Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

SAFER SEX? Wouldn't it be great not to worry about at least one sexually transmitted disease? After decades of false starts, researchers have finally conducted the first successful trials of a vaccine to prevent genital herpes. The vaccine reduces the risk of herpes 75%, but surprisingly, it is effective only for women and only for those who have never had cold sores, another form of herpes. It will be years before any vaccine actually hits the market, but by then, maybe it'll work on men too.

BOOSTER SHOT Patients undergoing radiation for breast cancer are always happy when the last treatment is over. But now a study of 5,500 women shows that more radiation--eight additional sessions--can cut in half the odds that the cancer will recur in the same breast. Younger women show an even greater benefit from the booster dose. A drawback: more radiation may mean a greater chance of breast deformity.

BAD NEWS

HEAVY METAL Calcium supplements may be delivering more than you bargained for. A study of 22 brands shows that fully one-third contain detectable levels of lead. Making matters worse, the contamination was not restricted to one type of calcium, such as that derived from oyster shells, or to one manufacturer, because lead levels in the same brand varied from lot to lot. To be hurt by the lead, you would have to consume high doses of calcium over many years, so researchers don't suggest you stop taking the pills. But they do call on the industry to get its act together.

UNWANTED LEGACY Doctors who studied the offspring of adults who had a heart attack before age 60 report a perplexing finding: the kids, average age 19, generally had normal cholesterol and blood-pressure readings but arteries that were 11% thicker than normal. Advice to the youngsters: be doubly sure to keep those heart-attack risk factors--smoking, sedentary lifestyle and weight gain--in check.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--American Society for Microbiology; European Society for Therapeutic Radiology & Oncology. Bad News--Journal of the American Medical Association (9/20/00); New England Journal of Medicine (9/21/00)