CHECKUP : NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS FEWER WRINKLES AND HOT FLASHES WHEN TAKING ESTROGEN.

Hormone replacement therapy apparently can help you save face.

Post-menopausal women who took oral estrogen had significantly fewer wrinkles and far less dry skin, says a study in the March issue of the Archives of Dermatology.

Many older women take estrogen to protect against bone loss and heart disease. Hormone therapy also helps offset the side effects of menopause, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. But many post-menopausal women are reluctant to take hormone therapy because it increases the risk of some cancers.

In the study, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, examined 3,875 women age 40 or older who had experienced menopause.

After adjusting for age and exposure to the sun, the researchers found that women who took estrogen were 25 percent to 30 percent less likely to have dry skin and wrinkles than those who didn't take the hormone.

Previous research suggests that estrogen preserves the skin's collagen content, elastic properties and thickness.

In a flash: Resetting your internal clock can take days after a bad case of jet lag, but there may be a quicker way, new research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggests.

Scientists have found that a bright flash of light in the night, sustained for as little as five minutes, can reset an animal's internal clock. A complex set of chemical reactions is triggered by exposure of the retina in a rat's eye to a flash of light at night, they found.

At night, the chemical changes cause the brain to reset the body's circadian rhythms, but during the day no such changes occur, the Illinois scientists said.

Cancer survivors wanted: Researchers at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, are seeking participants for a six-month study of breast cancer survivors who are suffering from severe menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, vaginal dryness or urinary incontinence.

The study will include women who were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer between eight months and five years ago, and who are not currently undergoing chemotherapy or radiation, although they can be taking the drug tamoxifen, which helps prevent a recurrence of breast cancer.

Participants will receive free physical exams, including Pap smears and blood tests to check hormone levels; are asked to fill out questionnaires about their quality of life; and will meet three or four times with a nurse practitioner to discuss their symptoms. Some participants will receive nonhormonal medications.

For information, call UCLA at [phone].

Play it straight: Just say no - to crazy schemes to beat workplace drug tests. Drug users are devising do-it-yourself strategies and spending millions on commercial products such as dehydrated urine in an attempt to preserve their jobs or pass pre-employment tests. ``Is it true? All I need to do is drink a little bleach?'' one woman called to ask the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. She was quickly advised it was dangerous. And drug-testing experts add that no matter what you try, the odds of avoiding detection are getting longer as lab work becomes more refined.

Deadly drawstrings: They may seem innocuous, but drawstrings in children's clothing can get caught in bus doors and on slides causing serious injury and even death, warn researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Between January 1985 and June 1995, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recorded 58 cases of strangulation or vehicular dragging associated with drawstrings in the hood or neck of clothing or around the waist, Dorothy A. Drago reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.