Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

-- Insurers have traditionally paid out huge sums for medications and major operations while refusing to reimburse patients for less traditional, low-cost preventive therapies. Now Mutual of Omaha says it will pay for an alternative method to stave off or even reverse heart disease. The program, developed by best-selling heart guru Dr. Dean Ornish, includes exercise, diet, meditation and group support. Other insurance companies are expected to follow.

-- A European study has now shown that the safest and cheapest drug to thin the blood after coronary-bypass surgery is just as effective as any other such drug -- and costs a fraction of a cent a dose, in contrast to tens of dollars. Moreover, it is available at every convenience store. The drug is aspirin.

THE BAD NEWS

-- Restaurant patrons have to contend with secondhand smoke for an hour or so; waiters and bartenders inhale the stuff all day long. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that people who work in restaurants where smoking is allowed have a 50% higher risk of lung cancer than the average person.

-- Fully 25% of America's skyrocketing hospital bills come from administrative costs. In Canada, bureaucracy eats up only half as much.

-- Health workers avoid the virus-laden body fluids of aids victims. Now they must also be careful with a solution used to rinse bacteria from victims' lungs for testing. The solution also rinses out HIV particles; it was not known before that HIV can thrive in the lungs.

[TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Sources: Lancet; New England Journal of Medicine; Journal of the American Medical Association; news reports}]