FINDINGS

Alcohol's Benefits Challenged

Researchers poured cold water on the idea that moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease, noting yesterday that many studies include teetotalers as a control group but don't ask why they do not drink.

Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- as much as two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Some also found a lower risk of some cancers.

But a team at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of California at San Francisco analyzed 54 studies and found that only seven differentiated between people who abstain by choice and those who may have quit for health reasons.

When such studies show a higher death rate for abstainers than for moderate drinkers, it may be because of the poor health of some abstainers who recently quit drinking, they reported in the journal Addiction Research and Theory.

In the seven studies that included people who had not drunk alcohol for a long time by choice, there was no difference in rates of heart disease between drinkers and nondrinkers.

Episiotomy Risks Weighed

Obstetricians should avoid performing an episiotomy to aid childbirth unless there is a risk of severe tearing or a need to speed up a difficult delivery, a specialists' group said.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said data suggest that women who undergo the surgery to widen the vaginal opening do not have significantly improved labor, delivery and recovery, compared with those who do not have an episiotomy.

In addition, the risk of a further tear, anal sphincter dysfunction and painful sex after an episiotomy is higher than previously thought, the group said.

More than a quarter of U.S. women who gave birth vaginally in 2002 had episiotomies. Use of the technique has declined in recent years, but it is still routinely used by some doctors and hospitals.

Cellphone Use May Have Risks

A Swedish study suggested that heavy users of mobile phones may have a higher risk of brain tumors, a finding at variance with several large studies that found no indication of health hazards from cellphone use.

Last year, the Dutch Health Council, in an overview of research from around the world, found no evidence that radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was harmful. And a four-year British survey in January also showed no link between regular, long-term use of cellphones and the most common type of tumor.

In the new study, researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life looked at mobile phone use of 2,200 cancer patients and an equal number of healthy controls. Of the cancer patients, aged between 20 and 80, 905 had a malignant brain tumor, and 85 of them were "high users" of mobile phones, meaning they began early before age 20 "and used them a lot," the authors said.

Published in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, the study defined heavy use as 2,000-plus hours, which "corresponds to 10 years' use in the work place for one hour per day."

-- From News Services