Health News

ECG: A Preventative Tool for the Heart?
After a bout with rheumatic fever, heart valves in children can become damaged. The key to treating rheumatic heart disease before serious complications occur is detecting it early.
Hospitalizations Increase for Hypertensive Kids
As obesity has increased in recent years, children have increasingly struggled with high blood pressure. A new study found that the number of pediatric hypertension-related hospitalizations has nearly doubled over a decade.
Better Sleep for Leaner Kids
Helping an obese child lose weight can do more than reduce playground teasing. It could also reduce a child's likelihood of having sleep apnea or metabolic syndrome.
Bread and Brain Cancer
One of the most important parts of medical science in pregnancy has been showing the effects of the maternal environment on the developing child. 
Asthma Meds Tied to Heart Arrhythmias
A type of inhaled asthma medication appears to slightly increase the risk that children or young adults will develop a potentially deadly heart arrhythmia.
Half of Overweight Teens at Early Heart Risk
A soaring increase in the number of teenagers suffering from diabetes means that more than a third of presumably healthy normal-weight adolescents are at risk of heart disease.
Helping Little Hearts Pump Better
Viagra may not just be for dads anymore. Drugs can often be used for multiple unrelated purposes, and it turns out sildenafil , the generic version of Viagra, might help children and young adults with heart defects. A recent small study has found that the drug helped improve the functioning of the heart in a group of children who had a specific type of congenital heart defect. Sildenafil is already used to treat high blood pressure in the lungs, and some evidence has shown it might be able to treat adults with heart failure. Talk to your child's cardiologist about emerging hear...
Checking for Newborns' Healthy Hearts
While your newborn baby likely steals your heart from the moment you see him, you also want to be sure his heart is in tip-top working order. A simple screening may tell you. A recent study from England has provided evidence supporting the practice of screening newborn babies for heart defects at birth using a method called pulse oximetry . Screening for heart defects is recommended for newborns. Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam , a clinical senior lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, led the research project that pulled together the results of 13 individual studies looking a...
Safer Congenital Heart Surgery for Kids
A newly developed monitoring test may provide surgeons with real time data about a child's brain health during heart surgery to repair congenital defects.
Fish Oil Helps Teensy Hearts
Babies unable to grow to the size they're genetically supposed to reach suffer from intrauterine growth restriction, a risk factor for future cardiovascular problems.