Doctor's Orders: Aug. 15, 2005

INSERT CARD, REMOVE DRUGS

If you can get cash and airline tickets from an ATM, why not drugs? Two states--California and Virginia--have approved the use of ATM-style kiosks for prescription refills, and Hawaii has okayed them for first orders. Longs Drugs stores in California have already deployed at least four of the machines under a state Board of Pharmacy waiver that allows the dispensing of drugs without a pharmacist present. Pharmacists naturally worry that the kiosks will reduce their contact with customers. And many of those customers are likely to be elderly, say critics, rich targets for drug users looking for an easy score. --By Coco Masters

8% OF GIRLS -- 12% OF BOYS

Percentages of U.S. teenagers who have used dietary supplements, growth hormones or anabolic steroids, according to a Harvard University survey of more than 10,000 adolescents

WHO DOESN'T SUFFER FROM ITCHY EYES, RUNNY NOSE AND SNEEZING?

A new study of 10 common allergies finds that 54% of the U.S. population suffers from at least one. The good news, according to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: one of the most dangerous allergies, to peanuts, is also the least widespread, affecting 9% of the population. Topping the list are dust mites, rye, ragweed and cockroaches, with more than 25% of Americans allergic to each.

WITH EXERCISE AND WOMEN, IT'S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST--LITERALLY

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have for the first time put a number on how fit a female should be. In the study of more than 5,700 women over age 35, those who couldn't reach 85% of their expected exercise capacity in a treadmill test were twice as likely to die within eight years as their fitter peers. --By Sora Song