With heart disease as the leading cause of death worldwide, there is growing recognition that recovery is not only physical but also emotional and social. A new study shows that strong and supportive relationships can indeed improve heart health for individuals with cardiovascular disease. The work is described in an article in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier, which calls for intimate partners to be included in cardiac rehabilitation programs to support long-term heart health and quality of life for both members of the couple.

Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine have identified a way to suppress the daily fluctuations in the activity of key immune cells known as neutrophils. The study, to be published December 12 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), suggests that inhibiting these fluctuations could prevent neutrophils from causing excessive tissue damage during daylight hours, a phenomenon that may underlie the fact that heart attacks in the early morning are more damaging than heart attacks suffered at night.

SAN ANTONIO — December 10, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Trinity University will improve a prodrug, a compound activated in the body, to mitigate tissue and organ damage associated with heart attacks, strokes and traumatic injuries.  These conditions cause a lack of blood flow, but treatment to reverse blockages can also lead to lasting damage.

High BMI and poor physical fitness during later adolescence increase the risk of both contracting and dying from sepsis and other severe bacterial infections in adulthood, according to a study from the University of Gothenburg.

With a four-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a team from Pen State College of Medicine will develop a small, durable ventricular assist device (VAD) designed specifically for young, growing children between the ages of one and 11 years old. Currently, there are no heart pumps approved for long-term use for this age group. The device, called the PSU Child VAD, could provide long-term support for children with heart failure while waiting for a heart transplant, greatly improving quality of life and outcomes.

Overweight as a child is not necessarily a risk factor for heart attack later in life. If weight is normalized before adulthood, the heart seems unaffected by the higher childhood BMI, according to a study conducted at the University of Gothenburg.

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Heersink School of Medicine have identified a bacterial enzyme that may be the reason some people get heart complications with pneumonia, while others do not. Since enzymes create chemical reactions to help bacteria survive, grow, and sometimes attack tissues, the researchers understood this particular enzyme, named zmpB, could become a target for future vaccines or drug therapies.