The Good: A study conducted by Aaron Baggish, a cardiology fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, and students at Harvard University shows that not all heart exercise is the same. Dr. Baggish, searching for a way to specify exercise for his heart disease patients conducted a study on 75 student athletes that engaged in two different types of training. One group trained for endurance, working on a rowing machine about 12 hours a week. The other group worked on strength training, lifting weights for about 12 hours a week. At the end of the 90 day study both groups were given an EKG to see the changes in their hearts. Dr. Baggish found that the endurance training athletes had hearts where both ventricles grew in size and learned to relax more between beats. The strength training athletes had hearts where the left ventricle thickened, but there was no other change. This information can help doctors to target what exercise will work better for patients with specific heart defects.

The Bad: Dr. Nancy Thomas, a researcher at the University of North Carolina has taken part in a study regarding skin cancer. Dr. Thomas and her colleagues found that when skin cancer melanomas were found on either the neck or scalp, the patients were twice as likely to die from the disease. Many believed that this phenomena occurred only because the melanomas were hidden by hair on the neck and scalp and therefore were not discovered until later, but the researchers found that this was not the case. Dr. Thomas recommends that everyone pays close attention to their skin, regularly checking themselves for abnormal growths (a spouse can help look at your scalp and neck). Early notice is the key to treating many instances of skin cancer before they become deadly.