Your Health

Good News
SPLITTING HEADACHES Here's a new pick-me-up for longtime sufferers. Researchers report that a combination of low-dose tricyclic antidepressants and stress-management training can significantly reduce the severity and frequency of chronic tension headaches. The regimen is not for folks who suffer from migraines or the occasional pounder; it's for those with head pain that is severe and unremitting, occurring nearly every day for at least six months. And though the antidepressants require a prescription, they may be a better choice than aspirin, Advil or other over-the-counter pain relievers, most of which can trigger rebound attacks in chronic sufferers.

RACIAL DISPARITY African Americans suffer congestive heart failure twice as often as do whites--and are more likely to die of it. Yet for unknown reasons, they don't seem to get much benefit from treatment. Now doctors show that a combination of a new beta blocker, called Coreg, and ACE inhibitors is equally effective for blacks as it is for whites, Asians and Hispanics at slowing the rate at which the disease progresses.

Bad News
LOOK, MA, CAVITIES! Thought you had heard every reason to quit smoking? Here's a new one: to protect your kids' teeth. It turns out that secondhand smoke can nearly double the risk that kids ages 4 through 11 will develop cavities. What's the connection? A by-product of nicotine called cotinine, once thought to kill off the bacteria linked to cavities, actually does the opposite, encouraging tooth-destroying bugs to grow and multiply.

DIAGNOSIS: FEMALE Even after adjusting for all other risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and age, researchers have found that women are nearly 60% more likely than men to suffer a stroke after heart surgery--and 15% more likely to die soon afterward. Why? Researchers have no explanation.

Sources: Good News--Journal of the American Medical Association (5/2/01); New England Journal of Medicine (5/3/01). Bad News--Pediatric Academic Society meeting; Circulation (5/1/01)