Pregnant Women & Flu Shots

It's flu shot time again. But what if you're pregnant, is it safe for you and the baby?

In a nutshell, the answer is yes. Every year we roll up our sleeves to get the flu vaccine. We have to get a different one each year because the flu virus is smart enough to change just a bit each year, making the last shot you got ineffective.
But the question I often get in my clinic is "I'm pregnant, should I still get the shot". The government has said definitely yes over the past few years but just undertook an even bigger study than before to give us all a little more peace of mind. After looking at flu shots in pregnant women and complications over the last twenty years, researchers found no more complications than everyone else had. The most common ones were skin reactions at the injection site, slight fevers and fatigue.

But health groups do recommend only the vaccine and not the nasal spray for pregnant women. And they are recommending the shot again this year, especially since expecting moms are more likely to become seriously ill and hospitalized if they come down with the flu, especially the H1N1 "Swine flu".

Daydreaming App

Does your mind wander all day, do you daydream a lot? You might be doing it more than you think and it could be what's bumming you out.

We all daydream once in a while, but that daydreaming might not be as harmless as it seems. Researchers wanted to find out both how much someone daydreams and how that daydreaming affected their mood. So using an iPhone app, they had people track both how frequently their mind wandered during the day and how their mood might have changed.

Turns out, daydreaming happens more often than most of us thought with most people reporting having meandering thoughts about half the time they were questioned by their smart phone "app". They also consistently reported a lower mood when they where daydreaming, even though they may have been daydreaming about pleasant things.

Researchers think this could be because although daydreaming is our brains way of figuring out past events or how to proceed with future issues, it does come at the emotional cost of lowering our mood. Experts say that may have more to do with the fact that the more we worry about something the more our mind wanders.

There aren't any big answers to what this all means but if you want to help researchers figure it out---"there's an app" for that. To get the app go to www.trackyourhappiness.org.

Breastfeeding vs. Sleeping

Which moms sleep less? Those with breast fed or formula fed infants? The answer might surprise you.

The common wisdom is that breastfeeding mothers don't get as much sleep as those that don't breastfeed their infants. But don't believe everything you hear.

A new study, just published in the current edition of the journal Pediatrics, say that although breastfed infants are reported to awaken more often and sleep less, their mothers get just as much sleep as those with formula fed babies. Researchers had a group of 80 mothers keep daily diaries and wear devices that measured their sleep patterns. They looked at moms who exclusively breastfed, only formula fed or did a combination of the two. These researchers found no difference in total sleep time of quality of sleep between the groups. And all the mothers had the same amount of daytime sleepiness of fatigue.

So, it seems that contrary to what many have thought, breastfeeding an infant doesn't make for a more sleep deprived or tired mom. And with all the health and wellness benefits for both mom and baby breastfeeding has to offer, losing sleep isn't one thing you'll need to worry about.

Family History & Your Health

There is one great way to find out about your health and it doesn't involve expensive testing.

Bar none, the best information about what you are at the biggest risk for, health-wise, comes from your family history.

It might sound a bit low tech, but asking your family about what diseases lurk in your relatives past can be better than even expensive modern genetic testing. A Cleveland Clinic study looked at what method best found an increased risk of cancer. Half of the participants in this study looked at their own family health history. The other half did a genetic saliva test commonly sold online.

The simple family history ended up doing much better than the genetic test. It was especially good at picking out those cancers someone was at a higher risk of getting because it was somewhere in the family's past.

The important part is to do a little digging on both Mom's and Dad's side of the family. With the upcoming holidays and families getting together, it'll be a great time to find out what types of things your relatives might have dealt with in their own lifetime--the same things that could affect you in your future. And knowing that can give you a jump start on watching for it.

Preventing Gout

More and more people are suffering from gout, but the reasons why might surprise you.

It might simply be too much coffee.

Gout is a very painful type of joint arthritis caused by a build up of uric acid in the body. When this gets deposited in the joints it can cause redness, swelling and a good deal of pain. It mostly affects men, but is also seen more in women after they've gone through menopause. Although there are different ways to treat it, from changes in diet to medications, doing what you can to avoid it is important.

And since gout has increased around 4% over the last few years, researchers have pinpointed a couple of favorite beverages that might increase you chances of getting this painful condition; coffee and sodas. In particular they found that caffeine “binges” can more than triple your chances of having an attack. Sodas, and other sugar sweetened drinks, especially if you drink them every day, can also raise your risk.

So you best bet, as usual, is the old tried and true moderation.

Gulf Seafood Safety

If you like seafood, but were worried about the gulf oil spill, Dr. John Torres is here with some good news.

Between the oil from the big spill in the gulf and the chemicals used to try and break up that oil before it could cause more problems, many of us where left wondering whether seafood from that area was too contaminated to eat.

The government says that the dispersant used on the water has not made its way into the sea life. The Food and Drug Administration, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tested more than 17 hundred samples of fish, shrimp crabs and oysters. They say fewer than 1% showed any trace of the chemicals in them and of the 1% that did, even they had extremely low levels of contamination.

So, if you're as big of a fan of seafood as I am, especially shrimp, and you've been worried about whether it's safe to eat those from the gulf, it looks like your good to go.

Seniors & Whooping Cough Shots

Getting shots is part of growing up and staying healthy, even when you 65.

The government wants seniors to get the whooping cough shot, mainly because of a big outbreak in California.
Whooping cough, known in the medical community of pertussis, was fairly common back before the 1950's. Outbreaks happened quite often and small children usually fell victim to its persistent coughing fits. For some, it even turned deadly because the disease wouldn't allow them to get in enough of a breath, causing the classic whooping sound that gives the disease it's name.

But once the vaccine came out against pertussis, outbreaks dropped dramatically. But now we are seeing more cases of whooping cough and more alarmingly more deaths than we have in decades, especially in California were over six thousand cases have been reported and 10 infants have died because of it.

Nine of those 10 were infants too young to even get vaccinated so the government is now recommending seniors over 65 who are around infants to get the pertussis shot. When an adult gets whooping cough they usually only have minor symptoms but can spread it to the little ones. So, the government is hoping that getting seniors vaccinated will stop the spread of this outbreak and most importantly prevent any more infant deaths.