News on Colds, Flu and Peak Performance

Dear Readers:

Once again this year I forgot . . . didn’t make time for . . . couldn’t be bothered about . . . getting a flu shot. There was no good excuse for my irresponsibility. All I had to do was take the elevator up to the ninth floor of the building I work in, walk into the medical office and ask for a free shot.

Now the holidays are upon us with their accompanying stress, parties, lack of sleep and, as you’ll read in today’s Health section, cold and flu germs are everywhere. And, of course, now it’s probably too late for a flu shot to do any good.

Maybe I’ll be lucky like last year and make it through flu season without having to buy Kleenex in bulk quantities. If not, at least I’ll have today’s section to turn to for information about promising cold and flu breakthroughs, the healing powers of chicken soup and whether the echinacea that several friends swear by actually works.

Contributing to today’s coverage of cold and flu matters are two new writers for the Health section, Jane Allen and Rosie Mestel. Both are experienced medical journalists, and their addition will greatly help to enhance our coverage of health-related issues.

On another matter, many readers have written to us about how they enjoy our weekly “How I Did It” feature, in which people write in with their stories about weight loss. We’d like to expand the column’s scope by including readers’ stories about other physical accomplishments: for example, how you trained for a mountain climb, learned a new sport in your 60s or used exercise to treat a nagging ailment. Apparently, most of you are so busy scaling peaks and in-line skating on the Venice boardwalk that you have no time to write us. Perhaps you could put down the hiking boots or skates long enough to share your stories?

David Olmos

Health Editor