(January 28, 2012 - Insidermedicine)

From Montreal - The elderly are at significantly increased risk of infection following a visit to the emergency department, according to a report published in CMAJ. Studying over 1200 elderly residents of long term care facilities, researchers found that individuals were at 3x increased risk of a new respiratory or GI infection in the week following an emergency department visit.

From California - Keeping your brain active may reduce risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a report published in the Archives of Neurology. Researchers studied 65 healthy elderly patients, as well as 10 Alzheimer disease patients and 11 young controls. They found that individuals who participated in more brain stimulating activities throughout their life, particularly in their early and middle years, had reduced levels of β-amyloid protein--a major component of AD development.

And finally, from Ohio - A new report presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium finds that HPV-related cancers are more common in men than women. Studying over 5,500 adult men and women, researchers found that oral HPV infections were 3x more common in men than women, and that men were 5x more likely to have an HPV 16 infection--a form of the virus that raises risk of head and neck cancer by 14x