Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

AID FOR HEPATITIS Here's a benefit from AIDS research that has little to do with the disease itself. A study finds that lamivudine, one of the three drugs in today's AIDS cocktails, is effective against hepatitis B. Both HIV and the hepatitis virus rely on similar enzymes to replicate, and lamivudine inhibits those enzymes. Taken once a day for a year, it restored normal blood counts and kept liver damage in check in about half the patients studied.

PROSTATE PROMISE The study is tiny--only 11 men participated--but the results are tantalizing. Using an experimental genetically engineered vaccine, doctors have been able to trick the body into attacking prostate cancer. The vaccine consists of a patient's own cancer cells culled from the surgically removed tumor. When injected, the body recognizes the cells in the vaccine--as well as any lingering cells from the tumor--as foreign invaders and launches an all-out immune-system attack. Promising, yes. But whether further tests pan out is yet to be seen.

BAD NEWS

GUT REACTION Sure, athletes look good while they work out, but they may not feel so great. A report suggests that up to 70% may experience stomach distress during exercise. Competitive runners are prone to lower-bowel problems like diarrhea, probably because blood rushes from the intestine to hardworking leg muscles. Weight lifters and cyclists, for their part, tend to suffer from heartburn. Why? Because tensing abdominal muscles or hunching over the handlebars can cause stomach acid to rise into the esophagus.

HEAD COUNT When a child experiences a severe blow to the head--in a car or bike accident, for instance--there may be an unexpected consequence: the onset of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. A small study shows that within a year of injury, 20% of kids develop the behavioral problem. Interestingly, researchers found that all the children with ADHD had developed lesions in the same area, deep in the right side of the brain.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: Circulation (10/99), Cancer Research (10/99). Bad News: Radiology (11/99), American College of Gastroenterology meeting