Your Health

By Alice Park

GOOD NEWS

GENES OF THE HEART Even with advanced surgical techniques and medicines, heart disease kills more Americans than any other condition. The problem in most cases is the death of heart muscle, which becomes starved for oxygen when fatty deposits clog up blood byways. Researchers have now shown, however, that directly injecting the heart with a gene that promotes blood-vessel growth is safe and well tolerated. And most of the small number of patients in this early study reported less chest pain.

A RITALIN PLUS Parents of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder have a new reason to get their kids treated. Among boys with ADHD, those taking Ritalin, the medication most commonly prescribed for this condition, are less likely to abuse alcohol or other substances when they become adults.

BAD NEWS

HEAR THIS Moms-to-be know that smoking can harm a baby even before it's born by contributing to a host of health and developmental problems from low birth weight to learning difficulties to asthma. You can add ear infections to the list. A pregnant woman who smokes 20 cigarettes a day triples the risk that her child will develop an ear infection serious enough to require drainage (a common procedure performed under general anesthesia). Lighting up only one to nine times daily boosts the risk of infection 60%.

BULLY WATCH It's not surprising that victims of playground bullies may develop psychological and behavioral problems such as bed wetting, low self-esteem and depression. But a European study shows that bullies themselves have a higher-than-average incidence of depression and thoughts of suicide. --By Alice Park

Sources--Good News: Circulation (8/3/99), Pediatrics (8/2/99); Bad News: Pediatrics (8/2/99), British Medical Journal (8/7/99)