Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

SOME NERVE New hope for sufferers of reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a confounding neurological disorder that affects 6 million Americans. RSD starts with a minor injury to an arm or leg--say, a twisted ankle or a bruise--but quickly blossoms into a strange syndrome in which the sympathetic nerves (the ones responsible for temperature control, sweating and blood flow) go so out of whack that blowing air across the skin is enough to trigger burning pain. The injured extremity and surrounding tissue can become discolored and, eventually, immobile. Now researchers report two experimental treatments. In one, doctors restore motor activity to the limb with medication continuously delivered through a pump placed under the skin near the spine. In another, an electrode that blocks pain signals, reducing them to a mere tingling sensation, is surgically implanted.

SCRATCH AND SNIFF Don't hold your breath, but you may someday be able to take a smell test for Alzheimer's. Patients with mild memory problems were asked to scratch and sniff odor-infused patches and then identify the scent. During a two-year follow-up, none of those who could accurately distinguish peanut from pizza, for example, went on to develop Alzheimer's. But nearly half who scored poorly--and, interestingly, didn't realize they had an impaired sense of smell--did develop the disease. Apparently the olfactory pathway, and probably the area in the brain responsible for awareness of the ability to smell, is damaged early in Alzheimer's.

BAD NEWS

BREATHING UNEASY Those nasal strips athletes wear to boost their performance may not be up to snuff. The theory is that the strips, which hold open nasal passages, allow more oxygen to get to hard-working muscles. Not so, according to a small study. The results, disputed by strip manufacturers, show that nasal devices are no better than a placebo in changing oxygen uptake or improving endurance.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--New England Journal of Medicine (9/30/00); American Journal of Psychiatry (9/00). Bad News--Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (8/00)