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.

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

It started as a cough. It wasn’t the kind of cough where something is temporarily stuck in your throat. It wasn’t the kind of cough where simply clearing your throat would’ve been adequate. This was the kind of cough that hurts when you do it. A stinging pain that makes you wince and guard and hope that you don’t have to cough again any time soon. I thought I might have a fever, but of course, I was in the middle of covering a war in Afghanistan, and the conditions were… well, hot. So, maybe it was that. Problem was, the next day I wasn’t feeling any better – in fact, I was worse. I woke up in my dusty desert tent and tried to step out of my sleeping bag. Two steps later, I almost hit the deck. Incoming. Except this wasn’t due to any sirens going off, this was due to my own body simply being unable to hold myself up. I was lightheaded and freezing cold – even though it was over 100 degrees outside at that early hour of the morning.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who contracted H1N1 in Afghanistan, receives treatment.

I was nauseated and my entire body hurt. I tried to explain away my symptoms with lots of different excuses. You don’t sleep much while covering a war. My bulletproof jacket didn’t fit perfectly and was very heavy. There was a lot of dust and dirt, and maybe I had what the Marines referred to as the Kandahar Krud. It turned out to be none of those things.

I remember looking over at my camera man, Scottie McWhinnie. He looked absolutely awful. He was wearing a scarf on his head, and it was completely drenched in sweat. He was coughing so loudly and frequently that I was really starting to worry about him – and about myself. We each had it, whatever “it” was. I made a command decision. As a physician reporter in a war zone, I was going to get us medical care. That prompted our visit to a battlefield hospital, not as reporters this time, but as patients.

It is worth pointing out the irony of a medical reporter getting influenza type A, which was then ultimately confirmed as H1N1. (The term swine flu is a misnomer, as this strain is made up of several different components, including swine, but also avian parts.) It really didn’t matter if I got tested, as my doctor told me. It was the only flu strain circulating and I had it, and so did Scottie. We both had high fevers, the lack of appetite, terrible sinus congestion, body aches, and yes – that hacking, come out of the blue.

I am not someone who gets sick, really ever. And this was the sickest I have ever been. I would’ve much preferred my own bed with all the comforts of home – including a wife who would’ve taken great pity on me and allowed me lots of rest and relaxation. Still, I am here to blog about it, after taking the requisite few days to stay at home and not spread my gift from Afghanistan to all my colleagues at work. In case you are curious, there wasn’t much the doctors could really do for me. Some Tylenol and a sinus decongestant (the same my wife would’ve given me). We also got IV fluids, given our inability to keep anything down. Within a couple days, I felt a lot better, and a few days after that – I was back to normal. It was a lot like… the flu – with a different name. A lot of people will get the exact symptoms I described above, and for most people, it will simply mean a few miserable days, hopefully spent in your home – and not in a war zone.

By Danielle Dellorto
CNN Medical Producer

I remember shuffling through moondust up to my knees in Helmand Province when a U.S. Army combat medic turned to me and said, “If I ask you something, do you promise you’ll be honest?” I nodded yes. “Do people back home still think about us? Do they realize we’re still over here?”

U.S. Army medic chopper in Afghanistan.

I’ll never forget that moment.

Truth is, while most of America might know that 62,000 U.S. military personnel are in theater, they apparently aren’t happy about it. A recent CNN/Opinion Research poll found support of the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low. Only 39 percent favor U.S. military action in Afghanistan.

But does supporting the overall mission go hand-in-hand with supporting the troops?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta and I recently embedded with U.S. Army combat medics in Afghanistan. I slept where they slept, ate what they ate, and followed them day in and day out. Their job is to rescue and triage injured soldiers at a moment’s notice. They are always ready. They even slept with their shoes on.

CNN team and rescue medic in Afghanistan.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that these soldiers were no different from the factory worker in middle America. Both work tirelessly in their jobs, both want to succeed, both want to provide for their families. And despite the echoes of mortar fire over their shoulders, extreme heat and no communication with loved ones – I never heard the soldiers complain. I watched the medics save countless lives: sons and daughters, husbands and wives from all around the world. Why? It’s their job.

So as I looked in the eyes of that U.S. soldier – the one who feared America might have forgotten about him – I realized my job is to not only report on the medical military operations but also to highlight the courageous stories of those risking their own lives to save others in Afghanistan.

I am back home now…and I still think about them.