As a feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Elaine in New Jersey:

I attended a clinic this weekend for the H1N1 shots, and they administered the nasal spray to my 14-month-old! According to the CDC website it should NOT be administered to children under 2 years of age! I contacted the pharmacy where the clinic was held, and they took my contact info and said we will get back to me. Can you tell me is my child at risk?? I also have a call into my pediatrician. I also contact the CDC and was told they are not medical professionals.

Answer:

Elaine, it is easy to sense dismay and concern from your e-mail, and as a father I can certainly relate.

The reality is – yes – the nasal spray version of the H1N1 vaccine, which contains a weakened live flu virus, should be given only to people ages 2 to 49. We also know that children with conditions such as asthma may not be eligible for the live flu vaccine.

In order to ease your mind a bit, unless he or she has asthma, chances are very good that your 14-month-old will be fine.

The primary reason children younger than 2 do not get the nasal spray H1N1 vaccine is that it has not been tested in, and therefore is not licensed for, that age group. It is that simple. You need solid data to submit to the Food and Drug Administration before a medication can be approved for use in a particular population – that data do not exist for children younger than 24 months.

To ease your mind a bit more, rare complaints among adults and children taking the nasal spray form of the H1N1 vaccine are runny nose, sore throat, and sometimes fever. These symptoms usually go away within a couple of days. If they do crop up for your 14-month-old, you should not be too concerned, but if the symptoms get worse or your instinct tells you to, do see your pediatrician.

On the bright side of your predicament, your son or daughter is now vaccinated against H1N1. There are many parents who are still waiting to have their children vaccinated, so count yourself among the fortunate. Your child should soon have a second H1N1 vaccine dose – this time with the injectable form of the vaccine. And if you have not yet been vaccinated, you should do so – as the caregiver for your baby, you are eligible for these early doses of vaccine.

As a feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Kali in Florida:

My 4-year-old daughter has egg and peanut allergies. Can she still take the H1N1 vaccine? If not what are her choices. I've been getting conflicting answers.

Answer:

Kali thanks for writing in. We’ve received several questions like yours since the H1N1 vaccine became available. Let me start by saying that if your daughter has a true egg allergy, and not just a sensitivity, then she can not have the H1N1 or the seasonal flu vaccine. The two types of H1N1 vaccine, the shot and the nasal spray, are made with eggs so it is not recommended for people with severe egg allergies.

However, allergists we spoke with said people with mild reactions to eggs can get vaccinated. Keep in mind that the amount of egg protein in a vaccine is often less than you would find in most baked goods. So if your daughter has been able to eat bread or cake, she may have a more mild allergy.

Consider going to an allergist and ask about getting a skin-prick test. The allergist will have a diluted and non-diluted version of the vaccine. Their first step will be to do the skin-prick test with the undiluted version. If your daughter does not break out in hives or have a strong reaction, then she can have a stronger test with a small, diluted injection. If your child doesn’t have a strong reaction to that test, then her allergy may not be severe and your allergist may give her a flu shot.

If your child does have a strong reaction and your doctor believes she shouldn’t get the flu shot, then talk with your health care provider about strategies for keeping her healthy. These steps are basic hygiene, such as washing hands for the count of singing the “Happy Birthday” song twice and staying away from sick friends plus, avoid wiping your eyes and touching your face if possible.

I hope this helps and your daughter has a flu-free season

As a feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Robert in Kansas:

“I heard this week that the H1N1 virus has now turned up in pigs. Does this mean it can get into our food supply and I’ll get sick if I eat it?”

Answer:

Great question. The U.S. Department of Agriculture did recently announce that a commercial herd of pigs tested positive for swine flu. The USDA continues to stress that you will not infected with the HIN1 virus from eating pork. In fact, the infected pigs in Indiana weren’t destroyed. Once they recover from the flu, they will go to slaughter according to the USDA. Officials experimentally infected pigs earlier this year to see whether their blood and meat also became contaminated. They concluded that the H1N1 virus stayed contained in the respiratory tract of infected pigs and the virus did not infect the meat. The World Health Organization and World Organization for Animal Health have also concluded that humans can not be infected with the H1N1 virus from consuming pork. For more information about H1N1 and food safety, click here.

From Cheryl:

“While at my doctor's office, I asked about the H1N1 vaccine. I was told it will be very expensive, like $300. Since I do not have health insurance, the expense of the H1N1 vaccine will factor into whether I get it.”

Answer:

$300 is an excessive amount to pay for a free vaccine! That’s right – it’s free. The federal government has purchased the H1N1 vaccine and is shipping it out to states free of charge. They’re even picking up the tab for the syringes, needles, sharps containers, and alcohol swabs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also stated private clinics may not charge patients a co-pay or other out-of-pocket charges for the vaccine. The only thing you should be paying is perhaps an administrative fee for your office visit but in many cases that fee is being waived as well. I would double check with your doctor again on the price. If the office still attempts to charge you $300, I would decline and instead contact your state’s health department to locate public clinic administering the vaccines near you. You can also track the vaccine’s shipments in your state through the CDC’s Web site. Check it out by clicking here.

As a  feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Shannon:

"I have a 4-month-old infant and I recently had myself and my 6-year-old son vaccinated for H1N1. My question is, will my infant also gain my immunity to H1N1 through my breast milk? I hope so." 

Answer:

This is a great question and a huge concern for many parents whose children are less than 6 months old and therefore too young to get the H1N1 vaccine. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to your question, Shannon, so the best we can do is spell out what we do know.

We know that any time you breastfeed your 4-month-old, you pass on potent antibodies (proteins that your immune system produces to fend off disease in the body) that protect him or her against a whole range of infections.

We also know a bit about other vaccines and breast milk, for example, the pneumococcal vaccine that protects against things like pneumonia and meningitis. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, mothers who received that vaccine produced antibodies that were detectable in their breast milk, and passed them on to their babies. What is not as clear is whether those antibodies actually conferred immunity to their newborns.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance about breast milk and the flu vaccine is a tinge more hopeful, albeit far from conclusive: "By breastfeeding, mothers can pass on to the infant the antibodies that their bodies make in response to the flu shots, which can reduce the infant's chances of getting sick with the flu."

While experts wrestle with this question, you have already taken a positive step – and significantly reduced your baby’s chances of getting the H1N1 virus – by getting yourself vaccinated. The next step is to create a "cocoon of protection" around your baby by making sure that other caregivers in the family also get vaccinated.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

As a new feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

Question from Jane in Amsterdam:

"I fear having a stroke because I have high blood pressure and my life is very stressful. What are the signs to look for and what can I do to help myself?"

Answer:

Thanks, Jane, for the question. It’s an important topic and impacts people of all ages. As a neurosurgeon, I can tell you strokes don’t just strike older generations. Doctors today around the world are seeing people in the 30s, 40s and 50s having strokes. The reason? Mostly due to unhealthy lifestyles.

Jane you mentioned your life is very stressful and you have high blood pressure. These are two major risk factors of stroke. Other lifestyle factors that play a role include unhealthy diet, smoking,  lack of exercise and obesity. So any changes you can make in your life to increase physical activity, get your blood pressure in control will dramatically lower your risk. Studies show people with healthy blood pressure - less than 120/80 - have about half the lifetime risk of stroke as those with high blood pressure, or hypertension.

Knowing the early signs of a stroke is critical because immediate medical attention is needed to prevent long-term disability. What’s surprising is the majority of people ignore the early warning signs. In fact, a Mayo Clinic study found 58 percent of stroke patients brushed off the symptoms as another ailment, and delayed seeing a doctor for about 3 1/2 hours on average.

Time is critical because a stroke directly impacts your brain. There are two types, ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. An ischemic stroke is when the blood flow to a person’s brain is interrupted; hemorrhagic stroke occurs when the blood vessels actually burst in the brain.

Some strokes strike suddenly but more often than not your body will give you signals. Stroke patients often describe having the “worst headache of my life.” It comes on suddenly and can cause pain between your eyes, even a stiff neck. Suddenly feeling fatigued, dizzy and weak can be a signal. For example, you may be folding laundry or walking to a meeting and feel a strong, sudden loss of coordination. It’s also very common to feel numb on just one side of your body.

I can’t stress enough to tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers about these symptoms and don’t brush them off. If you are at high risk for a stroke and feel one of these symptoms suddenly occur, seek medical treatment as soon as possible.

And Jane, remember that strokes are preventable. I challenge you to get moving! Make a goal to exercise at least 30 minutes a day. It’s not only going to naturally reduce your stress levels, but will also help bring your blood pressure down and reduce your overall risk.

By John Bonifield
CNN Medical News Producer

In college, I spent a summer in the Caribbean on an archaeology excavation. I remember submerging myself as deeply as I could in the ocean. I'd hold my breath as long as possible to admire the stunning underwater views of a shallow reef just off the beach at the site we were unearthing. I could never go more than about 45 seconds before surfacing for air. My lungs would burn as I hit the top of the water, gasping.

You probably know the feeling, too, if you've ever tried to hold your breath for as long as possible. Two or three minutes isn't unheard of for a lot of people. Expert breath-holders can go as long as seven minutes.

For Dr. Sanjay Gupta's upcoming documentary, "Another Day: Cheating Death," we've been taking a closer look at the human capacity to store oxygen. As it happens, oxygen is a double-edged sword when we die. Of course, we need it to sustain ourselves, but when a person's heart stops, the process of death is triggered. The body is designed to die, and to finish itself off; more oxygen is not what it wants. Get a cardiac arrest patient breathing again and you suddenly cheat death's plan. The body isn’t anticipating a new infusion of oxygen, and as the oxygen hits the cells and they begin to recover, they produce toxic molecules that are destructive.

Science is discovering innovative ways to mitigate the damage. Cooling patients down after a cardiac arrest seems to help. Chilled, their bodies can recover with less oxygen. New CPR techniques are also being utilized to keep the oxygen that's already in a victim's blood pumping through the body.

The concept is fascinating, and to make the point on television, we decided to spotlight synchronized swimmers. Their ethereal underwater dance is gorgeous to witness. They can remain submerged because there's a lot more oxygen in their blood than you might think, and they've trained themselves to utilize it efficiently. The synchronized swim team at Ohio State University is one of the best in the nation.

You'll see them featured in our program at 8 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday on CNN. When I visited the swimmers to watch a practice, they told me that although their routines sap them of air and energy, the performances actually help them to stay under longer. All that movement distracts them from thinking about how long they've gone without a breath. When I asked them to try it without moving, they still managed - impressively - some of them for more than two minutes - but it was harder, they said. Their trick: They went through the alphabet, letter by letter, associating words with each one until they could go no longer and had to surface for air.

Watch “Another Day: Cheating Death” at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.

As a new feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here are two questions for Dr. Gupta.

From Kat in College Park, Maryland:

“Is it possible to get swine flu (or regular flu, for that matter) twice in the same season?”

Answer:
Once you’ve had the flu, your chance of getting it again in the same season is low. Your body builds antibodies to protect against it. This basically means if you contract that same exact strain, your body fights it off naturally, typically before you’d notice any symptoms. There are a couple of concerns, though, and one that we've been talking about almost since the beginning, and that is that the virus can mutate. It can start to change. If it mutated, a couple of things could happen. A person who has already had H1N1, would no longer be protected. But also, the people who get the vaccine being shipped out now, which is designed specifically to protect against this strain of H1N1, also wouldn’t have protection if it mutates. 

From Vanessa in Gholson, Texas:

“My kids are sick with flu-like symptoms. I’m not sure if I should take them to the doctor but would like to confirm if my children have H1N1 or not. Should we go?”

Answer:
Great question and one I’ve been getting a lot from viewers. Should a person with flu-like symptoms go to the doctor? For the vast majority of people reading this right now, the answer is no. You will have a few miserable days but most likely not need any medical attention whatsoever.

There are some high-risk groups that would need medical attention, but, a good rule of thumb is if you think you are sick enough that you would have gone to the doctor a few years ago for flu-like symptoms, then you can go this year as well. But don't treat this differently simply because it has a different name of H1N1.

As far as getting tested, this is really interesting. When we first started reporting on this virus back in the spring, health officials were trying to figure out exactly what the virus was and confirm whether it was H1N1. They were doing a lot of testing then to help investigate what areas of the country it spread to. But now we know this virus is pretty much everywhere. And the CDC isn’t recommending health providers test for it in most cases because they don't need that information anymore.   Also, the patient probably wouldn’t be medically treated any differently from the treatment for seasonal flu.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Last week I traveled with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Levittown, Pennsylvania, to meet Chris Brooks, a recent college grad who survived an unexplained cardiac arrest that stopped his heart for more than 15 minutes. That he survived – and without brain damage – is pretty incredible, and probably a tribute to the CPR performed by his father and the fact that he was cooled by emergency physicians at the local hospital, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was transferred afterwards.

What caught my attention the other day came when we asked Brooks whether doctors had figured out what caused the cardiac arrest in the first place. It’s a life-or-death question; Brooks now has a defibrillator implanted in his chest, and in the past six months it’s been triggered to shock him twice. In other words, his heart is stopping for no obvious reason.

But he hasn’t gone for a battery of tests that might provide an answer. The reason: no health insurance. He was covered by a family policy at the time of his cardiac arrest, but no more. “What we’re dealing now is insurance,” Brooks told us. “I’m 22 years old and not in college any more, so I don’t have insurance. I can’t see [my cardiologist] now. I want to, I guess, but I can’t.” His doctors are looking for a way to make it work, but in the best-case scenario it’s delaying those tests by two to three months - a reminder that even serious illness can slip through the cracks of the current health care system.

Health care bills moving through Congress might make life easier for Brooks; they would let people under 26 still be covered on their parents’ insurance. But the bills would also place a new burden on those 26 or older, by requiring them to purchase insurance or pay a penalty. Critics say people should be free to take the risk of going insurance-free, if they like – or if they can’t afford it.

Are you under 30 without health insurance? Do you have children in that boat? What would you do if there were a serious health crisis?

Programming note: See Chris Brooks’ story as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s special, “Cheating Death,” October 17, 8 p.m.

By Matt Sloane
CNN Medical Producer

There are few things that excite me more in my job than a run of Fit Nation Tour events, and that's exactly what we're kicking off this weekend! It's not the travel so much that I'm excited about, but the opportunity to meet thousands of people who are eager to hear the latest information about obesity, losing weight and healthy living.

I've written these numbers over and over again: 66 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese; 33 percent of children fall into this same category. This is NOT OK! So, we've partnered with the YMCA – a fantastic community organization – to get kids moving again. We've taken a page from the YMCA of Cleveland's book and modified a program called "We Run This City" – where kids run 25 miles of a "marathon" over the course of two months, and run the final 1.2 miles during their city's big marathon. Once they cross the finish line, they receive a medal, a certificate and a sense of confidence – a feeling, that they CAN stay healthy and have fun.

This Sunday, we'll hit the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in St. Paul, Minnesota, followed by Chicago on Sunday, October 11. We’ll also be at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, October 25th. If you're in one of these cities, come out and visit! Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be joining us in Minneapolis and Chicago, and he'll be signing advance copies of his new book: “Cheating Death.”

To learn more about the Fit Nation Tour, and for tips and tricks to help you get fit, plus stories of how other people have conquered the battle of the bulge, go to CNN.com/Fitnation.

As a regular feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors answers readers’ questions. Here’s a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Birgitta in Newcastle, Washington:

I think I already had the swine flu but do not know for sure if it was swine flu, do I take the vaccination anyway? Is it safe to take if I suspect that the flu I had was swine flu?

Answer:

Tens of thousands of people right now, like Birgitta, are suffering from or getting over the H1N1 virus. Those numbers will continue to swell as the flu season wears on, and these questions will inevitably come up over and over again.

Incidentally, I can relate. I contracted the H1N1 virus recently while reporting on the war in Afghanistan, and I was miserable for days. I got my immunity to H1N1 the hard way, so I can take a pass on the vaccine this year. But what about people who are not as sure, like Birgitta?

The bottom line is, unless you got a laboratory test confirming it, you cannot be sure that you actually got the H1N1 virus. There are several strains of influenza floating around out there this season, two of which are H1N1 and seasonal influenza. There are a handful of other strains you could have contracted.

The old adage, "Better to be safe than sorry," may apply here. Unless you're sure you had H1N1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you get vaccinated. Even if you did, in theory, get H1N1 the CDC reports no evidence that subsequently getting the H1N1 vaccine would cause problems for you.

You can think about your vaccination like an insurance policy. If you did have H1N1 during your recent illness, then you're protected. If you did not, you're also protected.

If you're wondering when the vaccine will be available, the largest shipment of H1N1 vaccine is scheduled for mid-October. By then, the first 45 million doses of the vaccine will be ready, with another 20 million doses shipped out each week until December.

And don't forget, the CDC recommends that you get the seasonal flu vaccine as well.