Researchers at the West Virginia University School of Dentistry say they have uncovered the reason for high rates of tooth loss in two Pennsylvania towns and two West Virginia counties.

Nationwide about 20 percent of Americans have lost their teeth, but in West Virginia, it's 43 percent, researchers say

A drug from Pfizer and Ligand Pharmaceuticals effectively treats osteoporosis but it may increase the chances of death from cancer or stroke, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) noted Thursday.

Pfizer's Fablyn is taken once daily as a tablet to prevent fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The drug lasofoxifene tartrate or Fablyn was rejected by the FDA in September 2005 as a medicine to prevent osteoporosis

Women who smoke are more likely to develop heart attacks at a much earlier age than non-smoking women, a Norwegian study has found. An average smoker can expect to have a heart attack around the age of 66 - although it can occur at a much younger age for some women, the study said.

The latest study looked at almost 1,800 patients admitted to Lillehammer Hospital, Norway, for a first heart attack from which they recovered and were discharged, or died in hospital between 1998 and 2005. About one in three patients were women, ranging in age from 27 years to 103 year

Patients with cardiovascular diseases are better off getting bypass surgery rather than drug stents, according to results of a major clinical study on Monday.

The trial, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich, Germany, showed that the safety of the two treatments is comparable in the rates of death and heart attacks after 12 months. However, patients who have angioplasties are twice as likely to require another procedure within a year, it said

Working out on a treadmill three times a week improves brain function and fitness for people who have survived a stroke up to 20 years after their diagnosis, a study has found.

Study researcher Dr. Andreas Luft, a professor of clinical neurology and neurorehabilitation at the University of Zurich, compared the brain and physical function of 37 people who had had strokes and worked on a treadmill three times a week