V I T A L S I G N S

Digital danger

People who use pacemakers should not keep mobile telephones in their breast pockets, US scientists have warned. Their studies found that digital phones give out signals that can cause a pacemaker to skip beats, stutter or shift to a new rhythm. A report in the New Scientist says the phones can cause interference if they are held within a few centimetres of a pacemaker. None caused any problems when held next to the ear.

Don't dummy

Mothers who want to breast-feed should not offer their baby a dummy in the first month after birth and would be better off not using them at all, according to Brazilian researchers writing in Pediatrics. Their study of more than 600 infants found that babies who were using a dummy when they were a month old were nearly four times as likely to stop breast- feeding by the age of six months.

Medicine survey

Have you ever been diagnosed as having high blood pressure but do not take prescribed medication? The Stroke Association is carrying out a national survey into why some patients with high blood pressure do not take the drugs prescribed them. Please call 0171-730 7667 for a confidential interview.

Cancer advice

Cancer: What Every Patient Needs to Know, describes what happens as a cancer develops and treatment progresses, as well as offering strategies for coping. It is published by Bloomsbury at pounds 6.99.