Your Health

By David Bjerklie

GOOD NEWS

G.P. REDUX? Just when it seemed that general practitioners were going the way of Marcus Welby, the tide of medical specialization may be turning, at least in California. A survey of medical schools for the years 1993-98 found that graduates entering primary-care residencies rose, from 45% to 54%. An encouraging sign, but don't expect doctors to start making house calls again.

PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE It's a cruel but common outcome: a patient with lung cancer appears to be in complete remission, but then dies when the disease spreads to the brain. Prophylactic radiation of the skull has been used for years in hopes of preventing or delaying the onset of brain tumors, but its effectiveness was uncertain. A new analysis concludes that the therapy does bestow a small but significant survival advantage.

BAD NEWS

UNLUCKY STROKES Though the benefits of heart surgery clearly outweigh the risks for most patients, a stroke during or after such an operation can be a devastating complication for some people. Being female or diabetic, for example, triples the risk of stroke. At highest risk, however, are those patients who have had a stroke prior to heart surgery; for them, the chances that another stroke will occur rise 14-fold.

NEEDLESS SNEEZES Allergies affect nearly 40% of all Americans --twice as many as usually estimated--and millions of them suffer needlessly or rely on medications they'd rather not take. According to a new survey, that's because two-thirds of them are unaware of other treatment options, like allergy shots, which are considered both safe and effective.

--By David Bjerklie

Sources--Good News: Archives of Surgery (8/99), New England Journal of Medicine (8/12/99); Bad News: Circulation (8/10/99), American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology