CALLING ALL CAULICARROTS

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TO YOUR HEALTH

Pills to stop smokers, IQ supplement tablets, gene therapy and more.

When it concerns the fitness of body, mind or spirit, the editors ofAmerican Health are there, staying on top of up-to-date medical research, separating fad from fact and helping you preserve and improve life's most precious gift—your good health. Here are just a few items culled from recent and upcoming issues, including the possibility of a dynamic new vegetable variety.

High-Tech Hand Washer

A futuristic device originally designed to scrub surgeons' hands is now being tested on fast-food cooks and even gooey day-care children.

It's like something from "The Jetsons": Just poke your arms through the gadget's two holes, then step on a pedal. Automatically, splash guards inflate, sealing in hands and forearms as oscillating jets spray an antimicrobial cleansing solution. Release the pedal and the guards deflate.

One version, the Insta-Clens ($1,750 from Pacific Biosystems), has been tested in a Phoenix day-care center where "the kids were a little scared of it at first, but by day two they couldn't keep their hands off it." The machine promises to do more than just keep kids tidy. Teaching tykes clean habits could cut many day-care-spread infections, including some that cause infant diarrhea. Insta-Clens is also being tested in the kitchens of two Phoenix fast-food restaurants.Getting kitchen help to wash their hands is vital: Hepatitis, salmonella and staphylococcus can all be transmitted by unclean cooks.

The original operating-room model, called Stat Scrub ($19,500), has been tested at a Phoenix hospital. According to one study, the 90-second wash got hands 65% cleaner than surgeons' usual 10-minute pre-op scrub. A smaller version, Medi-Clens, is being used at a neonatal intensive care unit. Though it doesn't provide the immaculate scrub that surgeons require, it may surffice for between patient contacts. Ideally, there would be such a machine in every patient's hospital room, but at $2,950 each, Medi-Clens units probably would be scattered along corridors.

Anything that reminds hands-on care givers to wash up between visits is potentially very important. Studies show that forgetful doctors frequently carry germs from patient to patient. And in a study of 400 fourth-year med students at five northeastern medical colleges, up to 96% didn't wash their hands between simulated doctor-patient examinations.

Cold-Blooded Women For many people, particularly women, even a slightly cool environment can be a chilling experience. They get cold quickly and warm up slowly. One reason may be that they're iron deficient. In a Penn State University study, when both anemic and nonanemic women were submerged up to their necks in water that was slightly cooler than body temperature, the iron-deficient women weren't able to cope well with the temperature change. After 100 minutes, they were using less oxygen, which translates into less body heat, and producing less thyroid hormone, which is one of the body's temperature regulators. They also had lower core body temperatures. When the test was repeated after 12 weeks of iron supplementation, the anemic women showed normal temperature control.

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