IN THE NEWS SOY MAKES HEART SENSE If cholesterol is of concern, make soy part of your meals.

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., say soy that's high in plant estrogens (called isoflavones) significantly lowers cholesterol.

In the study, participants ate a soy-protein diet that contained one of four amounts of isoflavones ranging from three mg to 62 mg. The most dramatic results during the nine-week study appeared for those consuming the 62-mg isoflavone diet. These study participants experienced a 10 percent reduction in their low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol that clogs arteries.

Exactly how the isoflavones lower cholesterol requires additional study.

This study appeared in the October 1999 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

HERBAL COMBINATION IS CLINICALLY PROVEN IN TREATING COMMON COLD A recent study shows a fixed combination herbal remedy is a safe and effective treatment for the common cold. The best results were experienced by patients who started treatment early on in the course of their colds.

The remedy was a fixed combination of two forms of Echinacea root and the herbs Baptisia and Thuja. Nearly 240 patients who visited their family doctor for an acute common cold received three tablets of this remedy, three times a day for seven to nine days.

The study was randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, and multicenter.

Results show the administration of the herbal remedy resulted in an earlier response and a more rapid improvement from acute cold symptoms than in patients receiving a placebo. The herbal remedy's benefit was present on day two, reached statistical significance on day four, and continued until the end of the treatment.

COLLEGE STUDENTS SCORE POORLY ON MAGNESIUM College students are short-changing themselves on magnesium, putting themselves at risk for osteoporosis later in life.

Researchers at the University of Connecticut at Storrs and Yale University in new Haven, Conn., report both male and female college students are magnesium-deficient.

The research team followed college students' diets for three days. They analyzed food records of students' diets for levels of key nutrients. All students in the study were majors in health fields.

More than 40 percent of the students took supplements that included calcium and vitamin D; all appeared to get sufficient amounts of these nutrients. Neither males nor females in the study got enough magnesium, even though 39 percent received it in their daily supplements. In fact, their average daily magnesium intake was about 15 percent below the recommended amount.

SOW OATS FOR HEART HEALTH Begin the morning with oatmeal and you just might reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The soluble fiber in oats, beans, and other foods is believed to prevent blood vessel restriction by slowing the absorption of fat and carbohydrates into the blood stream, according to study findings shared at the annual meeting of the American College of Nutrition held Oct. 4.

In the study, 50 healthy adults ate a high-fat meal once a week for three weeks. Each meal was accompanied by either a bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of whole-wheat cereal, or 800 IU of vitamin E. Researchers used ultrasound to measure the diameter of each subject's blood vessels within three hours before and after each meal.

Compared to pre-meal levels, post-meal blood vessels were constricted 13.4 percent in subjects who ate high-fat meals combined with whole-wheat cereal. However, study subjects who ate high-fat meals in combination with either oatmeal or vitamin E did not experience a change in vessel diameters.

Vitamin E's antioxidant properties are believed to prevent the damaging of cells in the blood vessels that affect the arteries' ability to dilate in response to blood-flow changes.

Oatmeal's soluble fiber is believed to prevent fewer free radicals from forming.