A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology has found that skin rejuvenation lasers like the Fraxel Re:Store Dual can do more than banish wrinkles and tighten the skin – they can also make flu vaccines up to 700% more effective.
Flu shots work by delivering three or four inert strains of the influenza virus into the body, allowing the immune system to learn how to combat them without being exposed to the real thing. If the real flu strain does enter your system later on, your immune system already knows how to fight it off, and the flu’s impact is lessened or not felt at all.
The way Fraxel Re:Store Dual enhances this process is pretty cool.
Before the vaccine is administered, the injection site is treated with non-ablative laser like the Fraxel Re:Store Dual.The Fraxel laser is designed to injure the skin in a very controlled manner that stimulates the growth new collagen, which improves its appearance and texture.
As it turns out, the Fraxel Re:Store Dual treatment also summons special cells to the area, ones that are on the lookout for harmful agents like viruses. These cells bind to those agents, alerting the immune system to their presence so the body can mount a defense by creating antibodies.
Calling these special cells to the injection site before a flu shot is administered heightens the body’s response to the injection. The inert influenza viruses in the shot are processed with an amazing efficiency because the right cells are already there in force to greet them.
This new approach to enhancing flu shots offers important benefits to the elderly, who sometimes suffer side effects from vaccine-enhancing additives found in some flu shots. Using the laser to increase the effectiveness of the flu vaccine makes these additives unnecessary.
While it’s likely a ways off before this becomes common practice, it’s good to know that a laser designed to make you look younger can also make you healthier.
Just make sure to ask your doctor to administer the flu shot in a patch of fine lines and wrinkles!
