Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

A study confirms folk wisdom that breast-fed babies have fewer ear infections than kids who drink from bottles. Breast milk is fortified with infection- fighting antibodies.

A simple test for fecal blood can point to colorectal cancer long before other symptoms show up. The resulting early treatment reduces overall mortality from the second commonest form of cancer by one-third.

The mind-body connection, much loved by New Agers, has won a bit more credibility: doctors have demonstrated that a nervous-system chemical can affect immune-system cells and thus, presumably, the body's response to disease. The brain is part of the nervous system, indicating a plausible link between mental state and health.

THE BAD NEWS

Managed health care is designed to limit costs partly by reducing excessive treatment. But a survey of seven such plans shows that they did no better than conventional plans in cutting down on the number of unnecessary hysterectomies.

New mothers' use of creams, vitamin E and exercise to avoid post-childbirth stretch marks are apparently useless. Weight gain is the main reason for the marks, and there is no way to prevent them.

The "fast track" for making AIDS drugs available without rigorous testing may end up backfiring: the more AIDS patients who take untested drugs, the fewer there are available to participate in studies to determine which medicines are most effective.

SOURCES: Journal of the American Medical Association; Pediatrics; Annals of Internal Medicine; Archives of Family Medicine; New England Journal of Medicine