HEALTH HORIZONS : Letter from the Editor

Flowers, candlelight dinners, hugging, cuddling. Sounds old fashioned, eh? Well, in this post-sexual-revolution era, it seems that romance is in , Kathleen Doheny writes in this issue of Health Horizons, our semiannual special section.

Romance is also good for your health, experts say, with the capability of transforming a tense, hostile person into a relaxed picture of health. And if you’re not romantic don’t worry.

You can learn!

But all may not be hearts and flowers. Men and women remain, well, men and women, and disagreements still abound--some heated (passionate, if you prefer).

Researchers have found that while the sexes agree on many aspects of what constitutes romance, they disagree markedly on others. We won’t give the story away, but we will divulge that slow dancing is on one gender’s list and making love is on the other’s. To learn more, see page 10. We hope you enjoy it, along with the diverse collection of health, fitness, nutrition and psychology-related stories we offer in this issue.

Joel Greenberg , Science/Medicine Editor , Los Angeles Times