Your Health: Oct. 11, 1999

GOOD NEWS

CAN THAT HEADACHE! Remember when botulism was a bad thing? Still is, if you happen to consume the toxin from a contaminated batch of canned food. But now, years after doctors discovered the toxin's uncanny ability to smooth out wrinkles and quell tremors, a new benefit has been uncovered: botulism toxin seems to alleviate migraine headaches. In a preliminary study, half the patients whose foreheads were injected with tiny amounts of the botulism drug Botox reported that their migraine headaches disappeared--and stayed away for up to four months.

BONING UP Don't think you're immune to osteoporosis just because you're a guy. Two million American men have the bone-thinning ailment, and 3 million more may be at risk. Now here's some help: the first major study on men with osteoporosis shows that Fosamax--a nonhormonal drug that helps treat the disease in postmenopausal women--also works in men. The bone density of men who took it increased 7% regardless of their age.

BAD NEWS

TIME LAPSE Sorry, jet-lag sufferers. A report shows that melatonin may be no better than a sugar pill in alleviating the sleepiness and disorientation of long-distance travel. Nearly 250 subjects were given either a placebo or one of two commonly used doses of melatonin (5 mg and .5 mg). Result: they all experienced similar jet-lag symptoms, and all recovered after about six days.

SNOOZE ALARM Talk about a drunken stupor. Doctors say not getting enough sleep may dull your senses as much as drinking does. Folks with sleep apnea--a common disorder in which sufferers momentarily awaken throughout the night because breathing stops--did worse on 3 out of 7 tests of reaction time than those whose blood-alcohol level would make them too drunk to drive in 15 states. Could ordinary insomniacs run into the same problems? Probably, doctors say.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: American Academy of Otolaryngology; American Society for Bone & Mineral Research. Bad News: American Academy of Otolaryngology; American Journal of Psychiatry (9/99)