CHECKUP : NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS OBESITY LEADING TO MORE CASES OF DIABETES, CDC SAYS.

Since 1958, the number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes has increased sixfold, from 1.6 million to 10 million, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The CDC estimates that another 6 million people are unaware they have the disease. One explanation for the rise is that more and more Americans are obese. Diabetes can lead to kidney disease, blindness, foot and leg amputations, stroke and heart disease, among other complications.

Lyme away: The number of new Lyme disease cases nationwide dropped 35 percent this year, which experts attributed to the natural fluctuations in the population of ticks that carry the disease. ``I would say Lyme disease is still a problem,'' says Leonard H. Sigal, head of the Lyme Disease Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. ``You can't make a trend on one year's change.''

Hot stuff: Scientists have answered a burning question in biomedical research.

Researchers have known that a pepper becomes a culinary grenade because it contains a pungent ingredient called capsaicin. The chemical is soluble only in fat, which is why a glass of water after a particularly wicked Thai entree doesn't douse any flames. Capsaicin molecules do their damage by latching onto certain types of proteins on mouth and skin cells called receptors.

After years of looking, researchers recently reported that they had finally identified the capsaicin receptor. And it turns out, the molecules that signal pain from a habanero are the same that sense intense heat. So there's a good reason your tongue feels like it has just ignited.

The researchers didn't go into their line of work for the betterment of picante sauce, however. By designing molecules that might block the capsaicin receptors, scientists believe they may be able to formulate new pain medications.

In the journal Nature, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco also speculated that the capsaicin receptor might be involved in chronic pain syndromes and other diseases. Having the receptor in hand, they said, provides ``a defined target for the development of new analgesic agents.''

In a commentary published with the study, David Clapham from Harvard Medical School praises the finding's potential for leading to new drugs. ``At the very least,'' he wrote, ``Mexican restaurants might be able to provide antidotes for their jalapeno-challenged clientele.''