Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS ON VACCINATIONS

Ouchless injections? Last week Astra Pharmaceutical introduced a skin patch that numbs a kid's skin by delivering local anesthetic directly to the injection site. Called Emla and available by prescription only, it can be used on children as young as one month--and on needle-shy grownups. One downside: the patch must be applied at least an hour before visiting the doctor.

BAD NEWS ON HEALTH COSTS

Think health-care costs are soaring? They're not. At least not yet. Medical spending has been relatively stable for the past five years, a federal study concludes. But those days are over. The study projects that in the next decade, health costs are likely to double, to more than $2.1 trillion a year.

LOTS OF NEWS ON PROSTATES

First a warning: An alternative treatment for prostate cancer called PC-SPES-a potent mix of eight herbs, including saw palmetto and licorice--may have unwanted side effects. A report out last week finds that while the herbal alternative does lower levels of PSA (a marker for the cancer), it may be linked to breast tenderness, loss of libido and possibly blood clots. Now some guidance for men undergoing traditional care. Those who have a slow-growing cancer can survive for years with conservative treatment, like periodic monitoring or hormonal therapy. But men with more aggressive cancer seem to fare better with surgery or external radiation than with, say, radioactive-seed implants.

--Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Astra Pharmaceutical, L.P.; U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association