Your Health

Good News
Calling All Chocoholics

You can get over it. For years, researchers have suspected that a hankering for Hershey's comes from the desire--especially among women--for certain chemicals found in chocolate, some even said to mimic the brain chemistry of a person in love. Not so, finds a new study. It turns out that U.S. women lust for chocolate twice as much as Spanish women do, suggesting that craving chocolate is a learned behavior--and can be unlearned.

No Pain, But Still a Gain
Two studies published last week show that easy everyday activities like brisk walking, housework and gardening can improve cholesterol and blood-pressure levels about as effectively as more strenuous exercises like running and aerobics. Body fat drops too.

Bad News
Get Thee to a Teaching Hospital

So suggest two reports out last week. In one, heart-attack patients who were admitted to teaching hospitals had 15% lower odds of dying within a month of treatment, compared with patients hospitalized at nonacademic institutions. A second report had the same message: it found that patients with congestive heart failure, stroke or hip fracture significantly improved their chances of surviving at least a year if treated at a teaching hospital.

Gripping Data
New research on hundreds of Americans shows that those with a strong hand grip face higher odds of developing arthritis in the joints at the base of the fingers, including the thumb. Why? Hefty hand muscles may exert excessive force on the joints.

Sources: Good News--Appetite (unspecified upcoming issue); Journal of the American Medical Association (1/27/99). Bad News--New England Journal of Medicine (1/28/99); Arthritis & Rheumatism (1/99)