Health, Stroke | featured news

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. A study finds that people who consume a lot of fried foods and drinks like sweet tea and soda were 41 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than people who ate that way about once a month.

A stroke-preventing pill from Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb won approval from U.S. health regulators, setting the stage for a fierce fight among drug makers to replace the widely used bloodthinner warfarin.

Dashing the hopes of those who hope to pop a pill to prevent heart disease, doctors announced Monday that daily multivitamins don't stave off cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks, stroke or death.

The findings are the first to link insufficient sleep to stroke; they're also the first to apply even to adults who keep off extra pounds and have no other risk factors for stroke, says Megan Ruiter, lead author of the report. It will be presented Monday at the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston.

One in seven strokes happens at night, and sufferers may not get medicine that could prevent brain damage, suggests a new study.

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

People who drank diet soda every day had a 61 percent higher risk of vascular events, including stroke and heart attack, found a new study that followed 2,500 New Yorkers for nine years.

Shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States, while saving $24 billion in health costs per year, researchers reported on Wednesday.

A combination of cholesterol and blood pressure medicine can cut the incidence of attacks by up to 60%, a report says.

But recently, the Yaz line's image has been clouded by concerns from some researchers, health advocates and plaintiffs' lawyers. They say that the drugs put women at higher risk for blood clots, strokes and other health problems than some other birth control pills do.