Category: flu shot

Posted on

This is Why the Flu Shot Makes Your Arm Hurt

It’s almost time to get your flu shot!

Shots aren’t a fun thing for anyone, and convincing your kids to go with you and sit willingly to be stabbed is even less fun than undergoing the stick yourself.

To add insult to injury, it’s not over and done with in a few seconds, as promised, either – for many of us, the injection site can be tender and achy for a few days afterward.

Image Credit: iStock

According to experts, though, the pain is a good thing – a sign that the vaccination is working – but what makes it hurt?

The vaccine works by injecting an antigen – in this case a dead, deactivated virus that’s similar to the flu – into your body. It “primes” your immune system cells so that they will activate if and when they encounter that foreign substance again.

You can’t get sick from the dead virus; it’s only goal is to sensitize your immune system to potential threats in the future.

Image Credit: iStock

Whenever a foreign “threat” shows up, your immune system also releases mediators like histamine, which can cause inflammation around an area of concern. The inflammation helps your body fight invaders and repairs damaged tissue, but as anyone who has ever gotten a bad bug bite or had an allergic reaction like hives knows, histamine responses can also cause soreness.

If your body responds to the shot with histamine, the site of the shot – usually your upper arm – could be sore for a couple of days.

Immunologist Richard Zimmerman told Popular Science that about 1 in 5 people have a painful reaction, and if it happens to you, some ibuprofen before the shot, and an ice pack afterward, should alleviate the discomfort.

It could also help to move your arm around after you get the shot, to diffuse the vaccine, and also to ask for the shot to be given in your non-dominant arm.

Image Credit: iStock

Definitely don’t let the pain stop you, though, because if you’ve ever gotten the flu, you know for sure you don’t want to do that again.

You’ll help contribute to herd immunity, too, which helps protect higher-risk population, so that makes you a low-key superhero, really.

Worth a few days of soreness, if you ask me!

The post This is Why the Flu Shot Makes Your Arm Hurt appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

It’s Not Too Late to Get Your Flu Shot, so Go Do It!

Flu season is here – and as the proud owner of two tiny little disease vectors (otherwise known as my beautiful children), I can tell you that getting sick is way easier than you might think.

Sure, you can wash your hands, try not to touch your face, and carry hand sanitizer everywhere you go, but following every single protocol didn’t save Kate Winslet in Contagion. Chances are, they’ll eventually let you down, too.

If you didn’t get the flu shot back in the early fall when it was recommended – because you decided to tough it out, or didn’t have time, or whatever – you might be thinking it’s too late to get one now.

Image Credit: Pixabay

You would be wrong, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“It’s late – but not too late.”

The vaccine does take a few weeks to build up its protection in your body, and flu season peters out around the end of February, so although you’re not too late yet, you might not want to wait any longer.

The flu can be passed around any time of year, but in the States, it is most likely to be diagnosed between October and February. That said, flu cases have been known to regularly appear as late as May.

Image Credit: U.S. Navy

You can actually get a flu shot year round, though Dr. Robert Glatter, an E.R. physician with Lennox Hill Hospital, admits there are optimal dates to try to get it done.

“You can vaccinate any time of year, but ideally, it happens in the fall.”

If you’re high risk for some reason, Dr. Joseph McBride says that it might still be a good idea to get the flu shot, even when the season begins to wane in February or March.

Another thing – you should get the flu shot even if you’ve already had the flu, doctors say. There are two reasons: first, Americans often think they have the flu but never go to a doctor and turn out to have been battling a different virus. Second, there is more than one strain of flu circulating this year, says McBride.

Image Credit: U.S. Navy

“We’ve picked up information in our surveillance system that an occasional poor soul has had one kind, recovered and then gotten another one. That’s not common, but when you have two sequential dominant strains it’s going to be more common than it has been in the past.”

Although you can technically get a flu shot any time of year, the vaccines are updated for what physicians and disease experts are expecting to see each season, so if you got one over the summer, it might not be for the strain that’s expected to dominate the following winter.

The optimal time to get a shot is late September into October. A shot received in that window should give anyone with a good immune system and no secondary complications protection until late winter/early spring.

Image Credit: Pixabay

If you’re older, younger, pregnant, or have other complicating factors, Dr. Schaffner says definitely wait a bit into the fall, because there’s some debate on how long the shot’s protections last for those kinds of people.

“I would not recommend getting a flu vaccine in August. It’s a once a year type thing, which makes it a good reason to wait until September or early October to get vaccinated.”

So there you have it, folks! Getting a flu shot reduces your chance of being completely miserable (if you’re healthy) or losing your life (if you’re in one of those other groups) by around 60%, so make sure you clear some time in your busy schedule to get one on board – if not this month or next, then definitely next fall.

Your body (and everyone who has to be around you) will thank you.

The post It’s Not Too Late to Get Your Flu Shot, so Go Do It! appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

This Is Why Your Arm Gets Sore After You Get a Flu Shot

It’s important to get a flu shot, but they can come with some annoying side effects. Namely, they often make your arm sore at the site of the injection, often for a day or two afterward.

But although the soreness isn’t pleasant, it’s actually a good sign that the vaccine is doing its job.

Soreness after a flu shot happens due to your body’s natural immunologic response. The flu shot introduces an “antigen,” or a protein that allows your body to recognize a foreign object so that it can fight it with antibodies. In this case, the antigen is a tiny deactivated version of the flu virus that teaches your body what a real, live flu virus looks like. That way, your body is prepared to quickly fight off illness if you encounter the flu out in the world.

However, this means your body recognizes the inactive flu virus as a foreign object – that’s the whole point. Your body notices the antigen and goes into attack mode, and since the antigens are deposited directly into your arm muscle, that’s where your immune system begins the attack.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Part of that immune response includes inflammation. In the event of a real infection, inflammation is helpful — it helps repair damaged tissue and helps your body fight invaders.

But it can also cause soreness.

In addition to the flu shot, other shots also tend to create soreness, including the live varicella vaccine. The good news? The stronger your immune response (ie, the soreness), the stronger the immunity tends to be.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

However, just because you don’t feel any pain doesn’t mean the shot isn’t working. Everybody who receives a flu shot experiences inflammation. It’s just that not everybody experiences it to the point of pain. Only about one in five people have this local reaction, depending on the specific vaccine.

The post This Is Why Your Arm Gets Sore After You Get a Flu Shot appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Here’s Why You Need to Get a Flu Shot This Year (And Every Other Year)

It’s estimated that 80,000 deaths occurred in the US during the 2017-2018 flu season. What’s frustrating for medical professionals is the fact that these deaths are largely preventable with the flu vaccine. Many people are reluctant to get vaccinated, though; people are concerned about getting the flu after being vaccinated, maybe, or they feel they’re young and healthy enough not to need it.

Those concerns may be unfounded, though. Here are some common questions about getting the flu shot, and their answers:

When should I get vaccinated?

The CDC recommends getting vaccinated by the end of October, but even if it’s after that, you can still benefit from the flu shot. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to take effect, which is why people sometimes think the vaccine has given them the flu – they just weren’t vaccinated early enough and caught a virus in that intermediate 2-week period.

Isn’t this flu season supposed to be mild?

Unfortunately, by the time experts know whether a flu season will be mild or not, it’s already well underway. It’s better to be prepared for every flu season by getting the flu shot.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Is it really effective?

To be clear, the flu shot isn’t perfect. Each year different flu strains make their way through the public, and while the flu vaccine contains multiple common strains of the flu, sometimes scientists miscalculate.

For instance, the 2017-2018 vaccine was 40 percent effective, and, though this may not sound impressive, it means that your risk of needing to seek medical care due to the flu is reduced by 40 percent. That’s a 40 percent lower chance of being hospitalized…or worse. It’s not perfect, but it’s effective.

But it’s the flu. What’s the big deal?

The flu can kill healthy adults, so it is a big deal. The elderly, children, people with underlying health conditions, and people with suppressed immune systems are even more vulnerable. Getting the flu shot protects you, as well as the people around you. For adults with young kids, that can be the most important consideration.

Where can I get the flu shot?

The flu vaccine is available at your doctor’s office as well as many pharmacies and local health departments. The CDC has also set up a handy website to help you find a location close to you. The cost for the flu vaccine is typically pretty modest ($25 or less), and it may even be free if you have insurance coverage. If you don’t have health insurance, many state health departments can connect you with free or low-cost flu shots.

So protect yourselves and your loved ones – get vaccinated today!

The post Here’s Why You Need to Get a Flu Shot This Year (And Every Other Year) appeared first on UberFacts.