THURSDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, according to the American Heart Association, but millions of women are not even aware of their risk because heart disease is often silent and misunderstood.

To help reverse this trend, the heart association's Go Red For Women movement has named Feb. 3 as National Wear Red Day. The group is ask

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- People who consume a few alcoholic drinks a day and have a family history of colorectal cancer are at increased risk for developing colon cancer, new research suggests.

For the study, researchers in Boston examined data from more than 87,000 women in the Nurses' Health Study and 47,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and found that 1,8

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A series of specific "yes" or "no" questions could help doctors distinguish between people who have normal memory loss that comes with age and those with a condition known as amnestic mild cognitive impairment, according to a new study.

Researchers from Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona developed a questionnaire for patients' relatives o

FRIDAY. Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- The babies of women who develop an epidural-related fever while in labor are at greater risk of having problems right at birth, including poor muscle tone, breathing difficulties, low Apgar scores and seizures, a new study suggests.

The Apgar score is a test used to measure a child's skin color, pulse and overall vigor in the moments after birth.

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Norovirus was the most common culprit responsible for infection outbreaks in U.S. hospitals in 2008 and 2009, new research finds.

Researchers analyzed survey results from 822 hospitals regarding their infection outbreaks. About 35 percent reported at least one infectious outbreak over the 2-year period.

Four organisms

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Malaria killed 1.2 million people worldwide in 2010, a figure nearly double other estimates, a new study says.

The researchers also said that although most malaria deaths occur in very young children, 42 percent of deaths occurred in children over age 5 and adults. The findings are published in the Feb. 4 edition of The La

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Depression can be a tough condition to diagnose accurately, but new research suggests that someday a blood test might help.

It's not clear how much the test might cost, and it needs more stringent validation before it will be ready to be used in medical offices. Still, "it appears that these results are promising, after decades of research into finding

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- While a clot-busting medication can often help stop a stroke in its tracks if it's given promptly, a new study finds that a high number of stroke victims continue to fail to get to the emergency room quickly enough to get the drug.

An analysis of about 115,000 patients who had strokes between 2005 and 2010 found that almost 44 percent didn't get to the

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes is associated with hearing loss in women, especially if the blood sugar disease isn't well-controlled, new research indicates.

The study, done by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, examined the medical records of 990 men and women who had hearing tests between 2000 and 2008. Patients with diabetes were divided into two groups: well

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A smaller plate won't help you eat less, says a new study that challenges a widely held belief.

"Smaller plates are often recommended as a way of controlling intake, but that simply isn't an effective strategy," senior researcher Meena Shah, a professor of kinesiology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said in a new

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- People who start using hard drugs -- such as cocaine, opiates and amphetamines -- as young adults and continue to use them into their 50s have a fivefold increased risk of early death, researchers report.

The finding is from an analysis of hard drug use among 4,300 U.S. adults who took part in a long-term study of cardiovascular disease and risk factor

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Soy supplements do not protect women against breast cancer, a new study suggests.

The findings are consistent with the results of previous studies that examined the cancer prevention benefits of the dietary supplements, said lead researcher Dr. Seema Khan, a professor of surgery at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern Univers

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A major head-to-head trial finds that aspirin is equally as good as warfarin in preventing stroke and death in heart failure patients.

The researchers said that, all things being equal, the findings raise questions about the wisdom of routinely using warfarin (Coumadin), which can cause dangerous bleeding. The findings were presented Friday at the ann