For the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) has included ambient noise from leisure-time activities in its guidelines on how cumulative exposure to high volumes can lead to health problems, including stress, hypertension and heart disease.

Rapidly growing rates of obesity and diabetes—already threats to global health—will likely have fatal consequences in the case of a future flu pandemic, the Telegraph reported this week.

A report published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes found a faith-based program in traditionally black churches was able to lower systolic blood pressure among attendants by an average 5.8 mm Hg—a result that more typical public education programs failed to replicate.

As an adjunct to standard treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, liraglutide appears at least as protective against cardiovascular events for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) as for those without CKD, according to a subgroup analysis of the LEADER trial published in Circulation.

Women who experience menopause before age 40 are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) than those who reach menopause at a more normal age, according to research presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ annual conference in Berlin last week.

Lorcaserin, an appetite suppressant approved for chronic weight management in 2012, reduced overweight patients’ risk for developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) and improved remission of hyperglycemia in a study of more than 12,000 Massachusetts residents, researchers reported.

Three days’ worth of home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) data is enough to confirm a diagnosis of clinical hypertension and initiate treatment, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Adherence to a “Southern diet” may be the biggest driver of racial disparities in hypertension rates among black and white adults in the U.S., according to a prospective cohort study published Oct. 2 in JAMA.