Health briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 9, 2000

Calculate your risk

Worried about cancer?

The Harvard School of Public Health offers a new way for people to evaluate their risk of breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer -- four of the leading types of cancer in the United States.

Run by Harvard's Center for Cancer Prevention, this Web site calculates individual risk based on a questionnaire that is completed online. Known as "Your Cancer Risk," it also evaluates the answers and immediately provides a risk assessment based on the latest scientific evidence. Users then receive tips, tailored to their specific needs, for reducing risk. They also are shown how their odds of developing cancer drop based on following the tips.

"Your Cancer Risk," which was largely funded by Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, is located at http://www.yourcancerrisk.harvard.edu.

Driven to distraction

You're probably not reading this while driving, but a new study suggests that if you're like most people you occasionally engage in potentially dangerous, distracting behavior while behind the wheel.

A survey conducted by Response Insurance, a direct-to-consumer auto insurance company, found that 76 percent of all motorists have engaged in such activities while driving in the past six months.

Some of the leading distractions reported by respondents were:

• Turning head to speak with a passenger, 56 percent
• Spilling hot coffee on self, 26 percent
• Tapping ashes from a lighted cigarette or cigar, 22 percent
• Combing or brushing hair, 17 percent
• Nose picking, 17 percent
• Arguing with a passenger, 16 percent
• Putting on makeup, 10 percent
• Putting in eye drops or contact lenses, 3 percent

Deer heart

The thrill of the hunt may be too much for some of you. Some hunters' heart rates nearly double when they spot deer, and they race even faster when they make their kills. Outdoor experts think this could hunters' hearts. The International Hunter Education Association of suburban Harrisburg plans to examine the issue of health risks and hunting this year.

A clear look at dyslexia

Dyslexic children could stand a greater chance of learning to read if they used just one eye, according to a new study by scientists at Oxford University in England. "Patching one eye can improve eye control and reading in dyslexic children with poor eye control," said the study's leader. "It should be considered in all 8-to-10-year-old dyslexics who complain of visual problems when reading."

Deafening sounds of battle:

You've heard of Maxwell Smart's "Cone of Silence"? And the "Fog of Battle"? Well, combine the two, and you have the explanation for some seemingly inexplicable Civil War blunders, according to a report in U.S. News and World Report. The magazine says Charles Ross, a physics professor at Longwood College in Farmville, Va., contends that "acoustic shadows," caused by sound-absorbing terrain and sound-muffling meteorological conditions, affected generals' ability to hear what was happening and thus the outcome of at least 11 Civil War battles, including Gettysburg.

Stuck with the consequences

Medical alert: Between 800,000 and 1-million U.S. health-care workers a year are injured by needles and other sharp medical implements, putting them at risk for contracting such blood-borne diseases as HIV and hepatitis B and C, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health reports.

Sickle cell success

And this one is a real shot in the arm. A 13-year-old boy who underwent an experimental blood cell transfusion has been declared cured of sickle cell anemia. Emory University doctors had replaced the bone marrow of Keone Penn with stem cells from the umbilical cord of an unrelated infant in the hopes that the new cells would produce healthy marrow, which, in turn, produces blood cells.

A kick in the pants

Talk about a show-stopping workout! During the 45 minutes that a Radio City Music Hall Rockette dances per show, she does 300 high kicks. She consumes 16 ounces of water and burns 261 calories. And, Fitness magazine reports, she goes through eight pairs of panty hose per week.

A river runs through it

Try and stay high and dry. Rivers along the East Coast and in the Northwest are likely to rise beyond normal levels in the next six months, according to the first U.S. Geological Survey predictions based on the current La Nina cooling of the Pacific Ocean.

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