Researchers conducting a study of hospital stays for over two hundred and eighty six thousand older folks found something interesting intheir data.The number of hospitalizations for heart disease and stroke went down significantly among a certain group of people at a certain time of year. What folks, and what time of year, you ask? Flu season–and the lucky people were the ones who got flu shots.It’s generally recommended that people over fifty get their flu shots every year. Influenza is no small thing–it’s responsible for around thirty six thousand deaths a year in the U.S. alone. Getting the shots also cuts down on the chances of getting pneumonia, which is especially dangerous in seniors.