NEW YORK (AP) -- It seemed like a great idea -- doing bypass surgery while the heart is still beating, sparing patients the complications that can come from going on a heart-lung machine. Now the first big test of this method has produced a surprise: Bypass has fewer problems and is more successful done the old way.

(Associated Press) -- Doctors may have a new treatment for swine flu that's already on pharmacy shelves -- cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drugs for cancer and other diseases to stay on the market even when follow-up studies showed they didn't extend patients' lives, say congressional investigators.

(The Canadian Press) -- Heart attack symptoms in men and women are more alike than some previous studies have indicated, according to research unveiled at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

CHICAGO (AP) -- A sperm donor passed on a potentially deadly genetic heart condition to nine of his 24 children, including one who died at age 2 from heart failure, according to a medical journal report.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Most hospitalized heart failure patients are sent home without widely recommended inexpensive pills, despite a program to get more doctors to follow treatment guidelines, a study suggests.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A major report confirms what health officials long have believed: Bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and other gathering spots reduce the risk of heart attacks among nonsmokers.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists have grown a piece of heart muscle -- and then watched it beat -- by using stem cells from a mouse embryo, a big step toward one day repairing damage from heart attacks.

LONDON (AP) -- Being fat in middle age may slash women's chances of making it to their golden years in good health by almost 80 percent, a new study says. American researchers observed more than 17,000 female nurses with an average age of 50 in the U.S. All of the women were healthy when the study began in 1976. Researchers then monitored the women's weight, along with other health changes, every two years until 2000.

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Pushing smokers outside drives down hospitalizations for heart attacks by about 17 percent in the first year and 36 percent after three years, according to an analysis of 13 studies looking at heart-attack rates after indoor-smoking bans.

LONDON (AP) -- A common treatment for prostate cancer may slightly increase patients' risk of heart problems, new research says.

LONDON (AP) -- Heart patients who catch the flu may have more to worry about than just a fever or the sniffles: the virus could also spark a heart attack, new research shows.

LOS ANGELES -- (The New York Times News Service) -- Maria Ramos started dying on her own front porch.

NEW YORK - Score another victory for the cheap, cholesterol-lowering wonder drugs known as statins. People getting an artery unclogged or repaired were much less likely to die or have a heart attack afterward if they took preventive doses of the pills before and after their operations, a Dutch study showed.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- A two-in-one heart device to fix irregular beats and contraction patterns cut patients' chances of developing heart failure by 41 percent, new research says.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As many as two-thirds of adults underwent a medical test in the last few years that exposed them to radiation and in some cases, a potentially higher risk of cancer, a study in five areas of the U.S. suggests.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A new generation of blood tests can quickly and reliably show if a person is having a heart attack soon after chest pains start -- a time when current tests are not definitive, two studies found.

ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. life expectancy has risen to a new high, now standing at nearly 78 years, the government reported Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Obesity is the elephant in the room of health care reform, a public health catastrophe that kills well over 100,000 Americans a year.

PHILADELPHIA (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- A worldwide shortage of radioactive isotopes is causing delays in some imaging tests for cancer and heart patients at area hospitals, doctors say.

LOS ANGELES (The New York Times News Service) -- Maria Ramos started dying on her own front porch.

LONDON (AP) -- The British government said Friday that it plans to ban private organ transplants from dead donors to allay fears that prospective recipients can buy their way to the front of the line.

(AP) -- A common method used in heart bypass surgery spares patients pain and problems upfront but seems to raise their risk of dying or suffering a heart attack over the next three years, a worrisome new study finds. The results could have a big impact - about 450,000 bypass operations are done each year in the United States and 70 percent of them use the method at issue.

LONDON (AP) -- British doctors designed a radical solution to save a girl with major heart problems in 1995: they implanted a donor heart directly onto her own failing heart.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eat less, live longer? It seems to work for monkeys: A 20-year study found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is letting the painkillers Darvocet, Darvon and their generic cousins stay on the market but ordered stronger warnings against deadly overdoses on Tuesday.

(Associated Press) -- A federal investigation has found that heart attack survivors enrolled in a study of a controversial alternative medicine treatment were not told enough about potential dangers from the drug being tested, including death.

(Associated Press) -- You don't have to be Michael Jackson to have this problem: The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a big Medicare study concludes.

(The New York Times News Service) -- Harvard University scientists said Wednesday they discovered a master human heart cell that gives rise to three major types of heart tissue, providing new tools for drug development and an important advance toward the ultimate goal of repairing damaged hearts.

(Associated Press) -- When Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, rescuers took him to a place known for bringing the dead back to life. A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours.

(NY Post) -- TV pitchman Billy Mays probably died of a heart attack and not from hitting his head during a rough airplane landing, a Florida medical examiner said yesterday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Irregular heartbeat. Prostate cancer. Back pain. Hearing loss. The government is about to spend millions to try to uncover the best treatments for scores of ailments -- and how to handle these four biggies leads a list of top 100 questions that doctors need answered.

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- When Lila Kleinman left St. Francis Hospital with a pacemaker last year, she was given a list of precautions. High on the list: Don't come into contact with, or be near, a "radio transmittal tower."

(Associated Press) -- Two of the most popular and promising dietary supplements -- vitamin D and fish oil -- will be tested in a large, government-sponsored study to see whether either nutrient can lower a healthy person's risk of getting cancer, heart disease or having a stroke.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It isn't just the thunder thighs that shrink after obesity surgery. Melting fat somehow thins bones, too.

(Associated Press) -- Heart attack survivors are again being enrolled in a controversial federal study of an alternative treatment while the government investigates whether they were told enough about possible health risks.

(USA TODAY) -- Prompt bypass surgery holds no advantage over intensive drug therapy in many patients with type 2 diabetes when it comes to dying from strokes or heart attacks, new research suggests.

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) -- Merck says its heart failure treatment rolofylline missed its goals in a trial, failing to improve patient symptoms compared with a placebo.

LONDON (AP) -- Special stockings commonly given to stroke patients to prevent blood clots don't work, a new study reported Wednesday.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Supersized pro football players are prone to high blood pressure but fare better on some other health measures than more average-sized men, new NFL-sponsored research shows. The mixed results suggest that intense physical conditioning can help reduce but not wipe out ill effects excess weight has on heart disease-related risks.