Practically Active

The flu shot protects you from flu and other people from catching the flu from you.

Someone told me that they didn’t want to take a flu shot because they didn’t want to put a foreign substance in their body. What do they think they do at dinner every night?

— Michael Specter, journalist ROSEMARY BOGGS

I started getting a yearly flu shot a couple of years before I turned 50. It helps that we can get them at work with no out-of-pocket expense, and requires very little effort on my part to look out for my health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc. gov), calls the flu, or influenza, a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and even death.

Every flu season, they say, is different, and influenza infection can affect each of us differently. Millions of people catch the flu every year, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and thousands die from flu-related causes. Even healthy people can get very sick and spread it to others.

Flu season in the United States can begin as early as October and last as late as May. The CDC says an annual flu vaccine, for everyone over the age of 6 months, is the best way to reduce the risk of getting sick and spreading it throughout the community. When more people get vaccinated, fewer people get sick.

So, what is in a flu shot? The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Dr. Keyur Vyas, an associate professor and medical director for infection prevention, says the shot consists of inactivated parts of the influenza virus, but not the actual virus, therefore we can’t get the flu from the shot.

The CDC says that the vaccine helps protect women during and after pregnancy, and that getting vaccinated while pregnant can also protect the baby, because the mother passes antibodies to the fetus .

If we do get sick, the vaccination can lessen the illness.

Flu shots offer benefits for people with chronic diseases. Vyas says people with diabetes, heart disease, lung problems, cancer and liver or kidney disease are at increased risk for complications from influenza, including pneumonia. Such chronically ill people are more likely to die from the flu.

So a flu shot is in order for those of us with diabetes, as well as family members, who could catch it and pass it on to us.

Vyas says the shot is safe for people with chronic medical conditions and does not carry any increased risk for complications. The only people who should not get the shot are those who have had a severe, life-threatening reaction to a past flu shot, or those who developed a neurologic condition, GuillainBarre syndrome, because of a shot.

Your doctor should be able to tell you if it’s safe.

This year I also got a pneumonia shot as my doctor recommended. There are two “pneumonia” shots, Vyas says, and they both work to prevent illness from a bacteria called Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) that can cause pneumonia as well as other infections such as meningitis, and blood stream infections.

The shots don’t protect against all types of pneumonia, but they are effective at reducing the risk from Pneumococcus, the critter behind the more deadly lung disease.

The two pneumonia shots contain various strains of the Pneumococcus bacteria. One protects against 13 strains, the other 23.

All people over age 65 should get both. At this age, the shots are usually given one year apart. People whose immune systems have been compromised by conditions such as diabetes or lung problems, including smoking, should get the shots earlier. Ask your doctor about this, too.

Adults should stay up to date on their tetanus immunizations as well. There is a tetanus booster that protects against whooping cough — the Tdap vaccine.

And people over the age of 60 should get the zoster vaccine, which is for shingles.