Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

NOW YOU'RE COOKIN' First milk, now this. A small New Hampshire company is introducing eggs that are pasteurized in the shell. Under a patented process first hatched 10 years ago, the eggs are passed through a series of warm-water baths that kill stomach-sickening salmonella without cooking the eggs or changing their flavor. The final product is even USDA certified. When can you start eating those runny soft-boileds again? The safer eggs, sold under the brand name Davidson's, should be available on the East Coast in time for Easter and rolled out nationwide by year's end. Added cost: about 35[cents] a dozen.

SENIOR MOMENT Though the myth that old age condemns folks to the rocking chair has long since been shattered, seniors are still worried that their lives will end in disability and dependency. The outlook, however, keeps improving. A new report shows that in 1986, as many as two-thirds of seniors over age 85 had trouble eating, walking and generally taking care of themselves during the last year of life. By 1993, the last year for which data are available, that proportion had dropped to about half.

BAD NEWS

KIDDIE FLU The flu is lousy for everyone, but doctors report that otherwise healthy tots under age 2 who get the bug are a whopping 12 to 25 times as likely as older kids to land in the hospital with complications like pneumonia. The finding may prod health officials to consider adding flu vaccine to the arsenal of inoculations young children already endure. In the meantime, parents can help protect their progeny--at least indirectly--by getting vaccinated.

HEART STOPPER It's enough to give you heartburn. Just two years after the FDA required a stronger warning label on the heartburn drug Propulsid, the agency reports that the popular prescription--more than 30 million Rxs have been filled since its introduction in 1993--has been linked to 70 deaths and more than 200 episodes of irregular heartbeat. Patients are advised to use the drug only as a last resort. And before they do, doctors should perform an electrocardiogram to check for ticker trouble.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--Pasteurized Eggs L.P.; Journal of the American Medical Association (1/27/00). Bad News--New England Journal of Medicine (1/27/00); FDA