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What do seemingly fit firemen and overweight, stress-ridden executives have in common? The answer is heart disease, according to Dr. R. James Barnard of the University of California at Los Angeles. Barnard tested 100 firemen while they were exercising on a treadmill and found that 10% -- the same as in a group of sedentary insurance executives -- showed signs of latent coronary disease. Potential heart problems were even more obvious in a group of firemen asked to jump onto the treadmill and exercise with no prior warmup. Of 60 tested, 40, or two-thirds, showed abnormal electrocardiograms.

Barnard suggests the reason for the firemen's rapid heart rates: the fire-alarm bell. Among firemen monitored for 24 hours, most of the younger men, with supposedly healthy hearts, showed great excitement and doubled heart rates when the alarm sounded. But oldtimers were not immune to the excitement syndrome either. At least 20% overreacted to the bell, their bodies releasing hormones that might contribute to heart disease. Barnard's recommendation: a fitness program for all fire fighters.

> Throughout history, princes and plain folk alike have searched for a true aphrodisiac, a substance to heighten sexual desire. Now researchers have found one that does just the opposite. They have developed a drug called ben-peridol, which, they claim, reduces or completely abolishes sexual desire. Doctors tested the drug successfully at London's Wormwood Scrubs prison, and believe it could prove valuable for treating sexual offenders. They also apparently feel that many law-abiding Britons are ready for a real version of the fictional "Anti-Sex League" in George Orwell's novel, 1984. Starting this month, they plan to market their antisex pill under the name Anquil.

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