HEALTH BEAT.

• Position: Statistical Data Included

Gene mutations are not the only types of defects involved in the transformation of healthy cells into malignant ones. According to researcher Christoph Plass, Ohio State University, Columbus, am other defect--one that turns off genes without changing their DNA--is also at work, and probably at a much greater degree than ever suspected. He suggests that an unknown number of genes--over and above those affected by mutations--are involved in the cancer process.

People suffering persistent hopelessness may be at greater risk for hypertension, say researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While 20% of middle-aged men in a study had high blood pressure (defined as 165 over 95), the figure rose to 37% in those considered "high in hopelessness" and to 23% of subjects who felt moderately hopeless.

Women's symptoms of heart attacks differ from men's, indicates Nina Radford, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "Women can have some signs of a heart attack that would not be recognized traditionally as pertaining to a serious cardiac problem. In addition to pains in the chest and numbness in the arm, women may also experience shoulder, neck, and back pain?

Women who snore regularly may increase their risk of heart attack or stroke by 33%, notes Fran Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, Mass. A temporary shortage of oxygen during snoring can activate the sympathetic nervous system, which controls involuntary actions like heart rate and breathing, possibly leading to high blood pressure.

Fibroid tumors are the primary reason why 200,000 women a year in the U.S. have hysterectomies. Doctors at Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital are using a new technique, fibroid embolization, as a less-invasive...