January 19, 2004 Health

	photo essay
	Animal Attraction There's more than one way to make hay, as birds, bees and bonobos know
	graphic
	Where Our Sex Drive Comes From Mapping the origins of sex drive on the human body
	remedies
	Love Potions A guide to some of the medical treatments available for what ails our libidos
	self-test
	The Passionate Love Scale Determine just how you feel about that special (or ex-special) someone

B I R T H   C O N T R O L
Women in the U.S. are a step closer to getting emergency contraception without the need for a doctor's prescription. An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that the morning-after pill become available over the counter. If approved, Plan B, as the two-pill regimen would be called, would enable women to end pregnancies within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse.

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C A N C E R
BREAST: A group of drugs called aromatase inhibitors that were once used to treat metastatic breast cancer is helpful in less advanced cases as well. They target tumors that need estrogen by lowering the amount of estrogen in the body. Women who took aromatase inhibitors for five years after taking tamoxifen (which also shrinks estrogen-sensitive tumors) reduced their risk of recurrence by almost half.

COLON: There's a good alternative to the dreaded colonoscopy. Tests showed that virtual colonoscopy, which images the colon by combining C.T. scans, can be as reliable at detecting tumors—provided the right 3-D software is used. And in the first trial of its kind, Avastin, a drug designed to starve a tumor by cutting off its blood supply, showed promise against colon cancer when used in conjunction with chemotherapy. Doctors are exploring its use against other solid tumors.

PROSTATE: About 75% of men in the U.S. over 50 have been screened for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, but the threshold level that doctors use to biopsy suspicious growths misses up to 82% of cancers. Harvard researchers reported that lowering the PSA level at which doctors recommend biopsies could double the rate at which they detect cancers.

LUNG: Most cases of lung cancer are too advanced for treatment by the time they are detected, but researchers at Duke University are working on a blood test that could detect the disease in its earliest stages, when the cancer may still be treatable. Their aim is to detect traces of a protein, called serum amyloid A, that is elevated in cancer patients but not in healthy people.

C H O C O L A T E

Sweet news: besides tasting great, chocolate can do you some good. It's rich in flavonoids, which can raise levels of good cholesterol, and antioxidants, which limit cell damage. Heating chocolate seems to release antioxidants, so go for the hot cocoa. Not all chocolate is created equal, however. Dark chocolate is more potent than its paler cousin in raising antioxidant levels, possibly because the milk in milk chocolate binds to antioxidants. In addition, German research comparing dark and white chocolate found that the dark stuff can lower blood pressure.

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D I A B E T E S
Expanding waistlines continue to feed the epidemic. Doctors hope that by shifting their attention to prediabetes—a condition that significantly increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the illness—they can reduce the number of folks who develop full-blown diabetes and such devastating complications as heart and kidney trouble, strokes and blindness.

The American Diabetes Association broadened the definition of prediabetes to include those with fasting blood-sugar levels of 100 mg/dL (it had been 110 mg/dL).

Because diabetics face fewer complications if they avoid hypertension, the American College of Physicians now recommends that diabetics keep their blood pressure below 135/80 mm Hg.

D I E T
Another scattering of studies showed that the low-carb Atkins diet really does melt the pounds away—at least in the short run. Subjects in two trials ate either a low-carb diet or a conventional low-calorie, high-carb menu. At the end of six months, the carb cutters lost twice as many pounds as the calorie counters. The pounds, however, quickly reappeared after the first part of the study was completed. By the end of the next six months, the two test groups showed no difference in the amount of weight they had lost. The studies also found that those who ate the low-carb way enjoyed higher levels of HDL, but it's not yet clear whether this boost provides enough of a benefit to the heart to compensate for the extra fat consumed in the Atkins-style diets.

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E P H E D R A
Since 1997 the FDA has been keeping track of ephedra, an herb used in dietary supplements for weight loss and energy boosts. Last month the agency finally amassed enough data on the herb's side effects—from high blood pressure to stroke and sudden death—to justify a proposed ban of the supplement. The move comes too late for the Baltimore Orioles' Steve Bechler, who died during spring training after taking the supplement. But health officials expect that a ban will save other lives.

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