A new option for staving off pneumococcal pneumonia one of the biggest causes of death among older adults in the United States has just been approved for use in Americans aged 50 and older. The Prevnar 13 vaccine, produced by Pfizer, is formulated to protect against 13 forms of the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, and other diseases. Pneumonia caused by this bacterium leads about 300,000 older adults to be hospitalized in the U.S. each year.

Even though our understanding and awareness of anorexia has improved, it s still not clear how best to treat anorexic patients when they arrive at the hospital. A severely underweight anorexic, who may be at risk of death, needs to regain that weight as soon as possible. But giving such patients too many calories early on can lead to a dangerous complication called refeeding syndrome, which in some cases can be fatal or lead to cardiac arrhythmia.

Neck pain will affect three in four Americans over the course of their lifetime. But rather than stocking up on pain killers, a new study in The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that a regimen of gentle exercises at home, or sessions with a chiropractor, may actually be more effective than taking medication to relieve chronic neck pain.

Even when elderly individuals begin to show signs of cognitive impairment, it s difficult to know who will go on to develop Alzheimer s disease. A new study suggests that using a spinal tap (lumbar puncture) to measure the levels of certain protein biomarkers may help predict whether a patient with mild cognitive impairment is at risk for the disease.

Although memory impairment is one of the defining traits of Alzheimer s disease, a study just published in Neurology suggests that memory loss among older adults may have other possible etiologies.

Estrogen therapy may reduce the hot flashes that so often wake menopausal women during the night but the quality of their sleep won t necessarily improve, says a new study in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In this study, investigators looked at the effects of synthetic estrogens on a group of 1

The holiday feasting is over, but plenty of food still remains in most people s kitchens. Yet before you tuck into the leftovers, a little caution is in order: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in six Americans fall ill every year because of something we ve eaten.

Because of the fresh start afforded by the new year, it s a good bet that more than a few of the 70 percent of American smokers who would like to quit will give it a go. However, according to a recent CDC study, only one in 10 of those would-be quitters will actually succeed.

Need to find the nearest emergency room or medical center? Well, as we just learned, there s an app for that too. The Emergency Medical Center Locator (EMCL) is a free application available to iPhone users that will pinpoint the medical centers nearest to a user s location. Since the difference between life and death could come down to just a few precious minutes, we re inclined to think that the new app is worth downloading.

Some scientists are expressing concern that a widely used variety of genetically modified corn plant, known as Bt corn, has grown vulnerable to the very pests it was designed to resist. Bt corn, which accounts for 65 percent of all U.S. corn acreage, was developed by Monsanto Co. and introduced in 2003. This biotech strain is created by incorporating a gene from a common soil bacterium into the plant so that it produces a toxin to ward off rootworms a pest that is particularly destructive to corn crops.