Capsules

> Monosodium glutamate, a commonly used flavor enhancer, has been linked with the chest pains and headaches of the so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome. But chow mein is not the only dish that may trigger "dietary migraine." Dr. Neil Raskin and William Henderson of the University of California at San Francisco report in Lancet that sodium nitrite, a preservative mixed into some hot dogs, sausages and cured meats, can cause "hotdog headaches." The pair base their findings on the study of a 58-year-old man with a seven-year history of painful, nonthrobbing headaches whenever he ate frankfurters, bacon, salami or ham. No other food seemed to induce the headaches, but randomly administered doses of sodium nitrite did. The doctors are not sure how sodium nitrite causes the headaches, but have no doubt as to how they can be avoided. Once their patient excluded hot dogs and cured meats from his diet, his headaches disappeared.

> Partial color blindness, a genetic defect that affects over 8,000,000 Americans, is an incurable affliction. But for those who suffer from the most common form of the disease--the inability to distinguish between reds and greens--a Waltham, Mass., optometrist named Harry Zeltzer now offers some relief. He has found that a red contact lens, designed to be worn on only one eye, improves color discrimination. Zeltzer and other optometrists have prescribed the new lens for some 50 men, most of whom report that they can now distinguish colors they have never before seen. One man, who was turned down for a job as a telephone company repairman because he failed color tests, has been retested wearing the new lens and accepted. As an added bonus, his girl friend has stopped criticizing his taste in clothes.

> Americans love coffee; they consumed 13.6 lbs. per person last year. But their taste for the brew may be dangerous. A team of physicians from Boston University Medical Center reports in Lancet that people who drink more than five cups of coffee a day are twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as people who drink no coffee at all. The researchers base their hypothesis on a study of 276 patients admitted to hospitals with acute myocardial infarctions. The team found that those patients and 1,104 others who were used as controls differed little in medical history or smoking habits. But when coffee consumption was compared, the differences were dramatic. All the heart attack victims consumed appreciably greater quantities of coffee. The Boston group carefully avoids indicting coffee as a cause of heart attacks. Their findings suggest, however, that people already prone to heart problems would do well, when coffee-break time rolls around, to at least skip a second cup.

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