Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Outside Prayer Doesn’t Help Heart Surgery Patients

Having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients does not help them recover, says a study of 1,800 patients at six medical centers that was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion.

In fact, the study found that patients who knew they had people praying for them actually had a slightly higher rate of post-surgery complications, the Associated Press reported.

The findings will be published in the American Heart Journal.

For this study, researchers had three Christian groups pray for some of the heart surgery patients, starting the night before their operation and continuing for two weeks after the surgery. The groups prayed for a “successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications.”

The patients were monitored for complications for 30 days after surgery. Prayer had no effect on complication-free recovery. However, 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for suffered complications, compared to 52 percent of the patients who were told it was just a possibility.

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Major League Baseball to Probe Steroid Use

Major League Baseball will investigate alleged steroid use by players, it was announced Thursday afternoon.

“Nothing is more important to me than the integrity of the game of baseball,” Commissioner Bud Selig said at a news conference in New York, in which he announced that George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader from Maine, would lead the investigation, The New York Times reported.

It’s believed that Selig’s decision was prompted by the publication of a book called “Game of Shadows,” which details alleged extensive steroid use by a number of major baseball stars, including Barry Bonds.

Even with an investigation, it’s not clear whether current or former baseball players would cooperate or if they could be compelled to do so by baseball officials.

“I seo services think the investigation is the right step,” former commissioner Fay Vincent told the Associated Press . “I don’t think the issue is punishment, I think it’s: ‘Shouldn’t the players be called to task for cheating, even if there is no punishment?’ I think baseball has to recapture the moral high ground.”

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Company to Test Low-Dose Bird Flu Vaccines

Two new Phase I trials of ultra-low doses of a vaccine against H5N1 bird flu will soon be launched in Belgium and Germany by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The ultra-low vaccine doses will be boosted by the addition of chemicals called adjuvants, the Canadian Press reported.

If these tests prove even moderately successful, they could lead to the development of a vaccine that could be manufactured in high enough quantities to provide protection to many more people than can be covered by the H5N1 vaccines tested so far.

One of the low-dose vaccines will be boosted by an adjuvant called alum, which has long been used in other types of vaccines. The second low-dose vaccine will be boosted with a new adjuvant that GSK officials believe will trigger a stronger immune response at lower doses of vaccine and may prompt more parts of the immune system to respond, CP reported.

Company officials did not name the new adjuvant.

The results of the trials are expected to released in the third quarter of this year.

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Mental-Health Coverage Doesn’t Increase Costs: Study

A companies new U.S. study says that providing insurance coverage for mental illness that matches coverage for physica