Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

Good News for Motherhood

New moms may think their brain has turned to mush, but a study suggests just the opposite: motherhood actually boosts brain power--at least in rats. The surge of hormones during pregnancy seems to cause a proliferation of new growth within tiny brain-cell structures called dendrites. The effect on behavior--mommy rats are curious, bolder and learn mazes more quickly--may be long lasting.

Bad News on Hypertension

More reason to get high blood pressure under control: the condition may go to your head. A 20-year study finds that over time, folks with hypertension have greater difficulty mastering new information and solving problems than their healthier peers. Subtle changes in the brain's arteries may be why.

Good News on Tumors

Brain surgery without blood? Sounds like science fiction, but research shows that an instrument called a gamma knife can safely--and bloodlessly--shrink acoustic neuromas, one of the most common forms of benign brain tumor. The "knife" delivers a onetime dose of radiation that's shaped to the exact parameters of the targeted tumor.

Bad News on HIV

Reminder to men with AIDS: always use condoms. A latent--and transmissible--form of HIV can hide in the semen of infected men even if AIDS drugs have knocked the virus down to undetectable levels in the blood.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Society for Neuroscience meeting; Health Psychology; New England Journal of Medicine; Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting