Another potential benefit to breast-feeding has come forward as fewer behavioral problems in children.

A new study finds that parents of youngsters who were breast-fed as infants have been reporting less regarding behavioral problems in their children during the first five years of life.

Similarly, the possibilities of mental health issues reduce in proportion to the duration of breast-feeding, i.e. if a child has been breast-fed for a year is less likely to develop behavioral problems than a child who has been breast-fed for just two months.

Dr. Katherine Hobbs Knutson (a resident in the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston) presented the study at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting, in San Diego. She said: “Though it’s an early finding, it indicates that breast-feeding during infancy could have an effect on behavior during childhood.”

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A Danish study finds that patients who were hospitalized for pneumonia and taking statins at the time (cholesterol-lowering drugs) had one-third lower death rate than those not taking statins.

According to experts, the findings are preliminary and further research is needed to prescribe statins as infection fighters.

Dr. Reimar W, Thomsen, who led the study, says: “We must interpret these findings with care.” The study has been published in Oct. 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Thomsen adds, “Staists have an anti-inflammatory effect, and we have just begun to understand that systemic infections like pneumonia cause inflammation can possibly trigger many adverse reactions in human bodies.”

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ATLANTA – A government panel has recommended vaccination especially for smokers, for the very first time. The panel decided that, smokers under 65 should get pneumococcal vaccine.

The shot is already recommended for adults aged 65 or older and provides protection against pneumonia, meningitis and other illnesses.

Studies have already proven that smokers higher degree than nonsmokers to suffer pneumococcal disease. Also, the number of cigarettes someone smokes each day is directly proportional to odds of developing illnesses.

The reason for, why smokers are highly susceptible is not exactly known. But some scientists believe, because smoking cause damage to lung which provide bacteria an atmosphere to attack lungs and trachea (windpipe).

Pneumococcal infections are top killer among vaccine-preventable diseases. It’s an advanced complication of influenza, specifically in the elderly. It is also responsible for, around 36,000 deaths per year.

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According to a Canadian study, vaccination against pneumonia almost halves the risk of a heart attack.

In this study the researchers from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec compared 999 people (who were admitted to different Canadian hospitals for heart attacks) with those 3996 who were admitted for other reasons. The researchers didn’t find any difference in those who had or hadn’t the penumococcal vaccine in the previous year, but a 50 percent lower rate in those who were vaccinated two years earlier.

The study has been published in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Authorities are inquiring a possible association between the deaths of 14 kids and an experimental vaccine administered to them in a clinical trial, conducted by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

They are investigating whether the deaths are linked to the Synflorix vaccine, said an agency official. The drug, made to fight against pneumonia, ear infections and several other pneumococcal diseases by the London-based GSK, the world’s second-largest drug maker.

A U.S. spokeswoman for Glaxo, Sarah Alspach, said “the company is not attributing the deaths to the experimental vaccine, which is being tested in three Latin American countries and in other countries around the world.”

“We rely on their safety review,” Alspach said. “Safety is our primary concern, always, with the development of any new treatment.”

More than 19,000 babies have taken at least one shot of Synflorix, which Glaxo decided to test on 24,000 infants, she said.

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