This was found to be true for women who consumed two-thirds to an ounce of chocolate each week, while one to three servings a month reduced the rate of heart failure by 26 percent. Those who ate it every day didn’t appear to receive any extra health benefits.

The research was conducted with Swedish chocolate, which is made from 30 percent cocoa solids, which is double the amount of solids that are present in U.S. chocolate. The news source suggests that the quality of chocolate may also be a factor in the findings.

FoxNews.com reports that another study found that chocolate may reduce a person’s risk of having a stroke and have a beneficial effect on cognitive functions.

While chocolate may be healthy, it’s not necessarily a health food. Linda Van Horn, professor of preventative medicine, told AARP that the sweet treat should be balanced with a diet high in fiber, fruits, vegetables and fish.

Researchers recruited 43 healthy volunteers with an average age of 29 years. They were tested for endothelial dysfunction by measuring the blood flow through their arm arteries. The volunteers were assigned to either gain weight or maintain their weight for eight weeks, and their blood flow was tested. The weight-gainers then lost the weight and were tested again.

They found that individuals who gained weight in their abdomens (known as visceral fat) had impaired blood flow through their arm arteries, even though their blood pressure remained healthy. Once the volunteers lost the weight, the blood flow recovered.

Blood flows were unchanged in those who didn’t gain weight and were less affected among those who gained weight evenly throughout their bodies.

"Endothelial dysfunction has long been associated with an increased risk for coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events," said cardiologist Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D. "Gaining a few pounds in college, on a cruise, or over the holidays is considered harmless, but it can have cardiovascular implications, especially if the weight is gained in the abdomen."

The chemical has also been found in some research to have antioxidant properties which can reduce damage to the heart from oxidative stress. And now scientists at Arago Laboratory in Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, have found that a treatment using the chemical have improved the longevity of some animals, including the greater white-toothed shrew.

The animal generally only lives for a year to a year-and-a-half, but with melatonin supplementation at the one-year mark, it was able to maintain the circadian rhythm that maintains cell function through proper sleep.

According to the researchers, the effect was enough to eliminate those declines caused by aging for roughly three months, or one-quarter of its average lifespan.

They are now planning studies to examine the benefits of melatonin in reducing the effects of aging in humans, expanding on research showing its ability in some cases to reduce sleep problems in insomniacs.

The study involved more than 9,000 participants over a period of five years. Subjects were divided into two groups – those that had a persistent heartbeat rate of 84 or greater per minute, and those that had less. That figure was selected because other studies had suggested it was linked to mortality risk.

They discovered that development of a heart rate of 84 beats per minute or greater that either developed or persisted in patients during the study period was linked to a 55 percent greater risk of cardiovascular death and a 79 percent greater risk of death from all causes.

The patients died from a variety of causes, but considering all factors, "heart rate remains a significant predictor of increased mortality," said lead researcher Peter Okin, M.D. "In addition to high blood pressure, this study demonstrated that changing heart rate over time is a highly significant predictor of mortality."

A healthy heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute. Exercise and diet are considered the best way to lower an individual’s resting heart beat.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo studied 40 children between the ages of 10 and 14 one morning. Half took a simulated ride to school by sitting in a comfortable chair and watching a 10-minute slideshow of a suburban neighborhood. The other half walked one mile on a treadmill at a self-selected pace while carrying a backpack while watching a neighborhood slideshow. Following a 20-minute rest period, the children took a test while having their heart rate and blood pressure monitored.

They found that the children who took a simulated walk to school experienced smaller elevations in systolic blood pressure, heart rate and perceived stress while taking the test, compared to the children who had gotten a simulated ride to school.

"The cardiovascular disease process begins in childhood, so if we can find some way of stopping or slowing that process, that would provide an important health benefit," said senior investigator James Roemmich. "We know that physical activity has a protective effect on the development of cardiovascular disease, and one way it may be doing so is by reducing stress reactivity."

Researchers say periods of physical activity throughout the day would be beneficial for reducing stress among students.

Researchers at West Virginia University analyzed data from more than 30,000 healthy adults for the findings.

They found that both short and long sleep duration was associated with increased heart disease risk even when they controlled for age, sex, race, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake and other risk factors.

Researchers say that sleeping less than five hours each day, including naps, more than doubles an individual’s heart risks. At the same time, sleeping for more than nine hours each increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by one and a half times.

Scientists say that the duration of sleep affects both endocrine and metabolic functions. Lack of sleep can lead to high blood pressure, impaired glucose tolerance, and reduced insulin sensitivity, which can all lead to hardening of the arteries.

Recently, five nurses from the Florida-based Martin Memorial Health Systems spoke to a group of children who ranged in ages from 9 to 12 about how they can prevent the onset of heart disease, TCPalm.com reports.

Desiree Gruelich was one of the nurses involved in the event and told the news provider that the event was meant to reach out to the community because the children were not being educated about health issues in schools.

“I don’t want to see them in their teens with heart disease,” she said.

Some of the ways the nurses instruct the children to minimize their heart disease risk is by focusing on their diet, such as cutting out foods that have a high fat or sugar content.

This advice falls in line with what the Mayo Clinic urges people to do. Moreover, health experts discourage smoking, recommend getting more exercise and increasing one’s intake of omega-3 fatty acids, which are also available in supplement form.

Endocrinologists from the University of Buffalo gave a nutritional supplement containing 40 milligrams of resveratrol to a group of 10 participants, while another 10 subjects received an identical placebo pill. Participants took the pill once a day for six weeks and had blood samples taken throughout the study period.

Results showed that resveratrol suppressed the generation of free radicals, which are unstable molecules known to cause oxidative stress and release proinflammatory factors into the blood stream, resulting in damage to the blood vessel lining.

While researchers say the results are promising, they cannot eliminate the possibility that something in the extract other than resveratrol was responsible for the anti-inflammatory effects.

"The product we used has only 20 percent resveratrol, so it is possible that something else in the preparation is responsible for the positive effects," said the study’s lead author, Paresh Dandona, M.D., Ph.D.

Resveratrol comes from the skin and seeds of grapes and is also available in nutritional supplement form.

The findings, which appear in The American Heart Journal, highlight that nearly one in five study participants with early stages of CKD had evidence of AF, a rate similar to that reported among patients with end-stage CKD. In addition, these early-stage CKD patients were two to three times more likely to suffer from AF than the general population.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia in the general population, and is one of the strongest risk factors for stroke. While AF prevalence in the general population ranges from 1 to 8 percent, the estimated prevalence of AF among patients with end-stage renal disease has been reported to be between 13 and 23 percent.

"More than 25 million U.S. adults have chronic kidney disease and most of them are not on dialysis," said the study’s lead author, Elsayed Soliman, M.D. "Understanding the prevalence and risk factors of AF in this group of patients has important public health, epidemiologic and clinical implications."

During AF, the heart’s two small upper chambers quiver instead of beating effectively, resulting in the blood not being completely pumped out and creating pooling and clotting, which can cause a stroke.

Ways to reduce the risk of AF include lowering blood pressure, eating heart-healthy foods and increasing physical activity.

Researchers examined data on 5,645 adults age 18 to 60. Participants rated themselves on three attachment styles – secure, avoidant, and anxious – and answered questions on their health including whether or not they had a history of arthritis, chronic back or neck problems, frequent or severe headaches, other forms of chronic pain, seasonal allergies, stroke and heart attack. They also disclosed whether a doctor had told them they had heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma, chronic lung disease, diabetes or high blood sugar, ulcers, epilepsy, seizures or cancer.

They found that individuals with anxious attachment, who worry about rejection, feel needy and find others are reluctant to get close them – were at a higher risk of chronic pain, stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure and ulcers.

In addition, people who rated themselves as avoidant and had difficulty getting close to and trusting others were more likely to have conditions defined by pain, such as frequent or severe headaches.

"The findings raise the possibility that interventions aimed at improving attachment security could also have positive health outcomes," said lead researcher Lachlan McWilliams, Ph.D.