Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Links Acetaminophen Use In Pregnancy With Language Delays
CBS News: Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy Linked With Language Delays, University Of Illinois Study Finds
A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign linked acetaminophen with language delays in children. Susan Schantz, professor emerita of comparative biosciences and one of the authors of the study, spoke to CBS 2 about the findings. Schantz said the study looked at language development among children ages 2 and 3, and found that those whose mothers took acetaminophen, especially during the third trimester of their pregnancy, had smaller vocabularies and shorter sentence lengths. (1/3)
The Washington Post: Wearing Hearing Aids Could Reduce Your Risk Of Dying Earlier
For those with hearing loss, simply putting on hearing aids could be a lifesaver. New research, published Wednesday in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal, showed that people with hearing loss who regularly wore hearing aids had a 24-percent lower mortality risk than those who never wore them, regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, type of insurance, severity of hearing loss and other medical conditions. And the worse someone’s hearing loss was, the greater was their risk of an earlier death. (Morris, 1/3)
Bloomberg: Smokers Taking Old Generic Drug Cytisine Are Twice As Likely To Quit
Smokers taking a course of cytisine are twice as likely to kick the habit, researchers found as the UK prepares to introduce the plant-based drug this month. Scientists found that the treatment was twice as effective as a placebo — and marginally better than nicotine substitutes — in research published earlier this week in the medical journal Addiction. (Ganatra, 1/3)
Also —
CNN: Best Diet For 2024 Goes To A Science-Backed Style Of Eating
For the seventh year in a row, the Mediterranean style of eating earned the title of best overall diet, according to 2024 ratings that U.S. News & World Report announced Wednesday. The Mediterranean diet also ranked first in the categories of easiest diet to follow, best family-friendly diet, best diet for healthy eating and best diet for diabetes, bone and joint and heart-healthy eating, the report said. (LaMotte, 1/3)
The Atlantic: The Most Mysterious Cells In Our Bodies Don’t Belong To Us
Some 24 years ago, Diana Bianchi peered into a microscope at a piece of human thyroid and saw something that instantly gave her goosebumps. The sample had come from a woman who was chromosomally XX. But through the lens, Bianchi saw the unmistakable glimmer of Y chromosomes—dozens and dozens of them. “Clearly,” Bianchi told me, “part of her thyroid was entirely male.” The reason, Bianchi suspected, was pregnancy. (Wu, 1/3)
CBS News: Ever Wonder Why Urine Is Yellow? Researchers Say They've Figured It Out
Researchers identified the enzyme responsible for urine's color, unraveling a mystery that's puzzled scientists for years, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Microbiology. "It's remarkable that an everyday biological phenomenon went unexplained for so long, and our team is excited to be able to explain it," Brantley Hall, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, said in a news statement. (Chasan, 1/3)
