Moderate drinking recommended?; Thimerosal & the flu shot

Listen up, gentlemen! Moderate drinking is ok.

According to the Wall Street Journal article, Moderate Drinking May Deter Heart Attacks in Healthy Men, there is a study (yes another one) citing that men who have two drinks a day have a lower risk of heart attacks than those who didn’t drink at all or those who are light drinkers.

A note of caution, however--- this is not carte blanche to begin drinking--- or to start drinking heavily. The study also cautioned that those who drank more than 2 drinks a day lost any benefits that may come from alcohol. “The report warns that drinking carries other health risks, like breast cancer and acceleration of cirrhosis in patients with hepatitis C, and that physicians and patients must weigh the risks and benefits of alcohol intake.”

So, please -- use control and restraint.


I’m sure many of you have been keeping up with the CareTALK blog by Dr. Ridge on Yahoo Health (if not, here’s a chance to catch up). Last week, Dr. Ridge wrote Get It While It's Hot regarding the importance of getting the flu shot and who really needs it. As a result of all the comments we received, his follow up The Great Flu Shot Debate addressed some of the concerns the readers had written about. One of them was regarding Thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury used in vaccines. Dr. Ridge wrote:

Thimerosal, which contains mercury, has strong anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. It was used to keep these invading microorganisms out of the vaccine supply when the vaccine was shipped in multi-use bottles. Most of the time these days, the vaccines are delivered in single-dose syringes. As long as you get the vaccine from a single-dose syringe, you are not exposed to Thimerosal. You also have the option of getting the nasal-sprayed vaccine which does not contain Thimerosal.

Today, according to the Wall Street Journal article, FDA Says It Won't Restrict
Mercury-Based Preservative, it was publicly released that the FDA denied a petition to put new restrictions on the use of Thimerosal in vaccines, citing several studies “consistently have found no association between the brain disorder [autism] and the mercury-based preservative.”

For those who are still worried about Thimerosal, there are Thimerosal-free vaccines which you can get. (Therefore, there’s no excuse not to get a flu shot.) Just ask your doctor about it.