It's flu time again

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It's that time of year again people. Witht he weather changing drastically one day and then back again we are more susceptible to getting colds and flus. I have already started taking my Echinacea twice a day and making sure I eat onions (natural anti-histamines) and trying my best to remember every day to take my Multi vitamin. To top it off my work is offering a free flu shot to all employees this year. So I am signing up for that as well (as I do not have health insurance coverage), but first I am doing some research so any of you out there who have concerns about the flu shot can maybe benefit from this discussion as well. As always I am using WebMD to help pool my info. There are two types on influenza vaccines. One is the traditional flu shot which unlike so many people think do not contain an active virus...it is an inactivated virus. Then there is the Flumist nasal this one does have weakened virus in it and does not cause illness, but sometimes causes the flu. According to Web MD these vaccines help the body produce antibodies to fight off the flu viruses. And considering that around 30,000 people can die from the flu each year and prevention can be begun as soon as October....this may be very important to us all. There are many different strains of the flu. And the shot only covers the strain that researchers believe are most likely to show up the following year. So it is true that even though you get the shot you still may be able to get a different version of the flu. All I know is I fall into the "people at higher risk" for one reason I work with the elderly who is considered to be higher risk. There are special circumstances for children to be involved and as always talk with your health care professional about these things. Meanwhile do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself on Web MD or another secure site. So how many are getting the flu shot? Has any of you used the Flumist vaccine?