Flu shot or not?

“What do you think about the flu shot?” Being in healthcare I get this question more and more often each flu season. "Do you get the flu vaccine?" I am asked this question just as often. My short answer is: Yes, I do.

The last time I got the flu shot I got the flu

Most likely you didn’t. If you get the seasonal flu vaccine (shot), not the nasal spray, in your arm you cannot get the flu from it. Now, I said you cannot get the flu from the vaccine, but remember the vaccine will take up to 2 weeks to build up antibodies in your systems to become fully effective. So, if you had the flu shot yesterday and in a couple of days you came into close contact with someone with a diagnosed case of the flu then you can still come down with the flu. It may not be as severe because you had the vaccine, but you will still feel ill. You might think the flu shot gave it to you but that is not the case.  Waiting until you come into contact with the flu to get your flu shot is probably too late, however you be able to kick-start your immune system into battle so it isn’t a bad idea. Most of the time people think they came down with the flu from the flu shot but it is more likely they had a cold and not the flu.

How do they decide what strain of flu should be in the vaccine?

"Currently, 136 national influenza centers in 106 countries conduct year-round surveillance for influenza viruses and disease activity.” http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccine-selection.htm   They gather the data and send it to labs and then a decision is made as to which strains of influenza will be most prevalent and a flu vaccine is developed months before the next flu season starts.

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The flu vaccine typically gives people immunity from the selected strains throughout a flu season which usually runs from October to February with a peak in January. The CDC always keeps track of how well the flu vaccine for any given year protects us from the prevalent flu virus. The CDC has quite a lot of great information about the flu on their website so I think that is a great resource for inquiring minds.

I think I have the flu what are the symptoms?

In an earlier blog I wrote about the difference between a cold and the flu and I thought I would mention a few of these tips again. If a person has not had the flu before, or they don’t realize there is a difference between the flu and a cold they may think they have the flu when it’s actually just a cold. The flu is typically much worse than a cold and starts very abruptly while a cold starts slowly and builds up. People who have the flu can have some of all of the following symptoms:

• Fever* or feeling feverish/chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue (tiredness)
• Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults.

*not everyone with the flu will have a fever

Here are typical cold symptoms that start about one to three days after being exposed to the cold virus:

• Scratchy, raw throat
• Sneezing
• Runny nose / nasal congestion
• Cough
• Fever up to 102 but typically around 99-100 degrees
• Cough
• Thick yellow or green nasal mucus*
• Body aches, chills
• Headache

*The mucus may turn from clear and runny to thick and yellow or green, this is a normal process with a cold and does not necessarily mean you have a bacterial infection. If the mucus continues to stay thick and you develop facial pain with or without fever after about 10-14 days then it is appropriate to follow up with your primary medical provider to be evaluated.

If you feel you have the flu then it is important to stay home to prevent the spread of the disease. Most primary medical providers, retail health clinics, and urgent cares can offer a rapid flu test and offer you either a prescription for an antiviral (Tamiflu, Relenza, and Amantadine) which may help lessen how severe the symptoms are and how long the flu lasts or over the counter symptom relief products. However, as with any medications be sure to tell your doctor if you are pregnant or nursing, or if you have kidney disease, heart disease, respiratory disease, or other serious health conditions. Some of the antivirals are more risky for children and is not safe for everyone so be sure to learn the facts. There is an over the counter homeopathic medicine, Oscillococcinum, that can reduce the duration and severity of flu-like symptoms. It is safe for anyone 2 years of age and older and does not have any known side effects or interactions with other medications.

More information about the flu can be found on http://www.flufacts.com and is a great site for tracking the flu across the U.S. and in your region. They even have an iPhone app! I signed up for flu alerts which will keep me informed of the flu levels in my area.

How can I prevent the flu?

The best way to keep from getting the flu is by getting a flu vaccine and while everyone should receive a flu vaccine each season there are some that must discuss it with a medical provider first:

• People who have a severe allergy to chicken eggs.
• People who have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccination.
• People who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks of getting an influenza vaccine.
• Children less than 6 months of age (influenza vaccine is not approved for this age group), and
• People who have a moderate-to-severe illness with a fever (they should wait until they recover to get vaccinated.)

The flu vaccine is an inactivated (contains a killed virus) and is given with a needle in a muscle for anyone 6 months and older. The nasal-spray vaccine is a vaccine made with a live, weakened flu virus that does not cause the flu but should not be given to anyone in close contact with someone whose immune system is so weak they require care in a protected environment.

When should I get vaccinated against the flu

Yearly flu vaccinations should begin in September or as soon as vaccine is available and continue throughout the influenza season, into December, January, and beyond. This is because the timing and duration of influenza seasons vary. While influenza outbreaks can happen as early as October, most of the time influenza activity peaks in January or later. (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm )

I have a Flu Vaccine Finder locator on my blog and when the flu shot season comes it will be activated. It is a quick way to find a flu shot clinic near you so you and your family can easily get a flu vaccine. Since the flu vaccine is being offered in so many locations from your primary medical provider,Retail health clinic, urgent cares, schools, work place and pharmacies there is no excuse not to get one!

How can we prevent the spread of the flu virus once we have it?

The best way to prevent the spread of the flu is to wash your hands with soap and water often, if those are not available then alcohol-based hand gel works great. The flu virus may be strong in our bodies it’s quite wimpy outside our body and has been found to survive only up to 24 hours on hard surfaces. While it may stay alive that long outside our body it is weak and not very likely to be spread this way, though it could so cleaning community phones and keyboards is a good idea. The most common way the flu virus is spread is mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk and can be spread to others up to 6 feet away. This is why it is extremely important for those who are sick to cover their cough with their sleeve, elbow or tissue and throw that tissue away immediately and wash their hands. The same applies to sneezes.  The CDC also reports that most healthy adults may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 to 7 days after becoming sick with the flu. Children may pass the virus for longer than 7 days. The flu symptoms start about 1 to 4 days after being exposed.

When you or your family member is diagnosed with the flu it is very important to stay home until you no longer have a fever and the coughing has stopped or at least 5-7 days when you most likely are not contagious any more.

The key is to stay healthy,  get a flu vaccine each year, wash your hands and stay home if you are sick. So who is going to be getting a flu vaccine this year? If not, then why? I am always interested in hearing the reasons why people do or do not get a flu vaccine.

Ciao for now,

Michele

RunKeeper App review

Needing an app to keep track of your running, walking or biking? If you want something you can use to track your run, walk, bike, hike, cross country ski or wheelchair event,  and so much more then you need the RunKeeper app! If you want to check it out just look on the right side bar of my blog and you will see the widget there with my activities. 


RunKeeper helps keep track of your workouts.

I have found this website and iPhone app to be very useful for me in keeping track of how far I walk each day and it lets me know if I am going too slow or if I've improved my pace. In the past I used a hand held GPS unit to measure the distance of my routes but apparently it was not as accurate as I thought! The phone app uses the phone's GPS technology to track the fitness activities. Once a workout is completed the data is synced to the RunKeeper website automatically, no downloading or syncing  your phone to your computer. That is a big plus for me because I don't have to remember to upload my activities and it automatically updates my widgets I have on my blog. WOW, what a deal!  Plus, as soon as you finish an activity you can post your workout data to Facebook and Twitter with one push of a button. If you happen to work out indoors or are unable to receive a GPS signal you can manually enter your activity information on the app. I can't wait to try this when we get our awesome new Tour de France training bike even though the bike has Google Maps routes I still need to keep track of my workouts on RunKeeper. We should get it in about 2 weeks according to Pro-Form so stay tuned for my review!

What else can the phone app do?
You can download your exercise playlist and play it in regular mode or shuffle while you work out. You can also choose to have coaching chime in according to the setting you choose. One example is the "2.25 mile workout" which has you running/walking steady 1/2 miles, then slow 1/4 mile, then fast 3/4 mile etc with a warm up and cool down 5 minutes each. A coach voice will come on and your music (if you use the playlist on your phone) will quiet down so you can hear her. She will push you or tell you to pick it up just as if you had a personal trainer right there with you. Pretty darn cool. You can even add your own workout and develop the whole routine.


The phone app and website have many options for sharing your workouts. 

There are three options for sharing your activity information. You can share to: Only me, Street team, or everyone. The only me option is obvious,  you share your activity information with no one. As for Street team, here is the definition from RunKeeper - "Your Street Team is a collection of friends and other active RunKeeper users that you connect with to help motivate you." Lastly is everyone and that too is self explanatory.

What activity information can you share?


1) Your activities - such as your run, walk, bike etc.
2) Your activity map - the GPS street map of your route. This should only be shared with yourself or if you have a street team you  may want to share with them. I don't believe allowing everyone out there to see where you run or walk is the safest thing to do. I'm not sure you can allow everyone to see just one episode or if it gives them access to all of them. It might be fun to share a great downhill ski on a double black diamond run so everyone can see! Or if I ever ran the Boston marathon I would surely want to share that route! (ok, that's not gonna happen I am sure).
3) The other share settings you can customize are your background activities, sleep, nutrition, and body measurements.  I don't know about you, but I don't need everyone seeing my body measurements!

What else can I do with this app/website?

Glad you asked! There is much more you can do with the website.
1) Search for a route near you. Simply put in the activity type (walk, run, etc), the location (city, park, green space or trail, etc) and route distance. What comes up are routes other RunKeeper users have uploaded to the site. This could be very handy for anyone that travels and wants to find some good routes they can use for some exercise. When the results appear you can add any of them to your routes and have it ready to use.
2) Find a race near you or wherever you will be or you can create an event yourself. The race choices are running, cycling, walking, and triathlon.
3) Sign up for a fitness class - "FitnessClasses are classes that you take with other RunKeeper users following training programs developed by expert coaches." These do cost and range from $9.99 to $24.99 and are taught by experts like Olympians or trainers.

On the Activities page of the website (after logging in) you can view your routes mapped out on a Google map. Below the map is a graph showing your pace and the elevation and the really cool part is you can put your cursor at any point on the route or graph and as you move it along the graph shows your stats along the route. I can see the how much my pace slows down as the elevation goes up. Check it out, it's fun.

At this time RunKeeper is only compatible with iPhone 3G/3GS/4, as well as Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. But doesn't that pretty much include most of the smart phones out there?

*Disclosure - I am not in any way affiliated with RunKeeper or it's parent company FitnessKeeper and was not asked or paid to do this review, it was done on my own. *

Another Cedar pollen/Cold & Flu season

Well, I guess I was too busy sewing (another love of mine) to blog. I decided I better get back into the swing of things before I lose my audience. I just want to be sure and say I do NOT like Cedar pollen!! There, I feel better.

If any of you live where we have a huge spike of Mountain "Cedar" (Juniper) pollen take over our noses from Dec-Feb then you know what I am talking about! When it hits we are all in a mode of non-stop sneezing, blowing our noses, scratching our eyes, nose, throat and ears along with not being able to smell anything because our noses feels like someone filled them with concrete. Not to mention the sinus pressure and headaches that go along with it all. Doesn't that make you want to live in Central Texas?

I have suffered from Cedar pollen allergies for most of my life and over the last 10+ years I have finally figured out how to make it through the season without a sinus infection. That doesn't mean I don't suffer quite a bit, but I do avoid the nasty sinus infections that used to put me in bed for days.

What is my secret you ask? I start taking my antihistamine - such as Allegra, Zyrtec, claritin, etc. on December 1st. Also I start using my steroid nasal spray - around the same time. Starting these 1-2 weeks before the pollen hits is the key to getting your body ready for the pollen then when it does show up your head won't be overtaken with the histamine response to the allergen.

In our area of Texas the Cedar pollen peaks the first three weeks of January which means I have to pull out my saline sinus wash to help curb the explosive amounts of pollen attacking my nose. I can't express how helpful the rinse is in relieving the pressure of my nose/sinuses and helps rinse out the drainage that is constantly dripping or going down my throat YUCK!

There are two ways to rinse out your nose/sinuses, one is a "Neti Pot" and one is a bottle that you squeeze. Here is one example by NeilMed . Both work well with one exception - if one side of your nasal passage is too clogged to pour the solution through with the Neti pot, the squeeze bottle will be able to get it through. If you are completely clogged on one side then simply stick to the open side, it still does the job because the fluid goes in one side and out the other. The key is DO NOT blow your nose hard after using the rinse. Just a gentle blow without pinching your nose is the best way to do it. As always, be sure to fully read the instructions that come with each kit before using any of products to prevent complications.

Along with Cedar pollen there are a lot of cold viruses and flu going around and all of these can cause a stopped up nose and sinus pressure. More great reasons to have a sinus rinse at home and to pull it out to ease the discomfort from the increased pressure and mucus production that comes with each of these conditions.

Along with the sinus rinse everyone should practice good hand washing. This one act is so easy to do, and if there is no sink readily available then having a bottle of alcohol gel handy is often even better. Being sure to sneeze or cough away from others and if you have a tissue use it - being sure to throw it away and wash your hands after each use. Coughing in the bend of your arm at the elbow (if you have on a shirt of course) will also help prevent the spread of germs.

I hope everyone is able to stay well and healthy throughout the winter season and should you feel you are coming down with a cold or flu be sure to contact your primary health care provider or the nearest medical facility.