Monday, August 14, 2006

Why get sick? Prevent it instead.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 8-14-2006

Why get sick? Prevent it instead.

Doctors are just now beginning to get up to speed on effective ways to get people to exercise & to recommend other things that it’s now known actually work to keep you well.

In each of those areas, things are changing for the better.

But, did you know there is an area most doctors already know well that will keep you from getting sick?

If you have young children, you may already be familiar with this one.

Vaccines usually prevent you from getting the disease they immunize you against.

But there are new ones you might not yet have gotten. And, to keep up your protection, did you know, you have to renew the ones you’ve already gotten.

Diseases like tetanus, pneumonia, polio, & meningitis can & do kill people.

You can avoid them all with vaccines.

And, there are now some vaccines against some sexually transmitted diseases. The FDA recently approved one for the strains of HPV that are thought to trigger cervical cancer in women, for example.

Do you & your children all have the recommended vaccines? Do you have all the ones for other diseases you’d like to avoid as well?

And, if so, are the ones you HAVE had recent enough to still protect you?

The Kaiser health system is excellent about listing for you at every opportunity the vaccines they show that you’ve had; when you had the last one: & their recommendation as to when you should get your next one.

It can save your life or save you much suffering, time off work, & disability to get the vaccines you might need later & to be sure you renew them a bit BEFORE the recommended time to be sure you remember in time.

Have YOU done it?

It’s certainly worth it. Most vaccines are very well targeted & extremely effective.

Flu vaccines are a bit different. Flu vaccines are sometimes less effective because the strain that actually attacks you later in the flu season may not be covered or you may still get a milder case of a flu variant that year’s shot does cover but it may only give partial immunity to you.

However, if you possibly can, get one every year -- &, as early in the fall as you can manage.

You WILL get far fewer cases of the flu; & any flu you do get will very likely not hit you so hard.

Even better, you are less likely to GIVE the flu to your friends, family, & co-workers if you get the flu vaccine.

In addition, since each year’s flu shot targets different strains, I believe that if you get the flu vaccine every year, you gradually build up multiple immunities & are even less likely to get the flu or get a bad case of it.

Elementary school teachers & childcare workers often catch extra colds & get the flu from the children they work with when they are new to the profession.

But, after a few years, they hardly ever get the flu or get colds. This is precisely the effect I think you get if you get the flu shot every year.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home