Washington, Nov 11 : Doctors may one day be able to use stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood to build new heart valves for babies born with heart defects, say researchers.

Washington, Nov 11 : A new study by researchers at Ohio University has revealed that obesity raises levels of the hormone leptin, which can be a big threat to the cardiovascular system.

Leptin, a peptide hormone produced by fat cells, helps regulate body weight by acting on the hypothalamus to suppress appetite and burn stored fat.

However, an excess of fat in the body can produce too much of the hormone, which, in turn, can lower levels of bioavailable nitric oxide.

Washington, November 11: A beating heart may produce enough energy to power pacemakers and defibrillators implanted in cardiac patients, according to a new study.

Dr. Paul Roberts, a Consultant Electrophysiologist at Southampton University Hospital in the UK, revealed that a microgenerator powered by heartbeats was found to produce almost 17 per cent of the electricity needed to run an artificial pacemaker during an experiment.

Washington, Nov 11: Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per day can raise your chances of developing a heart disease, according to a new study.

The study has been published in the November 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight-elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.

Washington, Nov 11 : A new study has found that babies placed in incubators after birth are less likely to have depression as adults.

An international team of researchers has found that infants who receive incubator care after birth are two to three times less likely to suffer from depression.

"In mammals, separation between mother and child after birth has always been considered a major stressor that can cause behavioural problems well into adulthood," said coauthor Richard E. Tremblay a professor of psychology, pediatrics and psychiatry at the Université de Montréal and director of the Research Unit on Children''s Psycho-Social Maladjustment at the Sainte Justine Hospital Research Center.

Washington, Nov 11: Researchers from Emory University School of Medicine suggest that analysing daily rhythms in the activity of cells that line blood vessels may help explain why heart attacks and strokes often occur during early morning hours.

According to Dr Ibhar Al Mheid, a postdoctoral cardiology researcher at Emory, endothelial cells serve as the interface between the blood and the arteries, controlling arterial tone and helping to prevent clots that lead to strokes and heart attacks.

The researchers sought to determine the circadian pattern of both endothelial function -- the ability of blood vessels to relax -- and the abundance of the progenitor cells.