PSYCHEDELIC SMOKES MOVE OVER, Joe Camel. Kids are rediscovering Indian smokes called bidis (or ““beedies’’), which are flavored with strawberry and chocolate and come in psychedelic packages. They’re cheaper than most cigs and pack enough nicotine to induce a buzz. No wonder sales are growing. One survey of San Francisco high schoolers suggests that 60 percent have tried beedies–and that half don’t know they cause cancer.

SLEEP FOR SALE THIS IS NO MERE PILLOW FIGHT. Mattress makers are mounting a ground war on insomnia. Select Comfort mattresses (www.comfort.com) now offer air pumps to stiffen or soften either side of the bed by remote control (yes, this marriage can be saved). A queen-size set costs between $900 and $2,600–and no, they won’t explode. Tempur-pedic (www.tempurpedic.com) says the billions of temperature-sensitive ““memory molecules’’ in its mattresses conform to your special curves, resulting in 80 percent less tossing and turning. The queen-size set runs $1,600. Now, if you could only find a free eight hours to try it out.

INFECT YOUR KIDS? COULD COUGHS AND RUNNY NOSES make your baby stronger? That’s the implication of a new study from Germany. Researchers studied 2,500 kids, ages 5 to 14, and found that those who’d started group day care at 6 to 11 months of age suffered fewer allergies–including asthma–than those who’d stayed at home. Writing in The Lancet, the researchers conclude that early exposure to viruses and bacteria may strengthen a child’s immune system. Kids from large families didn’t benefit from day care, apparently because they caught so many bugs at home.

title: “Health Briefs” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-27” author: “Joseph Cruz”

HEALTH HAZARDSEducational TV

You don’t need a degree to play a doctor on TV. But a new study in The British Medical Journal suggests that video M.D.s can be powerful sources of medical information. British researchers surveyed viewers of “Casualty,” an “ER”-like drama series, focusing on an episode in which a Royal Air Force pilot tried to kill himself with acetaminophen out of guilt over the death of a fallen comrade. Researchers from several British hospitals found that people who’d seen the suicide attempt were twice as likely as nonviewers to know that high doses of the drug (the active ingredient in Tylenol) cause kidney failure. But that knowledge proved dangerous. In a companion study, the researchers asked 160 hospitals to question overdose patients about their TV-viewing habits. Sure enough, in the week after the on-air tragedy, “Casualty” viewers poisoned themselves with acetaminophen at twice the usual rate. The study’s authors advise producers to use “extreme caution” with future suicide portrayals.

TECHNOLOGYInvisible Bifocals

Sooner or later, you have to stop accusing the newspaper of using blurry type, and admit that you’re ready for reading glasses. The inability to focus on close objects, known as presbyopia, is a natural part of aging that occurs when the lenses of the eyes become less flexible . If you’re already wearing corrective lenses when presbyopia strikes, you end up alternating between two sets of glasses, perching a pair over your contact lenses or putting a different lens in each eye, using one for reading and one for gazing. But a new type of contact lens offers a simpler alternative. Acuvue Bifocal lenses, made by Vistakon, are made with five concentric viewing zones, which alternate like the rings on a bull’s-eye. One set of rings boosts your distance vision, while the other helps you focus close up. Now if only they could focus your aging memory, too.

ON THE WEBAn Online Oasis

The Mayo Clinic is famous for attracting glitterati to its small-town Minnesota campus. But regular Joes can glean free advice from the hospital’s 1,200 topnotch physicians at Health Oasis (www.mayohealth.com). You’ll find timely, authoritative reports covering everything from fybromyalgia to mosquitoes. And it’s hard to think of a query that’s not addressed in the site’s vast Q&A archive.