Taking vitamin D supplements does nothing to lower cholesterol levels, at least in the short term, according to a study published on Tuesday in an American Heart Association journal.

Medical researchers led by Manish Ponda of the Rockefeller University in New York studied 151 people with vitamin D deficiency who received either a huge dose of vitamin D3 or a placebo orally every week for eight weeks.

Adding a few minutes to attempts to resuscitate patients who suffer a heart attack in hospital can significantly boost their chances of survival, a study published in The Lancet medical journal on Wednesday said.

Researchers led by Zachary Goldberger at the University of Washington looked at a database where U.S. hospitals record details of revival efforts after a cardiac arrest.

An Australian doctor has been severely reprimanded and banned from working as a general practitioner after prescribing a drug to a boy who came to him for help to "cure" his homosexuality.

A Health Care Complaints Commission committee found Mark Craddock guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct over his treatment of the 18-year-old at a 10-minute consultation at his home in early 2008.

Patient after patient asked: Is eating organic food, which costs more, really better for me?

Unsure, Stanford University doctors dug through reams of research to find out — and concluded there's little evidence that going organic is much healthier, citing only a few differences involving pesticides and antibiotics.

As U.S. college students return to campus in the coming weeks, they'll be showered in the usual handouts of coupons, condoms and credit cards. But some schools are also giving students what a growing body of research reveals could make a huge difference in their college careers: ear plugs, sleep shades and napping lessons.

College health officials are finally realizing that healthy sleep habits are a potential miracle drug for much of what ails the famously frazzled modern American college student: anxiety, depression, physical health problems and — more than most students realize — academic troubles. Some studies have found students getting adequate sleep average a full letter grade higher than those who don't.

An elderly Greek man has died from complications of dengue fever, marking a reappearance of the mosquito-borne disease 85 years after its eradication from Greece, officials said Tuesday.

The man in his 80s, from Agrinio in western Greece, died August 30 of haemorrhagic fever while in hospital in Patras, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

The deadly virus raising fears at California's Yosemite National Park does not spread easily, and, despite two recent deaths, does not warrant closing the park, a spokeswoman said Monday.

So far, at least six cases have been confirmed of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare but serious illness that kills one in three victims and cannot be treated.

A Sao Paulo court allowed a woman to abort a four-month-old malformed fetus despite Brazil law only granting abortions in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger, local media said Sunday.

In this case, the fetus was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome, a genetic disorder that is the second most common autosomal trisomy after Down syndrome, the daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported.

South African and South Korean researchers are working on making a smartphone capable of doing AIDS tests in rural parts of Africa that are the worst hit by the disease, a researcher said Friday.

The team has developed a microscope and an application that can photograph and analyze blood samples in areas far from laboratories to diagnose HIV and even measure the health of immune systems.

Covered in smog and cramped apartment towers, Hong Kong is not usually associated with a healthy lifestyle. But new figures show that Hong Kongers are the longest-living people in the world.

Hong Kong men have held the title for more than a decade and recent data show women in the southern Chinese city overtaking their Japanese counterparts for the first time, according to the governments in Tokyo and Hong Kong.