Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta.

This is the podcast where I get to answer your health questions, which I love doing.

You've been sending in some really great questions, so there's a lot to get to today.

And Kira, who you're getting to know, one of our producers, she's back with me.

Kira, what do we have first?

Hey, Sanjay, glad to be back. So,

our first question today is coming from Mark in New York City. He's in his 50s and wants to know,

how do I avoid pneumonia? All right, Mark, great question. Nomania's been in the news quite a bit

lately and it can be a serious threat, especially as we get older.

In fact, nearly a million older adults are hospitalized with pneumonia every year.

And over a third of them will die within a year, so pneumonia can start to be this trajectory towards a pretty serious illness.

While older adults are the ones that we typically think about facing the highest risk,

can also be severe for young children, for immunocompromised individuals,

and those with serious health conditions.

Now, there's good news here in that there's a lot you can do to lower your risk.

There are vaccines

for pneumonia specifically, typically for children and then at age 50 with a possible booster

at age 65, getting the flu shot. That can help prevent infections that can lead to pneumonia.

And if you're eligible, there's also the RSV vaccine. This can offer

some extra protection. The CDC recommends it for adults 75 and older, and those who are 60 to 74

who are considered higher risk. So pneumonia, just keep in mind, it's an infection of the lungs.

There's the upper respiratory tract. There's the upper respiratory tract,

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