Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trying To Change Laws To Prevent SNAP Participants From Buying Soda Is Daunting, Researchers Say
WBUR: Food Stamps For Soda: Time To End Billion-Dollar Subsidy For Sugary Drinks?
According to a 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sweetened beverages, including soda, are among the most commonly purchased items by recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP. ..."Low-income American adults now consume nearly two [sugar-sweetened beverage] servings a day, and for every one to two daily servings consumed, the lifetime risk of developing diabetes increases by 30 percent," according to a paper published this year by Harvard adjunct public policy professor Robert Paarlberg. (Aubrey, 10/29)
NBC News: Evacuated After 'Health Attacks' In Cuba And China, Diplomats Face New Ordeals In U.S.
What follows is the first comprehensive account of the extraordinary chain of events set off by a suspected "health attack," as the U.S. calls the mysterious phenomena, on a U.S. worker abroad. It draws on interviews with more than a dozen current U.S. officials, a written testimonial from [Catherine] Werner's mother to members of Congress obtained by NBC News, internal State Department documents, recorded conversations and other interviews. NBC News also reviewed hundreds of pages of medical records of U.S. government workers evacuated from both Cuba and China, including those the U.S. has "medically confirmed" were attacked and those it ultimately said were not. (Lederman, 10/29)
WBUR: Study: Do Even Older Moms Have To Wait 18 Months Between Pregnancies?
A new paper in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine uses medical records from nearly 150,000 Canadian pregnancies to tease out how a mother's age influences the effects of a shorter-than-recommended interval between pregnancies. For older moms in a hurry, the bad news is that the study adds evidence that conceiving within 12 months of a birth does mean heightened health risks for both mother and child. (Goldberg, 10/29)
The Hill: FDA Takes Step Toward Requiring Allergy Labels For Sesame
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday took a step to consider requiring sesame to be listed as an allergen on food labels. The request for information came in response to growing concerns about the prevalence of allergies to sesame seeds, which are currently not among the major allergens that are required to be disclosed on food ingredient lists. (Sullivan, 10/29)
The Associated Press: Jets' Leggett Helping Raise Awareness For Abdominal Injuries
Jordan Leggett remembers the sudden buzz on the sideline and in the stands as cellphones lit up with texts delivering the scary news. A young player from a rival high school football squad in Florida had been seriously injured during a game and he might not make it. "Everybody on the team where I was from was like, 'Oh, man, he must've just got like a big hit,'" the New York Jets tight end recalled. "We heard later that he passed away, so it was kind of a big deal." (Waszak, 10/29)
The Washington Post: How Dogs Could Help Eradicate Malaria
Steven Lindsay, a public health entomologist at Durham University in England, has been researching malaria control for decades. His preferred approach, he says, is to “sit on the boundaries,” drumming up ideas that others might not. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that his latest project was inspired by the baggage-claim area at Dulles International Airport. If the beagles there could use their noses to detect explosives or contraband in suitcases, he wondered, could they also be trained to sniff out an intractable disease that kills more than 400,000 people each year? (Brulliard, 10/29)
The New York Times: Why Is CBD Everywhere?
It’s hard to say the precise moment when CBD, the voguish cannabis derivative, went from being a fidget spinner alternative for stoners to a mainstream panacea. ... So the question now becomes: Is this the dawning of a new miracle elixir, or does all the hype mean we have already reached Peak CBD? Either way, it would be hard to script a more of-the-moment salve for a nation on edge. (Williams, 10/27)
