ANGRY PET TARANTULAS CAN CAUSE PAINFUL EYE PROBLEMS : CHECKUP.

Tarantulas, increasingly popular household pets, can cause painful eye injuries in people who provoke them, California optometrists report.

When threatened, tarantulas use their hind legs to flick small, barbed hairs into the air. These hairs can cause intense pain if they penetrate a person's eye, according to a report in the March issue of the Journal of the American Optometric Association.

Optometrists at the Naval Medical Clinic in Long Beach, Calif., treated a man whose eye was injured by his roommate's pet tarantula. After the man blew a puff of air at the spider while holding it at arm's length, the tarantula moved its rear legs rapidly, and the man immediately felt severe pain in his right eye. Upon examination, optometrists found about 40 tarantula hairs in the eye.

The hairs were too deeply imbedded in the eye to be removed so the patient was treated with topical steroid medication to soothe the symptoms. Six months later, most of the hairs had disappeared.

Although such eye injuries are rare, tarantula owners should handle these pets carefully, the researchers advised. The barbed hairs also may cause skin irritation, they noted.

Fish for dinner: A new report offers more evidence that eating fish can boost your health. In the 30-year study of 1,822 men, those who reported eating about two servings of fish a week at the beginning of the study were 42 percent less likely to die from a heart attack than those who consumed none. Previous studies suggested that substances in fish called omega-3 fatty acids may help lower a person's risk of death by reducing the triglyceride levels in the blood and preventing blood platelets from clumping together and forming clots.

Growing up fast: American girls are entering puberty earlier than ever, a new national study shows. Of more than 17,000 girls ages 3 to 12, more than 48 percent of African-American girls and nearly 15 percent of white girls showed signs of puberty - breast and pubic hair development - by age 8. While the researchers said there was no clear explanation, the reason may be somehow related to the fact that children are getting heavier.

HIV guidelines released: Treatment with powerful anti-HIV drugs should begin long before people infected with the AIDS virus begin to show signs of immune system damage, according to new guidelines developed by researchers at the British HIV Association in London. The guidelines, published in last week's issue of the international medical journal the Lancet, offer strategies for using so-called ``drug cocktails,'' two or more drugs used simultaneously.

Take hormones, live longer: Nearly all postmenopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy can add years to their lives, a new study finds. And contrary to some experts' beliefs, the benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) extend to some women at increased risk for breast cancer, the findings suggest. However, women at highest risk for breast cancer and lowest risk for heart disease should not use HRT, the researchers said.

Warmer is better: Contrary to conventional practice, keeping surgery patients warmer may reduce the risk of heart complications - the leading cause of death in people undergoing surgery, new research suggests. Most patients who undergo major surgery develop hypothermia, or lowered body temperature, due to chilly operating rooms, the effects of anesthesia and other factors. But in the new study of 300 surgery patients ages 60 and older, those who were kept at normal body temperature were significantly less likely to suffer heart attack, cardiac arrest or other heart-related complication.

Thinking ahead: Something to think about if you have hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer: A medical task force says people with genes that increase their risk of that disease may want to have their healthy colons removed as a preemptive measure. The Cancer Genetics Study Consortium stopped short of actually recommending such surgery. Its report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said only that colon removal can be offered as an option.

Gum disease can be infectious: Periodontal disease may be passed from one family member to another through the spread of oral bacteria linked to the disease.

An Ohio State University study of 564 members of randomly selected families found that 37.1 percent were infected with Porphyromas gingivalis, a bacterium thought to be a cause of gum disease. Spouses of infected individuals were four times as likely to be infected as spouses of noninfected persons. Children of infected parents also had a higher rate of infection.