Personal Time/Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

GOING THE DISTANCE It's enough to make a skeptic squirm. After analyzing the results of two dozen trials, researchers say there may be some merit in the alternative art of "distance healing," which includes praying for someone's well-being and "therapeutic touch," in which healers move their hands over (but not on) a patient's body. In 57% of the studies, these practices appeared to accelerate recovery or reduce pain. As for how distance healing may work, that's for a higher authority to say.

BYPASS SURGERY? One of the most common operations on the arteries may not be necessary, at least in some patients. The surgery, called endarterectomy, cleans out a narrowed carotid artery to prevent a stroke. But a report shows that in patients who don't have any other symptoms, the risk of a stroke originating in the carotid artery is the same with or without an endarterectomy.

BAD NEWS

BURNOUT The benefit of a pallidotomy, a treatment for Parkinson's in which a tiny area in the brain is cauterized, is dramatic and immediate. Long-term effects, though, may be another story. Five years after patients in a study underwent pallidotomy, characteristic problems like difficulty performing manual tasks gradually returned, though improvement in tremors, twitches and muscle stiffness was sustained. Overall, ability to bathe, dress and participate in other activities of daily living was no better than before the surgery.

HERB ALERT Watch out for the Chinese herb Aristolochia fangchi. Already linked to kidney failure, it is now thought to be the cause of tumors in the kidney and elsewhere along the urinary tract among patients in Belgium who took it as part of a weight-loss program. The highly toxic herb is likely to be present in a host of botanicals, including Dutchman's pipe, guan mu ton, heart snake root and birthwort. The FDA plans to seize any substance with Aristolochia that turns up at U.S. ports.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: Annals of Internal Medicine (6/6); New England Journal of Medicine (6/8). Bad News: N.E.J.M.