Minerva

The six main risk factors for coronary heart disease are smoking, physical inactivity, overweight, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol concentration, and diabetes. A telephone survey of 91 428 citizens of the United States (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1994;43:61-9) found that only 18% reported having none of these risk factors - though only 29% knew their blood cholesterol concentration.

Breast feeding has many advantages for the child, but one new to Minerva is a lowered risk of otitis media. A case-control study reported in the “East African Medical Journal” (1993;70:632-3) found that children aged 6-30 months with otitis media had been breast fed for an average of 8.6 months, whereas the controls who had not had ear infections had been breast fed for 13.7 months.

Postprandial hypotension is a common but poorly recognised cause of syncope in elderly people (Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London 1994;28:19-23). Large meals with a high carbohydrate content are the most likely to cause problems; coffee may help; but the real answer is probably small, frequent meals.

Most patients with what was formerly called fulminant non-A, non-B hepatitis do not have detectable infection with hepatitis C or E virus, says a paper in the “American Journal of Gastroenterology” (1994;89:57- …