In the news

The flu season isn’t over yet.

            This week San Diego County lost a fourth teenager to influenza, a tragedy that illustrates three important facts about this disease. First, we are still in the middle of the influenza season. Second, unlike COVID, which rarely took the lives of persons below the age of nineteen (about 1,000 children in that age range died during the entire epidemic and most of those had an underlying health problem) influenza can be fatal in children. Third, those with underlying medical disorders such as heart or lung disease are particularly at risk.

            As most people are aware, the influenza vaccine has to be configured differently every year to accommodate the significant mutations that render previous years’ vaccines less protective. Even when the immunologists prognosticate correctly, most flu vaccines are fully protective only about half the time, sometimes much less so. What is important to consider, however, is that although the flu vaccine is not fully protective, it almost always prevents severe disease or the need for hospitalization. In an era when hospital-acquired infections take the lives of 75,000 to 100,000 Americans every year, that is an enormous advantage. Of note: the four teenagers who succumbed to influenza in San Diego had not been vaccinated.

            Complications associated with the influenza vaccine are tragic but they are extremely rare. The most common serious side effect is a type of paralysis that occurs once or twice in a million vaccine recipients but is almost always temporary, and only very rarely life-threatening.

            More than 100 San Diegans have died of influenza this season. Don’t add to that list by failing to get the influenza vaccine.

Lifestyle

(Decaf) coffee anyone?

            Year after year, coffee looks better and better as a health food. The reason? Antioxidants. That family of nutritious chemicals used to come from the generous intake of plant foods that once upon a time comprised almost all the calories ingested by our distant ancestors. Now that our daily intake of fruits and vegetables is a paltry fraction of what nature intended for us, we lack many of the plant-based nutrients such as phenols, flavonols, flavones, etc. that protect us from the DNA-damaging effects of free radicals. Those are the rogue chemicals that result from sunlight, radiation, infection and even normal metabolism that contribute to tissue damage and the aging process.

            Antioxidant foods have three major characteristics. They are highly colored, highly aromatic and highly flavorful, just like coffee (and red wine and chocolate!). Decaf coffee, which has about 97 percent of its caffeine removed, retains all those colorful, aromatic and flavorful ingredients. Coffee in both forms is the major source of antioxidants in the United States. A number of studies have shown that a moderate intake of coffee, i.e., two to four cups a day, is associated with better cardiovascular health. It has been suggested that decaf coffee is better for the heart than the regular stuff, whose jolt may not be so good for the heart at high intakes, i.e., 8-10 cups per day. On the other hand, caffeine has been recognized for centuries as a cognitive booster. (Does anyone remember taking No Doz during finals?)

            I enjoy three cups of decaf every day. My fourth dose of antioxidants comes in a glass with a long stem.