As an embedded reporter in Iraq, I had a chance to see firsthand some of the strengths and shortfalls of the gear being used to protect our military. As a neurosurgeon I was particularly interested in the helmets worn by U.S. armed forces. In the spring of 2003, I was asked to operate a few times in Iraq on soldiers and civilians with catastrophic head injuries, which gave me a unique look at the pattern of injuries being suffered. Truth is, it seemed for the vast majority of people, the helmets did a good job, given the constraints. Keep in mind, they had to be lightweight, not too warm given the climate, and still durable enough to protect against shrapnel wounds.

We now know, though, that traumatic brain injury has become one of the signature injuries of this war and one of the biggest culprits is IEDs or improvised explosive devices. A big question is just how much force does an explosive device generate? How much acceleration and how much pressure is really generated? Well, that is hard to know, but a new technology the Army is using caught my eye.

When we started making calls to the U.S. Army about the helmet, they actually offered to fly a helmet to the CNN Center, complete with a soldier, Major William Schaffer, to demonstrate the technology. It is essentially a smart helmet that carries a microchip that measures impact, from things like an IED or even just from landing on the ground after a jump. A group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division will receive the smart helmets when they deploy for Afghanistan in the spring. Now, while it is admittedly difficult to directly correlate the effects of those measured blast forces on the brain, the hope is that one day it could lead to the design of even safer equipment.

A lot of people are thinking about safer and more effective protective gear. Do you have any ideas or thoughts on how to make better gear? We can share some of your thoughts directly with the Army.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

A headline may catch your eye today. It will read something like "You are more likely to die of a heart attack in a hospital than a casino." (Full Story). No question that sounds pretty scary, but I want to provide a little context to this story (See Study).

First off, what is really happening to your heart during a heart attack or cardiac arrest? It is typically one of two things: Either your heart is beating too fast or it is beating in some sort of abnormal rhythm. The bottom line is the same: Your heart is no longer providing the blood flow required by the rest of your body, including the heart muscle itself, and that muscle begins to die.

We also know that delivering an electric shock to the heart within a couple of minutes can make a difference, sometimes restoring a normal rate and rhythm. The longer the delay, the less likely it will work. That's the background. So what is it about casinos or airports that make you more likely to survive a cardiac arrest than in a hospital?

Well, it has to do with a couple of things. First, there are simply more people around in a casino or an airport or any public building who may actually witness a cardiac arrest and offer up treatment more quickly - in that crucial two-minute window. In a hospital, unless a patient is hooked up to a cardiac monitor or being constantly observed, a cardiac arrest may go unnoticed for more than a few minutes - maybe too long. The other factor is that patients in hospitals are often sicker in the first place, which is why they are in the hospital. They may be less able to recover from a heart attack.

As part of this blog, let me also encourage you to review the new CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) practices for bystanders by clicking here. They have changed recently, and in some situations focus more on doing chest compressions rather than mouth to mouth breathing. There's even a kit available to learn CPR in just one hour at home. (Full story)

It's worth your time and may just save a life.

Have you ever witnessed someone having a heart attack? How did the people around react and what was done?

If you think weight training is only for professional body builders or young athletes, you're wrong. Anyone can benefit from a weight training program, and it's particularly important to pump iron as you age.

Debbie MacLean is an athletic trainer at Coca-Cola's corporate headquarters in Atlanta and trains Coke employees of all ages. She says we lose about five to seven pounds of muscle mass per decade as we get older. "As a result," she says, "your metabolism slows and you start to gain weight."

In your 30s, it's all about metabolism. Your body is changing and you are burning fewer calories. This is a good time to focus on adding more muscle and definition to your body, especially the backs of the arms and the abdominal muscles. This can be accomplished with free weights or weight machines.

In your 40s, it's all about maintaining muscle tone with weight training. Strengthening leg muscles will help alleviate knee problems that become more prevalent at this age. Decades of sitting at a computer may be coming back to haunt you in the form of back pain. Lifting weights that isolate those lower back muscles will help.

In your 50s, it may be time to modify your workout to slow down the effects of arthritis and osteoporosis. Focus on strengthening your upper back and shoulders to avoid a hunched back as you get older. Do it right and you should be able to continue weight training into your 60s and beyond.

Before you start lifting weights, check with an athletic trainer to find the best workout for you and how to prevent injuries. And don't forget cardio exercise like swimming, walking or biking. As MacLean says, "If you don't do something to work your heart and lungs, it doesn't matter what your bicep can do."

It's time to reflect and take stock of 2007. For me, it was an incredible year mainly because of the arrival of my second child, another girl! CNN was kind enough to give me a few days off this past week, and I spent all of it with my wife and two daughters. It reminded me just how important it is to always remember the ones we love and to really be with them physically and mentally as much as possible. Of course, with our busy lives, sometimes that is easier said than done...

So, where did 2007 take the CNN medical unit?

Well, for a while, there was some sort of recall every few weeks. As we learned, there was too much lead in our children's toys and too much melamine in our pet food. It forced us to take a real look at the globalization of our commodities and often times we didn't like what we saw. China was the culprit in both cases.

Of course, we didn't always have to look beyond our own borders when it came to questionable food safety. There was E.coli in California spinach and Midwest ground beef, leading to one of the biggest meat recalls in our history. Our medical unit decided to tackle these issues head on, not only reporting directly from China but also from the Salinas Valley in California --known as the salad bowl of America. Our goal was to follow every aspect of the food chain - from the farm to the fork.

There were medical stories that caught our collective attention. The story of Andrew Speaker, a man infected with drug resistant Tuberculosis traveled across the world on commercial planes. He was subsequently quarantined and then had a portion of his lung removed in Colorado. He invited me to watch it and tell the story to the world. I did. What I learned was that our public health system had great difficulty in deciding exactly how to handle Mr. Speaker and that did not bode well for a situation of many people coming down with an infectious disease. In some ways, Andrew was treated like Typhoid Mary, but more importantly, he may have served as a wake up call.

Chris Benoit, the wrestler who murdered his entire family, was subsequently found to have a brain that had the characteristic findings of dementia. While it is unclear exactly what caused Mr. Benoit's brain to degenerate, it did get people talking about steroids again.

Of course that is something former Senator Mitchell and all of baseball kept talking about most of the fall.

I hosted several documentaries this year, and a few really touched me. One was "Waging War on the VA." What I tried to do here was really analyze the care our veterans receive after returning from war. For many of them, the VA represents the very best of our medical system. For many others though, the system is inconsistent, filled with mind boggling bureaucracy and sometimes it's simply unfair. As a journalist, I could hear countless stories from across the nation and then take them directly to those who are responsible. The response was remarkable from our elected officials, veterans and citizens alike. We only hope we did our profiled veterans true justice.

Another special I helped host along with Anderson Cooper and Jeff Corwin was Planet in Peril. From Central Africa to the Cartarets Islands, I saw first hand the effects of global warming. I met the world's first environmental refugees and saw the incredible pillaging of the earth that goes on every day. I was reminded again of my daughters and how much this plight could affect their lives.

I also had a chance to introduce the world to Amanda Baggs. While I have spent most of my life as a neurosurgeon, I had to start by admitting that I knew very little about autism, which is why I spent months reading, talking to experts and simply trying to assimilate all that I had learned. It was a daunting task and I will always wish I could do more and report on all aspects of autism. Stay tuned for more in 2008.

Along with Arwa Damon, I hosted a report about five year old Youssif. Badly burned by masked men, Youssif may have been yet another tragic tale from Baghdad except that you the CNN viewers responded with a thrust to propel goodness over cruelty. And in December, we introduced you to the new Youssif, who had undergone three operations in Los Angeles thanks to your contributions.

As I sit and write this blog, we are already looking ahead to January.

I will be reporting all month long on our broken health care system and more importantly what can be done to fix it. I am also planning a trip to Afghanistan to bring you front line stories about how medics take care of people in some of the most treacherous and dangerous places on the planet.

We do count on you the viewers and users of CNN.com for your thoughts and ideas and I want to thank you personally for your contributions. If you have any areas you would like me to cover in 2008, please let me know here. Also, while we can't always post the tremendous number of responses we get, we will always try and post representative remarks for all to read.

Happy New Year, Sanjay.