A-Z Guide to the Year in Medicine

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ASPIRIN It turns out the studies that have proved, again and again, that low doses of aspirin taken daily can reduce the risk of a first heart attack--by an average of 30%--were conducted primarily on men. When the effects of aspirin were tested on the 40,000 participants in the giant Women's Health Study, the results were strikingly different: women who took aspirin every other day for 10 years had roughly the same number of heart attacks as those taking a placebo. The only group of women who had fewer heart incidents were those who were at least 65 years old at the start of the trial. The gender gap could have something to do with the fact that women seem to be protected from heart disease by estrogen until menopause and tend to have heart attacks later than men do. (Low-dose aspirin did reduce the risk of stroke in women of all ages.)

ASTHMA A good joke can be as dangerous as dust or pollen for asthma sufferers. In a new study conducted at New York University, more than 50% of asthma patients reported having an asthma attack after laughing too hard. Flour also emerged as an asthma risk factor. British researchers studying supermarket bakeries found that roughly 15% of the workers developed work-related asthma symptoms, including sneezing, wheezing and difficulty breathing.

autism

AUTISM The idea that childhood vaccinations might lead to autism has gained currency among some concerned parents, fueled by unsubstantiated reports on the Internet. The Mayo Clinic decided to test the idea by focusing on a specific population in Minnesota and analyzing the rise in autism cases there since 1988. They found that the apparent increase could be traced to improved awareness of the disease and changes in the way the condition is diagnosed but not necessarily to immunizations. The results will probably not end the debate, but most scientists are convinced that the shots are safe.

avian flu

AVIAN FLU The possibility of a flu pandemic dominated the news for much of the fall, although the death toll from the virus that has health officials most worried--the so-called H5N1 strain--remains vastly greater in birds than humans. So far, 132 people in Southeast Asia and China are known to have been infected, and more than half of them have died. Meanwhile, millions of chickens and ducks have been slaughtered in a last-ditch attempt to keep the virus from spreading--an effort made more difficult by migrating flocks of wild birds that have carried the virus into Eastern Europe. The only reason more humans haven't died, say experts, is that this particular flu virus still has difficulty transmitting from one person to another. But the fear is that it, or a virus like it, will mutate into a form that spreads as easily as the 1918 flu that killed 20 million (and was caused, it turns out, by an avian-flu virus). It was to prevent such an outbreak that President George W. Bush proposed spending $7.1 billion on flu-pandemic preparedness, including investments in new technologies for developing vaccines and antiviral drugs, as well as shoring up health-care facilities to meet the surge in demand that a flu pandemic would create.