Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

AIDS UPDATE

The AIDS drug cocktail may have just got better. Replacing protease inhibitors--the medication that first lifted the death sentence for thousands of aids patients--with a new drug, Sustiva, seems to reduce HIV to undetectable levels in 50% more patients. Sustiva benefits kids too. When added to cocktails that contain protease inhibitors, it doubles the chances that the virus will be undetectable. Another big advantage: unlike protease inhibitors, Sustiva need be taken only once a day.

HOT-WIRED TOTS

What's better for a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder--behavior therapy or medications like Ritalin? The answer is, well, complicated. A new report shows medication alone or combined with therapy is decidedly more effective than therapy alone in reducing overt symptoms of adhd--the off-the-wall jumpiness and inattentiveness that exhausted parents know all too well. But combining drugs with behavior therapy seems to benefit kids in ways that drugs alone don't--like enabling them to make friends more easily and even score higher on achievement tests.

BAD NEWS

SMOKE SCREAM

Still need a reason to quit smoking? Try this: puffing away quadruples the risk that you may suddenly suffer shortness of breath, heart palpitations and overwhelming feelings of anxiety--in short, a panic attack. What's the link? Lungs of smokers tend to be overstressed, which may make smokers more vulnerable to attacks. Kick the habit, and the increased risk vanishes.

PILL POLICE

Folks who suffer from heart disease are often advised to take a daily aspirin to prevent future problems. Simple enough. But now, astonishingly, research suggests that more than 1 million patients aren't swallowing aspirin at all. Instead, they're taking Tylenol, Advil and other painkillers. That's bad. Aspirin works by preventing platelets from sticking together. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) has no effect whatsoever on platelets, and ibuprofen (Advil and others) helps unstick platelets, but only for short periods of time.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--New England Journal of Medicine (12/16/99); Archives of General Psychiatry (12/99). Bad News--Archives of General Psychiatry (12/99); Medscape