Sleep Apnea Linked to Depression, CDC Study Finds

Erik Snyder/Photodisc(WASHINGTON) -- Gasping for air and stopping breathing while sleeping has been linked to depression, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The condition, known as sleep apnea, occurs when a person's breathing is paused or interrupted while sleeping.  The pauses, which can last a couple seconds to a minute, can cut off oxygen from the brain and the rest of the body.  Symptoms of the condition include snoring, daytime fatigue and restless sleep.

"When a person stops breathing like this, they are momentarily brought out of deeper levels of sleep," said Anne G Wheaton, a CDC epidemiologist and lead author of the study.  "They may not fully wake up, but they will not get the proper amount of rest."

The study, published in the journal Sleep, analyzed nearly 10,000 American adults.  Researchers found that the likelihood of depression in study participants increased along with the self-reported rate of gasping and stopping breathing while sleeping.

About six percent of men and three percent of women enrolled in the study reported having been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.  Otherwise, participants had not been diagnosed with the disorder, but described symptoms of gasping, snorting, restlessness while sleeping and daytime fatigue.

"Mental health professionals often ask patients with depression about their sleeping habits, and there is a known link between depression and insomnia, but less about depression and this specific sleep disorder," said Wheaton.

While there have been small studies with smaller study populations that have examined the link in the past, this is the first study to look at the link between sleep apnea and depression in the general population, said Wheaton.

Cells need oxygen to "perform whatever tasks there are for the brain to perform and if they're not getting enough, a person's physical and mental health seems to suffer," said Wheaton.

Men are more at risk of sleep apnea than women.  Obesity puts people at greater risk of apnea because the extra weight around the neck can cut off breathing.  Being older than 40 and having a large neck size also puts people at greater risk for the sleep disorder.

Despite the potential health issues associated with the disorder, most people are unaware of the difficulty they have breathing while sleeping.  It is usually only after a bed partner notices the breathing problems that a diagnosis is revealed.

While the research adds an important element to understanding depression and sleep disorders, the findings should be taken with caution because of the study's self-reporting nature.

"People are poor reporters of their sleep symptoms in general," said Dr. Rosalind Cartwright, chairman of psychology at Rush University Medical Center.  "The authors make up for this with large numbers to wash out error but [did] better if they asked the bed partner for these data."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Autism Rates Rise to 1 in 88, CDC Says

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- One in 88 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, by age 8, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- a rate that has risen far above the 2006 estimate of 1 in 110.

But experts remain locked in debate about whether these numbers tell the whole story.

The CDC report, which analyzed data from 2008, indicates a 23 percent rise in diagnoses of ASDs over a two-year period.

The news could be most alarming for boys. The study reports that on average 1 in 54 boys was diagnosed with autism, compared to only 1 in 252 girls.

But what this rise actually means is still a mystery. Some doctors contacted by ABC News believe a broader definition of autism has contributed to rising rates.

"I think it has to do with changing diagnostic criteria, including mine over the years which have made me label many more children as being on the autism spectrum than say 10-20 years ago," said Dr. Isabelle Rapin, professor of pediatrics and neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "Not only physicians, but parents, teachers, therapists and the public are much more aware of the symptoms of autism, and I suspect some may apply the diagnosis based on one symptom, which is inadequate."

Dr. Lisa Shulman, also at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, echoed this concern.

"Over the years, children with autistic disorder remain a relatively small group in our center," said Shulman, director of Infant and Toddler Services at Einstein and an associate professor of pediatrics. "It is the group of children with milder social-communicative impairment and without a large array of mannerisms and atypical interests consistent with an ASD diagnosis that has increased significantly."

The data was collected by The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring network, an organization funded by the CDC to track autism rates. For this report, the ADDM reviewed medical records of 8-year-old children from 14 different areas across the country.

The study focused specifically on 8-year-olds because most autism spectrum diagnoses are made by the time a child reaches their eighth birthday. The signs of autism are often seen much earlier, however. Some experts believe that the first hints of abnormal behavior can be seen as early as 6 to 12 months.

As for the new research, the CDC was quick to caution that these results may not be applicable to the whole country, as data from only certain sites around the nation was collected. This means that the CDC report relies on the records of many different providers across the country.

Numbers aside, scientists are still searching for what causes autism in the first place.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

CDC Launches Graphic Anti-Smoking Campaign

David De Lossy/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- In A Tip From a Former Smoker, Terrie, a frail, bald and toothless 51-year-old woman explains to viewers in her achingly raspy voice how she gets ready for her day. We see her putting in false teeth, adjusting her wig and placing her hands-free voice box on her throat before she ties a scarf around her neck to cover the hole there. Such a hole is usually the result of a laryngectomy, surgery that removes cancer-ridden parts of the throat.

The 30-second PSA is part of a $54 million campaign called Tips From Former Smokers launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Using graphic, true-to-life images, the ads are intended to shock people into giving up their smoking habit.

The campaign is an attempt to counter the more than $100 billion that tobacco companies spend on marketing and promotion, but is “a drop in the bucket in terms of what it’s going to cost us when compared to what tobacco companies are spending to market cigarettes,” said Dr. Tim McAffee, director of the office on smoking and health at  the CDC.

“They will spend in two days what we will spend in one year to combat their marketing. We need to make sure the American people understand the risks instead of receiving information from marketing campaigns that are carefully crafted to promote cigarette smoking.”

The CDC’s anti-smoking advertising blitz has been in the works for more than a year, but the CDC decided to launch it now after a recent surgeon general’s report  found that the decline in smoking had slowed in adults and  come to a virtual halt in young people.

About 3 million American high school students and more than 45 million adults smoke cigarettes. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., according to the CDC.

CDC health officials analyzed the impact of graphic smoking advertising campaigns throughout different states and different countries, said McAffee. The uncomfortable photos and videos of former smokers seem to convey the dangers of smoking in a way that encourages people to quit.

“Most smokers know they’re going to shorten their lives from smoking, but a lot don’t realize that smoking does not just kill but leads to long-term suffering,” said McAfee.

They hope that the billboards, radio, print and TV ads will sway up to 50,000 Americans to quit smoking.

“We expect over half a million people to be inspired and encouraged to quit and about 50,000 to quit permanently after seeing these ads,” said McAffee. “We have scientific evidence that shows that these graphic ads can be successful in getting the word out for people to quit.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

After Slow Start, Flu Season Has Arrived

Digital Vision/Thinkstock(ATLANTA) -- After a late start, the flu season ball has begun to roll, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said it has been the slowest start to a flu season in three decades, but the first week of February seemed to change that tune. The percentage of specimens testing positive for influenza rose from 7.6 percent two weeks ago to 10.5 percent last week.

“The increases we are seeing in the number of respiratory samples testing positive for flu should forecast increases in other flu activity indicators in the coming weeks,” Lyn Finelli, chief of domestic surveillance for the CDC’s Influenza Division, said in a statement.

Still, most of the country hasn’t seen the flu’s full effects yet. Flu season can start as early as October and can last until May, and the timing of the season is quite unpredictable, according to the report.

The western states have seen a small increase in flu activity, but the Northeast and Midwest are reporting minimal cases of flu. California is the first state to report widespread influenza this season.

ABC News reached out to several experts on influenza. A few reported seeing more types of viral activity aside from influenza, but it is unclear whether this indicates true prevalence;  it might just be more noticeable because there are fewer flu cases this year.

“We have had several other viruses, [including] rhinovirus, coronavirus and metapneumovirus,” said Dr. Daniel Hinthorn of the infectious disease department at University of Kansas Hospital and Medical Center. “These can have a cold-like illness with some minor fever and aching but not nearly so bad as influenza. So far, there have been few cases of flu and flu-like illness compared to last year.”

Also, mild weather patterns may be a factor in the mild or late start to the season, experts said.

In New York, Dr. Tracy Zivin-Tutela of the infectious disease department at St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital said the hospital had seen a bigger surge in gastrointestinal viruses.

Nevertheless, “I would not count the flu out yet for the season,” said Zivin-Tutela. “It is possible we will see a delay in the surge of flu activity due to the mild winter.  We could start to see a spike in March or even later.”

Still, flu season is far from over, and experts continue to implore people to get flu shots if they haven’t already.  On top of that, hand-washing is key to preventing the flu. If you get the flu, be sure to stay home and away from people while sick.

“It is not too late to get a flu shot, and it’s a good idea to get one every year,” said Elizabeth Casman, associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. “Getting vaccinated not only protects you but also protects the people you would have infected if you had not been vaccinated and caught the flu.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Lipsticks, Perfumes May Be Hazardous to Health

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Beware of lipstick-stained lips before puckering up this Valentine’s Day. They could be covered in lead.

A new study conducted by the FDA found that 400 lipsticks on the market tested positive for lead, according to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition that advocates for safer cosmetics and hygiene products.

Maybelline Color Sensation by L’Oreal USA was the worst-offending lipstick of the group tested, the Campaign said. It contained more than 275 times the amount of lead that was found in the least-contaminated product.

Children’s products in the U.S. cannot contain more than 100 parts per million of lead. The highest offending lipstick contained 7.19 parts per million, the group said.

“There is no safe level of lead exposure,” Stacy Malkan, co-founder of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, told ABC News. “It builds up in the body over time. A little bit every day is adding up and staying with you.”

Malkan said women use an average of 12 cosmetic and hygiene products per day.

Lead is a poisonous metal and it was banned from paint products in the U.S. in 1978. The element is particularly dangerous to young children because it can cause blood and brain disorders in developing bodies.

There are no FDA standards in regulating the amount of chemicals in products, said Malkan.

“When these companies are asked about these chemicals, they argue, ‘it’s legal, so it’s OK,’” said Malkan. “That’s why we’re calling for the FDA to set a standard and give guidance to these companies for the best manufacturing practices.”

Lipstick is only the latest cosmetic to raise red flags. Kim Anderson, executive director of Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, a cosmetic line of chemical-free products, said customers should shy away from any product that lists “fragrance” as an ingredient.

“If they’re using the word fragrance, that company could be hiding up to 600 chemicals under that word,” said Anderson, who advocates for safer cosmetic regulations. “Seventy-five percent of the time, fragrances contain phthalates, a known-carcinogen that causes reproductive issues in the body.”

Even perfumes are coming under fire. A proposed bill in New Hampshire would prohibit state employees from spritzing on perfume or cologne before heading to work. The reason? For some people, these fragrances can cause severe allergic reactions.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is launching the Kiss Lead Goodbye contest Tuesday, when women are encouraged to submit video submissions to hear what they have to say to cosmetic giants that put lead in their products.

Learn more at www.SafeCosmetics.org/kissleadgoobye

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Whitney Houston's Death Highlights Accidental Drug Overdosing

Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Speculation surrounding the cause of pop star Whitney Houston's death highlights what many forensic experts have known for years -- many prescription drug overdoses happen because people fail to realize how deadly combining medications can be.

An estimated 27,000 people died from accidental drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2007 -- one death every 19 minutes -- according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. death rate from drug overdosing has tripled in the past decade, making prescription drug abuse the nation's fastest-growing drug problem.

Some of the commonly abused drugs include pain medications, anti-anxiety medications and stimulants. Most drug overdoses involve some combination of these medications, and some include alcohol.

Bottles of prescription drugs said to have been found in Houston's hotel room included Xanax, Valium and Ativan -- all of which are prescribed to treat anxiety.

According to TMZ.com, officials said Houston had water in her lungs at the time of her death, but they haven't determined how much water was present previously, so they can't yet say whether the singer, whose body was found in a bathtub with her face reportedly underwater, drowned.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist and former coroner in Allegheny County, Pa., said if Houston did drown, she would likely have been heavily under the influence of numerous drugs to not wake up after she slipped underwater. He explained that the body has a physiologic need to breathe and will respond reflexively if the head is submerged underwater.

"If you are deeply unconscious to the point of a deep stupor, then it is conceivable that there was a heavy concentration of drugs," he said. Wecht said he had performed about 300 autopsies in the past year, and a significant percentage of the deaths stemmed from drug overdoses.

The average number of drugs involved in those cases, he said, was about five or six, which were mixed.

Addiction experts believe that Houston's struggles with substance abuse may have played a role in her death, and although Houston had entered rehab multiple times, she likely could not break the cycle of relapse and recovery that traps many addicts.

Relapse is very common, especially with alcohol and cocaine, which Houston admitted she'd abused.

"What often happens with illegal drug addiction is that the treatment involves legal drugs, which can be even more challenging to quit," said Alesandra Rain, a co-founder of Point of Return, an organization that helps people recover from prescription drug addiction. "Because Xanax is legal, it gives much the false sense that they are safe."

Previous studies that looked at the relapse rate among addicts found that between one-third and two-thirds of people who sought treatment for cocaine addiction used the drug again. A number of studies also found that most alcoholics who were in treatment programs drank again.

Studies also suggest that some people may be genetically predisposed to addiction. Experts can distinguish who may be at greater risk for addiction by looking at a patient's family history and monitoring the patient's reaction to the medication, said Dr. Daniel Angres, medical director of resurrection addiction services at Rush University College of Medicine. Many spiral into prescription drug abuse without realizing it.

"People may go to different doctors and receive different [medications], or even go to the same doctor and add on," said Angres. "These things have significant potential effects."

According to TMZ, Houston was seen leaving two different doctors' offices days before her death.

Copyright 2012 Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Two Cases of Rare Brain Disease in California

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(MARIN COUNTY, Calif.) -- A California woman has died and another is sick after coming down with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal condition that swiftly destroys the brain.

The Marin County Department of Public Health is investigating the two cases, which are thought to be unrelated.

“We have no evidence that suggests a causal linkage between the suspect cases nor is there any evidence to suggest a risk in [the] food supply,” the department said in a statement.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is very rare, affecting roughly one in a million people each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is thought to be caused by an abnormal protein called prion, which erodes tiny holes in the brain, causing dementia and death in an average five months.

Most Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases are sporadic, meaning their cause is unknown, but a small fraction of cases are inherited. These cases are not contagious. A few very rare cases are linked to mad cow disease, which can be acquired through contaminated meat products, organ transplants and blood transfusions.

Laboratory tests have ruled out mad cow-related disease, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, in one of the Marin County cases. The other case is still under investigation, but public health officials suspect it, too, is unrelated to mad cow disease.

“While our investigation of both of these reported cases continues, we want to emphasize that we have no evidence of any environmental or public health risk in Marin County,” Dr. Craig Lindquist, Marin County interim public health officer, said in a statement.

The patients’ names and ages have not been released.

There have only been three variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases reported in the U.S. In all three cases, the patient acquired the disease outside the country.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Gonorrhea Becoming Increasingly Resistant to Antibiotics

John Foxx/Stockbyte/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Gonorrhea could be on track to becoming the latest potential superbug.

A new editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the concern for the rising rate of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea in the U.S. The increases were most prominent in people living in the western United States and in men who have sex with men.

“There is much to do and the threat of untreatable gonorrhea is emerging rapidly,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authors wrote in the commentary.

Gonorrhea, caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is the second-most common communicable disease in the U.S. More than 600,000 Americans contract the infection each year. Symptoms, which include burning while urinating, discharge, and pain during intercourse, usually appear two to five days after contracting the infection, although in some instances a person who has contracted the infection will not experience any symptoms.

The sexually transmitted disease is currently treated with third-generation cephalosporin, an antibiotic.  While the prevalence of resistance to the drug was about .1 percent in 2006, that number jumped to 1.7 percent by mid-2011, the editorial noted. The CDC first warned about antibiotic resistance among those who contracted gonorrhea in 2010.

But this isn’t the first time gonorrhea showed signs of drug resistance. During the 1940s and the 1980s, the infection showed resistance to the drugs treating the condition. The most jarring part of the problem, authors note, is that the antibiotic used today to treat the infection is the last available drug among the recommended antibiotics by the CDC, when taken along with doxycycline or azithromycin, two other oral antibiotics.

“A major component of the threat is that there really is no backup plan if, most likely, when these more resistant organisms become more prevalent,” said Dr. Kenneth Fife, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at Indiana University Medical School. “There are very few new drugs that have activity against the gonococcus and no clinical trials to establish the efficacy of the few drugs that might have promise.”

“Based on history, it is unlikely we will be able to prevent an outbreak,” added Fife.  “What we need is some new treatment options so we have a strategy for dealing with these more resistant strains once they become more common.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

CDC Urges HPV Vaccine for Boys

Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- All 11- and 12-year-old boys should be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, according to new vaccination guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The guidelines serve as the official recommendation of the conclusions of a CDC advisory panel vote in October that boys should be routinely vaccinated for HPV, which has been recommended since 2006 for girls of the same age with the aim of preventing cervical cancer.

The agency also recommends that 13- to 21-year-old males and 13- to 26-year-old females get the three-dose vaccination, if they have not already been vaccinated. Men ages 22 to 26 “may be vaccinated.”

Experts have noted that increasing evidence shows that the vaccine is highly effective in preventing HPV, leading many to support universal vaccination.

“Girls acquire the infection from boys and it seems appropriate, even fair, for boys to share responsibility for maximizing community [herd] immunity,” Dr. Lawrence Stanberry, chief pediatrician at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, told ABC News in October.

Calls for boys and men to get the HPV vaccine increased last week after a report that nearly 7 percent of U.S. teens and adults have oral HPV, a virus which can lead to oral cancer. The report said men were three times more likely to have oral HPV than women.

The vaccines currently available, like Merck’s Gardasil and Glaxo SmithKline’s Cervarix, have only been tested for their effectiveness against the viruses that lead to cervical, vulvar and anal cancers.

The CDC’s latest recommendations also say all persons with Type 1 or 2 diabetes should get the vaccine for hepatitis B. Dr. Sarah Schillie, a CDC scientist, said that advice came about after several outbreaks of hepatitis B in long-term care facilities that began in the 1990s and occurred more frequently in recent years. Schillie said the outbreaks were the result of improper infection control and shared blood glucose monitoring equipment.

The guidelines were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

CDC: Many Teen Girls Unaware of How Easily They Can Get Pregnant

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Many adolescent girls are confused about how easy it is to become pregnant, especially when contraceptives aren't used, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Data taken from the 2004 to 2008 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System of females between 15 and 19 years old found that one in two teens who had an unwanted pregnancy reported that neither they nor their partner used birth control.

In the group that dispensed with contraceptives, a third of girls claimed that they didn't think they could pregnant at that time, 23 percent said their partner refused to use birth control and about the same number had no problem with getting pregnant.

[CLICK HERE TO READ THE CDC REPORT]

Contraceptive use also didn't prevent teens from becoming pregnant, with 45 percent using either high effective or moderately effective birth control methods while five percent depended solely on the rhythm method.

The CDC says more needs to be done to educate teens about pregnancy and how to prevent it.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio