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.

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.

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.

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

From Carolyn in Goliad, Texas:

What is the latest treatment or drug that is showing success in treating lupus?

Answer:

Thanks for your question Carolyn.  Lupus  is a chronic autoimmune disease which seems to affect mainly women.  Essentially your body’s immune system begins to attack not only foreign invaders, like viruses, but your own tissues and organs.  There are four types of the disease but the most common is called systemic lupus erythematosus.  Doctors don’t know the cause, but they believe it’s a combination of family history and environmental triggers.  Those triggers can be something like an infection or even sunlight.  

Lupus can cause inflammation in just about any organ or tissue in the body, from your skin and your lungs to your kidneys.  Your doctor will determine your best treatment depending on what type of lupus you have, your signs and symptoms and their severity.  This is a disease of flare-ups and periods of remissions so your medication may also change depending on what stage you’re experiencing.  Plus, it can take months to nail down the most effective combination of treatments to best control your symptoms.  The three most common medications are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, corticosteroids and antimalarial drugs. 

There are currently more than 200 lupus clinical trials testing hormones, immune suppressives, stem cell transplants and biologics.  But Carolyn, after getting your email we put a call into the Lupus Foundation to find out what they considered to be the most promising.  They said lupus is difficult because patients with the same symptoms on the same medication can have different outcomes, so they consider targeted therapies the best hope – specifically biologics.  Biologics are compounds that block or interfere with your body’s immune system response.  They gave us a heads up about a large clinical trial ending in November on one such drug that they hope will help patients looking for new treatments.  Granted even if this drug is shown to be beneficial it will still have to go through the FDA review process so it will be some time before it’s available in your doctor’s office.

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

From iReporter Jason in San Antonio:
"Four years ago my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  [For] 18 months we fought that disease with everything we had because we felt like every day was precious, every day we kept him alive we were one day closer to a cure for that disease. I guess my question is, under a public option or government run health care system, would that type of care be possible? Is it something that 10 years from now we're going to have to sacrifice or come up with a tremendous amount of cash to pay for it because it would be rationed under our government run health care system?"

Answer:
First, Jason thanks for sharing that personal story. Our best wishes are with you and your family. The idea of rationing really strikes at the core of all that we are talking about with regard to health care - this idea of lowering costs, trying to increase access. The question is, will we have to ration health care as a result?

There was a New York Times editorial a couple of weeks ago by Peter Singer, a bioethicist at Princeton University, where it was put like this: "The death of a teenager is a greater tragedy than the death of an 85-year-old and this should be reflected in our priorities."  Think about that for a second. He's saying we should assign value of life differently in certain situations.

Jason, we took your story specifically to the White House and asked them to respond. They said, "Our heart goes out to Jason and his family. We know families across America are dealing with issues like this every day. There are a number of different bills making their way through Congress right now but we do know this: The reform bill that the President signs will not lead to rationing. It will be fully paid for and bring down costs over the long term." They went on to say, that the President won't sign a bill that doesn't guarantee coverage to all people of all ages regardless of  specific health conditions.

But as you're saying, Jason,  it may come down to numbers and whether estimates of the cost of  health care reform are accurate. When Medicare hospital insurance was conceived in 1965, the House Ways and Means Committee projected that in 25 years it would cost 6 billion dollars. The actual cost? 67 billion, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can see how far off costs for Medicare were, based on initial projections –much, much higher. Now the president says they'll add prevention programs and wellness programs, creating a healthier population and that will be a cheaper population with regard to health care costs. But who knows? You've got more people that you're trying to cover; more people, more tests, more screening. How that all adds up, we're just not sure.

Do the health care reform headlines leave you with more questions than answers? Dr. Gupta is your health care reform insider – and he wants to hear from you!

Post your questions for Dr. Gupta in the comments below or tweet him @SanjayGuptaCNN.

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

From @richroll via Twitter.com:

“What are phytonutrients and why do we need them?”

Answer:

Thanks Rich. You can think of phytonutrients as health boosters. Plants produce these substances to protect themselves from bacteria and viruses, but they help the human body as well. They are highly nutritious active compounds within plants which promote good health.

Phytonutrients come in many classes. That list is long, but the ones you’ve probably heard of are carotenoids, flavonoids and sulfides.

We probably know the most about carotenoids, according to the USDA, they basically give fruit and vegetables their red, orange and yellow color. These compounds are believed to protect against certain cancers, heart disease and even vision loss due to macular degeneration. Think of carrots, green leafy vegetables, oranges and sweet potatoes, to name a few. In fact just one orange contains more than 170 phytonutrients!

One rule of thumb I like to follow – try to eat at least seven different colored foods every day. The brighter the color, the better, this will help fuel your body with the essential nutrients your body needs.

Evidence that these compounds help our bodies is compelling. In just one study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, consuming just three servings of fruits and vegetables, was linked to a 22% decreased risk of stroke. But overall, phytonutrients are said to help slow down the aging process and may protect against a host of illnesses and diseases like some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and other chronic health conditions. In addition, they could work to enhance immunity and serve as antioxidants.

By the way Rich Roll is quite an inspiration himself, read his story here.

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

From Barbara, Chicago:

"I’ve lost 5 pounds since jumping on board with your fitness forum. How are you doing so far? Have you noticed changes in the last month?”

Answer:

Barbara, thanks for joining the forum and congratulations on losing 5 pounds! Keep up the great work.

It’s been three weeks since we started the #1023 trending topic group on Twitter. (Read the tips, join the conversation, by typing in #1023 Twitter's search browser) People are already starting to write in about their own progress. I really encourage you to read all the comments coming in – witty, inspiring, proactive and most of all, helpful.

@melmcd99: started morning with a yummy smoothie-2cup-stawberries, 1-banana,1cup-soymilk, 1scoop protein powder and tsp-almond butter! #1023

@JackRyan53: Rotated 10 min walks with 10 minutes of hard labor on the Elliptical. Not a bad routine. Feeling the effects!! #1023

@nhPNP: got up to 4.5 mph on the treadmill- could only sustain it for about 3 min, but it's a start. Love the interval training prgrm. #1023

@claudiasiegel: Friends gave me consequences for skipping exercise. So far it is working. Haven't missed a day since challenge started. #1023

@melmcd99: Walk to your next meeting instead of driving or riding the bus! #1023

As I mentioned in my initial blog, this isn’t about losing weight or inches, but about health and fitness. For my part, I am finally on a strict routine. Since I started three weeks ago, I have been able to work out 15 times (five times per week). I have not missed breakfast once and I have started to meditate almost every afternoon for about 10 minutes.

Without question, it hasn’t always been easy. For example, I had a day when I started work at 6 a.m., finished at 7 p.m., and then jumped on a plane that landed around midnight. As hard as it was, I woke up an hour early on that day – and got in a 4-mile run, followed by push-ups and sit-ups. I immediately look for a hotel gym or any other place to exercise when I am on the road.

In Haiti, I asked our cameraman if I could carry the tripod during our long hikes up hills, and I did curls with the tripod on the way. One of the best pieces of advice about diet that I received:  “don’t eat anything that is not worth eating…”

My biggest concern now is that I am becoming too lean. My producer Danielle pointed out that I was looking skinny after a recent shoot down in Texas. There is no doubt that I am losing weight, but I have to be careful to maintain muscle mass. After all, it is the muscle that is the metabolic engine for your body.

So, I plan on sticking with the program but adding on more strength training with some free weights. Look for more updates soon!