A
ATKINS DIET This was the year the naysayers in the medical establishment got high-cholesterol egg on their faces. For three decades, the experts railed against Dr. Robert Atkins and his popular steak-heavy, high-fat, low-carb nutrition plan. Then came surprising new studies showing that the diet not only works (pound for pound, up to 100% better than low-fat diets) but also appears to be good for the heart, lowering triglycerides and raising HDL, the "good" cholesterol. Studies were small, however, and the results preliminary. The last word will probably have to wait for the big five-year, $2.5 million clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that is tracking the health effects of the Atkins diet on 360 obese Americans. Meanwhile, the bottom line hasn't changed: you lose weight only when you burn more calories than you eat. (See E for Exercise.)
AIDS It was another bleak year for AIDS, as a U.N. report on the global AIDS epidemic made painfully clear. Among its findings: 40 million people are infected with HIV, 3 million of them children. All told, more than 20 million have died of AIDS since 1981. Progress in the research labs has been slow and not that steady, but it has produced some results. Scientists discovered three proteins--alpha-defensins 1, 2 and 3--that may account for the so-called non-progressors, the 1% or 2% of people who contract HIV but never develop AIDS. Also, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new rapid HIV test called OraQuick, which reliably detects HIV antibodies in a blood sample in less than 30 minutes.
ASPIRIN For a little white pill that costs pennies, aspirin may be the closest thing we will ever find to a wonder drug. Not only does it relieve headaches, ease the pain of arthritis and thin the blood to ward off strokes and heart attacks, but as we learned last year, it may also protect against cancers of the pancreas, colon and prostate and even forestall Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, we also learned that aspirin isn't a wonder drug for everyone: some 30% of Americans are aspirin resistant and may need either higher doses or a different drug altogether.
B
BOTOX
2002 was the year of the Botox party--a festive variation on the Tupperware klatch--in which women gather for tea sandwiches and a shot of diluted botulinum toxin in the face. The FDA last year approved the use of Botox, which creates a temporary and localized paralysis in facial muscles, for smoothing wrinkles between the eyebrows. But doctors are also using the shots for such "off-label" applications as crow's-feet, furrowed brows and other frown lines. If the sight of all those glassy Botoxed faces is giving you a headache, get this: researchers at Wake Forest University found that Botox also staves off migraines in sufferers who can't get relief from other drugs. Expect more Botox approvals.