Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.health From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: health Mon, Aug 3 1992 Date: Mon, 3 Aug 92 03:33:15 EDT Message-ID: 08-03 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update Aug. 3, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network CLUE TO HOMOSEXUALITY FOUND: One part of the brain is significantly larger in gay men than in heterosexual males or females, a pioneering new study finds. The findings, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to growing evidence that sexual orientation may be partly or entirely determined by biology. (For more, see special Brain package below.) BLACK DOCTORS OPEN MEETING: Blacks die an average of five years earlier than whites; are twice as likely to die before their first birthday and have the highest cancer rate of any U.S. group. More than 20% have no health insurance. This week more than 1,000 black doctors will meet in San Francisco to discuss these inequities at the 97th Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly of the National Medical Association. GROUP PROMOTES PREVENTION: Prevention is one prescription for the health-care problems of African-Americans, says the National Medical Association, which represents the USA's 16,000 black physicians. Among efforts: Healthy People 2000, a program to educate 1.3 million people in 14 cities about such risk factors as substance abuse, smoking, poor nutrition, unprotected sex and inadequate prenatal care. FEW ELDERLY FULLY FUNCTIONAL: Fewer than two in 10 people who live to age 65 or beyond are fully functional in the last year of life, a new study says. The few "successful agers" - people who die at age 80 or older and are fully functional, able to take reasonable care of themselves - are more likely to be non-smokers, says the study by the National Centers for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. ALCOHOL, WEIGHT IMPACT LIFESPAN: People who remain fully functional in their last year of life are less likely either to abstain from or abuse alcohol, according to a study by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Atlanta. Women were less likely to be severely underweight or overweight. SUNSCREEN USE LOW: Only about 19% of the 502 people who responded to a University of New Hampshire poll always use sunscreen, while 38% never use it at all, says a study. The results show an attitude that must change or the rate of skin cancer will continue to increase, says an official. All respondents cited daily exposure to the sun. TEXAS ADDRESS TB INCREASE: South Texas health officials plan to keep tuberculosis patients hospitalized longer because of dramatic increases in reported cases last year, officials say. Cited: A new strain that resists medication. "It's insidious," says Dr. Robert Neimes of San Antonio State Chest Hospital. PANEL CALLS FOR TB MEASURES: Georgia should double its spending on tuberculosis programs statewide and open a state-funded shelter for homeless people infected with the disease, says a state panel studying the disease. Georgia, which had 13.7 TB cases per 100,000 people in 1991, now spends $2,698 per patient. OREGON PLAN REJECTED: The Bush administration will reject an Oregon health-care proposal that would ration health coverage, saying it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. News and World Report reports Monday. The plan would expand coverage for poor, but restrict costly treatment for certain cancer, AIDS and premature births. A waiver of federal Medicaid laws is needed. JURY AWARDS AIDS VICTIM: A day after Susie Quintana's death, a Denver jury Saturday ordered a blood bank to pay Quintana $8.1 million for supplying her with AIDS-tainted blood. Quintana, 56, contracted AIDS from an 1983 blood transfusion from United Blood Services of Albuquerque. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON BRAIN: BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCE APPARENT: A band of fibers called the anterior commissure that connects the cortex of the left and right sides of the brain are different in size in gay men and heterosexual men and women, say UCLA neuroscientists Laura Allen and Roger Gorski. The first brain differences between gay and straight people were found last year by neuroscientist Simon LeVay of the Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT UNKNOWN: It's unknown when the brain differences develop, says Allen, but animal studies suggest prenatal hormones could be a key influence. However, environment may still have an impact. Research is still at an early stage, she says. But the new findings "support what we've always believed - being gay is not a choice." says Robert Bray of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Washington, D.C. (End of package.) Health Editor: Christopher Goldthwaite. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM