Postmenopausal women may lessen their chances of fracturing a hip by adding soy-based foods to their diet according to a study from Singapore . The women in the study were 21 to 36 percent less likely to fracture a hip when they reported eating a moderate amount of soy, Dr. Woon-Puay Koh, at the National University of Singapore states.

Drinking green tea continues to show health benefits, particularly among women according to the results of a new study from Japan . Drinking five or more cups a day cut the risk by "47 percent in Japanese women," but not Japanese men, Ikue Watanabe, from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in Sendai , Japan notes in an interview. Pneumonia risk seems to be reduced even by drinking small amounts of green tea.

The virus known as XMRV which is already linked to prostate cancer may also play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome, according to research for a mysterious disorder that affects 17 million people worldwide. Researchers from the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada , at the National Cancer Institute, and at the Cleveland Clinic found the virus in the blood of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients. The same virus showed up in only 8 of 218 healthy people according to the report which appears in the journal Science.

A daily dose of vitamin D cuts your risk of falling substantially, researchers report, but not just any dose will do. "It takes 700 to 1000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day and nothing less will work," Dr. Heike A.

Gastric bypass or gastric banding are the two most common procedures for triggering weight loss in morbidly obese individuals (those who are greater than 100 pounds overweight); these are referred to collectively as Bariatric surgery. These procedures have been shown to greatly improve weight loss and to make diabetes disappear in many patients. Researchers from the University of Chile in Santiago found that 39% of a sampling of 67 Chilean women who had undergone gastric bypass surgery developed anemia (low blood counts) within 18 months after the surgery and the anemia was mostly due to a lack of iron.