Health, Heart | featured news

The proportion of American adolescents who exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and are free of risk factors for future heart disease is "alarmingly low," says a major new survey of teen health.

A pacemaker has been built inside a heart by converting beating muscle into cells which can control the organ's rhythm, US researchers report. The heartbeat is controlled by electrical signals and if these go awry the consequences can be fatal. Scientists injected a genetically-modified virus into guinea pigs to turn part of their heart into a new, working pacemaker.

U.S. health officials are asking safety questions about the first artificial heart valve designed to be implanted without major surgery.

Could exercise actually be bad for some healthy people? A well-known group of researchers, including one who helped write the scientific paper justifying national guidelines that promote exercise for all, say the answer may be a qualified yes.

Scientists have for the first time succeeded in taking skin cells from patients with heart failure and transforming them into healthy, beating heart tissue that could one day be used to treat the condition.

For years, doctors have been telling their patients to eat more fish in order to boost heart health.

You may not appreciate getting pranked with a whoopee cushion or hot sauce in your food on April Fool’s Day, but a good laugh may be just what the doctor ordered. April is National Stress Awareness Month, and a report from the Society for Vascular Surgery shows kicking it off with laughter can be very beneficial for your vascular health.

Exercising or having sex roughly triples a person's risk of heart attack in the hours immediately afterward, especially if the person does those activities infrequently, according to a new analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Drinking coffee appears to offer protection against stroke, a major study of women out Thursday concludes.

Taking short breaks from sitting, even for only one minute, might whittle your waistline and improve your heart health, according to a new study.