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WEDNESDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) — Higher levels of naturally occurring estrogen are tied to a rising risk of stroke in postmenopausal women who aren’t on hormone therapy, a new study finds.

U.S. researchers analyzed medical histories and blood samples from more than 9,700 generally healthy postmenopausal white women recruited for an osteoporosis study in the late 1980s. None of the women were on hormone therapy.

During eight years of follow-up, 247 of the women suffered a first stroke. Those women were compared with 243 women who did not have a stroke.

WEDNESDAY, March 3 (HealthDay News) — In news that’s sure to delight chocolate lovers, a Harvard study finds that a couple of squares of dark chocolate a day might reduce the risk of a hemorrhagic stroke, by 52 percent.

Unfortunately for chocolate fans, though, the same research also found that chocolate does not appear to have a protective benefit for the most common type of stroke.

People who have a stroke have either an ischemic or a hemorrhagic stroke. An ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain becomes blocked, either partially or completely. This type of stroke accounts for about 80 percent of all strokes,

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) — People’s emotional response to challenges may affect how their body reacts to stress, according to a new study.

To reach that conclusion, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh had individuals make a speech in a laboratory in front of a video camera and a panel of judges. The participants’ physical responses were monitored during the speech, and they were later asked about the emotions they felt while delivering the speech.

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News) — Stress fractures linked to overuse may be more common than thought among high school athletes, especially among those who participate in running-related sports, a new study finds.

“The risk is that we’re often dealing with very dedicated athletes who are constantly trying to perfect their performance, and sometimes they overdo it,” said Dr. Letha Y. Griffin, an Atlanta-based team orthopedist at Georgia State University and a staff physician with Peachtree Orthopeadic Clinic. Griffin was not involved with the study.

THURSDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) — Smoking bans in workplaces, restaurants and bars across the United States are now in place in half the states, and all such venues across the country could be smoke-free by 2020, government researchers reported Thursday.

Indoor areas of worksites, restaurants and bars are major sources of secondhand smoke, and approximately 88 million nonsmoking Americans 3 and older are still exposed to it each year, said the researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TUESDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) — A healthy lifestyle nearly halves nonsmokers’ risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other causes, a new study finds.

Most lifestyle guidelines for reducing the risk of illness and death warn against smoking or other types of tobacco use. But about 80 percent of Americans are never or former smokers, so the authors of this study wanted to assess the impact of healthy living recommendations other than tobacco avoidance.

By Ella Quittner

MONDAY, June 13, 2011 (Health.com) — The snooze button on your alarm clock may not be the only casualty of a sleepless night.

A new study of married couples suggests that when wives have trouble falling asleep, the quality of their relationship with their husband suffers. The longer it took women to drift off, the study found, the more likely both partners were to report negative interactions with their spouse—such as feeling ignored or criticized—the following day.

By Denise Mann
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) — People who are sleepy by day may be unable to resist calorie-laden comfort foods, new research shows.

The findings, slated for presentation Monday at a meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis, Minn., add to a growing body of research linking lack of sleep to weight gain and obesity.

In the new study of 12 adults aged 19 to 45, people who were sleepy during the daytime showed decreased activation in the part of their brain that inhibits

MONDAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) — That basic rule, “know thyself,” can help prevent a pleasant seaside vacation from turning into a skin cancer risk, Australian dermatologists report.

A detailed study of 88 Hawaii vacationers identified three groups of people with distinct characteristics and sun protection behaviors, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology by researchers at the University of Queensland:

    Those people in class 1 (“unconcerned and at low risk”) were at least risk of skin cancer, intended to tan, and used the least amount of sun protection.