Return to smoking increases death riskNEW YORK After a heart attack, quitting smoking may offer a patient more benefits than any medication, but Italian researchers say the flipside is that resuming smoking after leaving the hospital can raise the same patient’s risk of dying as much as five-fold. On average, people who started smoking again after being hospitalised for acute coronary syndrome crushing chest pain that often signals a heart attack were more than three times as likely to die within a year as people who successfully quit in a study led by Dr Furio Colivicchi of San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome.Childhood pets linked to lower allergy riskNEW YORK Good news for families that would love to have a furry dog or cat but hesitate for fear the kids might become allergic: Fido or Kitty might actually be good for children’s health, scientists say. They found that children who were exposed to animals at a young age had lower rates of nasal allergies as adolescents.Health at birth tied to academic performanceNEW YORK Babies who get low scores on a test of heart, lung and brain function given just a few minutes after birth may be more likely to need special education as teenagers, suggests a new study from Sweden. But an outside researcher said that the chance of going to a special school was still low enough that parents shouldn’t be concerned so long as their kids with a low so-called “Apgar score” do fine early in life.