "has infectious origins."
• This indicates that safeguarding yourself from mild infections such as flu or gum disease may protect you not only against heart attacks, strokes and an early demise, but also against many of the other conditions underlying the infirmity and disability that often accompany old age.

• You may have heard the old saying: "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases." That statement is perfectly true, but what it doesn't tell you is that colds and flu are far more often spread by other means, such as shaking hands, turning a door handle or picking up a telephone that's been used by someone else.
• It is actually quite difficult to catch a cold. Close-range coughing or sneezing can spread an infection, but the spread is much more likely to occur through contact with contaminated fingers — shaking someone's hand is potentially more risky than kissing them.
• Recent research has shown that respiratory viruses can lurk on hard surfaces for up to two days.
• What typically happens is that you shake someone's hand, then rub your nose or eyes — something that most people do unconsciously all the time.
• If the person whose hand you shook has a cold, you may well be infected, too.
• Touching your eyes can introduce infection because the tear ducts drain into the back of the nose.

• The key to protecting yourself is as simple as washing your hands regularly and thoroughly.
• Avoid a vigorous handshake whenever you can, and go for a vigorous hand-wash instead.
• In fact, frequent hand-washing has been shown to reduce the transmission of colds even between members of the same household.

• Another effective way to ward off colds and flu is regular disinfection of household surfaces — ordinary diluted bleach will do.
• Door handles, taps or faucets and refrigerator doors are particular culprits for transmitting infection, and telephones, computer keyboards, light switches, kitchen surfaces and cleaning cloths also harbour germs.
• For situations where you can't avoid contact with other people's germs, carry a small bottle of alcohol-based sanitizing hand gel with you and use it after shaking hands or touching public surfaces.