CHECKUP : NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS DAY CARE BOOSTS BRAIN POWER, SWEDISH STUDY SAYS.

A seven-year study of Swedish children has found that those who spent time in day care before starting elementary school performed better intellectually than youngsters who were cared for at home.

The children who attended a day-care center scored significantly and consistently higher on two standard measures of intellectual ability - language skills and math proficiency, compared with children who either were cared for in their own homes or in the homes of other families, reported researchers led by Dr. Anders G. Broberg, of Goteborg University in Goteborg, Sweden.

Published in the current issue of the journal Developmental Psychology, the study of 146 children also showed that the longer the children were in day care, the higher their intellectual scores during elementary school.

Drug Administration advisory panel has recommended the approval for the Nicotrol Inhaler as a prescription-only nicotine replacement therapy to help people quit smoking.

A unique feature is that the device mimics the behavior of smoking - patients puff on a mouthpiece in a manner similar to smoking a cigarette. The difference is that you aren't exposed to dangerous cigarette by-products, such as carbon monoxide and carcinogenic tars.

``An individual making the decision to quit smoking can use this product in a way they're used to for obtaining nicotine,'' said Scott Leischow, director of the Arizona Program for Nicotine and Tobacco Research of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

With the new inhaler, nicotine is absorbed through the lining of the mouth. Though inhaled through the mouth, very little nicotine gets into the lungs.

Healing hormones: Outside of pain relievers, there is little treatment available for osteoarthritis, which accounts for 70 percent of the more than 200,000 hip and knee replacement surgeries each year.

But that may change for women who take estrogen replacement therapy after menopause.

A study of 4,366 women age 65 and older found that those taking estrogen for 10 or more years had significantly less joint damage from osteoarthritis than women who didn't take the hormone.

Although the preliminary results suggest that estrogen may protect against osteoarthritis, further studies are needed to document the benefit, Dr. Michael C. Nevitt of the University of California at San Francisco reported.