Research Finds Link Between Sleep Apnea And Cholesterol

NPR: Cholesterol Provides A Clue About Heart Risks From Sleep Apnea
Soon after many people fall asleep, they have trouble breathing. Their upper airway constricts and chokes them. They wake, startled, take a deep breath, and fall back to sleep. This condition, obstructive sleep apnea, affects about a fifth of American adults and triples the risk for cardiovascular disease. How exactly has been unclear. Research published Wednesday suggests that cholesterol, a common culprit in heart disease, plays a special role in raising risk for people with sleep apnea. (Chen, 1/6)

The Associated Press: New Dietary Guidelines: Lean Meat OK, Cut the Added Sugars
Some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs and salt as much as they once thought. And eating lean meat is still OK. But watch the added sugars — especially the sugary drinks. The Obama administration's new dietary guidelines, released Thursday, back off the strictest sodium rules included in the last version, while still asserting that Americans consume too much salt. The guidelines reverse previous guidance on the dangers of dietary cholesterol and add strict new advice on sugars. (Jalonick, 1/7)

The Hill: New Obama Guidelines: Lean Meat Has Role In Healthy Diet
New federal dietary guidelines, which dropped early Thursday morning, tell Americans to follow a healthy eating pattern that includes a variety of vegetables, fruit, grains, fat-free dairy, oils and a variety of proteins, including lean meats. The recommendations for what Americans should and shouldn't be eating, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services update together every five years, created unprecedented controversy in 2015 when the federally appointed panel of nutritionists that helps draft them considered sustainability in recommending in its report that people should eat less meat because it’s better for the environment. (Wheeler, 1/7)

News outlets report other public health developments related to the Chipotle contaminations, birth defects, brain injuries and cancer screenings —

The Chicago Tribune: Feds Probing Norovirus Outbreak At Chipotle
Chipotle's bad winter is getting worse. A series of high profile foodborne illness outbreaks at the Mexican restaurant chain has meant a slew of lawsuits and a 43 percent drop in its stock price in less than three months— and now the company has been served with a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation of an outbreak of norovirus in California. (Janssen and Channick, 1/6)

NPR: Study Finds Birth Control Pill Use Isn't Associated With Birth Defects
Pregnant women worry about all kinds of things. Now there's one less thing to fret about: harm to the baby when the mother takes birth control pill right before conceiving, or during the first few months of pregnancy. According to a study covering more than 880,000 births in Denmark, the overall rate of birth defects was consistent for women who had never taken the pill at all, for those who had used it before getting pregnant and for those who continued on the pill in early pregnancy. (Hobson, 16)

NPR: How A Simple Bump Can Cause An Insidious Brain Injury
It's not just football players or troops who fought in the wars who suffer from brain injuries. Researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in the U.S. get potentially serious brain injuries every year, too. Yet they and even their doctors often don't know it. One such doctor is Bryan Arling, an internist in Washington, D.C. His peers often vote to put him on those lists of "top doctors," published by glossy magazines. So it's ironic that the brain injury he failed to diagnose was his own. And he could have died from it. (Zwerdling, 1/6)

Reuters: Does Cancer Screening Saves Lives? Unclear, Researchers Say
Bigger studies are needed to tell whether cancer screening really saves lives, according to a new analysis. While cancer screening may be linked to fewer deaths from tumors, finding cancers doesn't necessarily save lives when fatalities from all causes are taken into account, the authors point out. (Rapaport, 1/6)