Science Says: Are hot dogs healthier without added nitrites?

PARIS: Long-term, daily use of aspirin to prevent blood clots in very elderly patients leads to an increased risk of serious or fatal internal bleeding, researchers said on Wednesday. Heartburn medication would allows people 75 years and older to keep the preventative benefits of aspirin while avoiding its dangerous side-effects, they reported in the medical journal The Lancet. Even among people ...

An anti-diabetic drug that lowers blood sugar levels for type 2 diabetes sufferers also significantly cuts the risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease, according to a study published Monday. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, came in a clinical trial of more than 10,000 patients in 30 countries, using canagliflozin. It found the drug reduced the overall risk of ...

Newer cancer drugs that enlist the body's immune system are improving the odds of survival, but competition between them is not reining in prices that can now top $250,000 a year. The drugs' success for patients is the result of big bets in cancer therapy made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N), Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) and Roche Holding AG (ROG.S), among others in big pharma. The industry's ...

PARIS: Medical NGOs mounted a new legal bid Monday to break a US pharma giant’s hold on a hepatitis C drug whose price – costing thousands of dollars for a typical course – has unleashed a fierce patent battle. The drug, known by its lab name as sofosbuvir, cures 90 per cent of Hep C cases, bringing hopes for millions infected with the dangerous liver virus. But critics say the ...

Professional footballers are at heightened risk of developing a brain disease that can cause dementia and is usually found in boxers and American football players, a study published on Wednesday suggests. The study, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, looked at 14 retired footballers with dementia who had started playing football and heading the ball in childhood or their early ...

DAVOS :  MSD, known as Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A., inside the United States and Canada, announced Thursday its $10 million commitment to the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child to improve maternal and child health in low- and lower-middle-income countries worldwide through its MSD for Mothers initiative. Through the GFF – a ...

PARIS: People who survive Ebola may still battle debilitating health problems a year after being declared infection-free, according to an ongoing trial in Guinea which highlighted the need for patient followup. Three-quarters of survivors had post-Ebola symptoms when they enrolled for the trial about a year, on average, after they were discharged from hospital, researchers reported ...

Britain's health service is engulfed in a "humanitarian crisis" that requires the support of the Red Cross to use Land Rovers to transport patients, the charity said on Saturday. Founded in 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) is a source of huge pride for many Britons who are able to access care for free from the cradle to the grave. But tight budgets, an ageing population and increasingly ...

WASHINGTON: The cancer death rate in the United States has dropped 25 percent from a peak in 1991, mainly due to a steady decline in smoking and advances in early detection and treatment of tumors, new research released Thursday shows. The rate decrease means there were about 2.1 million fewer deaths between 1991 and 2014, according to an annual report by the American Cancer Society (ACS). "The ...

KARACHI: Despite a 79 percent worldwide decrease in measles deaths between 2000 and 2015, nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day, leading health organisations said in a report released from Geneva. "Making measles history is not mission impossible," said Robin Nandy, UNICEF Immunisation Chief. "We have the tools and the knowledge to do it; what we lack is the political will to ...

ISLAMABAD: The mosquito-borne Zika virus will no longer be treated as an international medical emergency, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared. By lifting its nine-month-old declaration, the UN's health agency is acknowledging that Zika is here to stay. The infection has been linked to severe birth defects in almost 30 countries. These include microcephaly, where babies are born with ...

GENEVA: A new device has allowed two monkeys to regain use of their paralysed legs by transmitting brain signals wirelessly, bypassing their spinal cord lesions, a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature said. The implantable device, called a neuroprosthetic interface, was developed by an international team led by researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) and may ...

The sugary hazelnut paste Nutella has been beloved the world over for 50 years. But is it a desert or a jam? The makers of the cocoa-flavored spread say consumers in the United States are far more likely to spread it on toast than on ice cream, and they are pressuring US authorities to recognize this -- a move that would halve the product's official serving size, and thus reduce the fat, sugar ...

The Singapore government said on Thursday it had discovered 31 more cases of locally transmitted Zika virus, including a second pregnant woman, taking the total number of cases to 151. Of the 31, three cases were not linked to any of the previously existing clusters, a joint statement from the Ministry of Health and the National Environment Agency said. Singapore is the only Asian country with ...

PESHAWAR: At least 1,000 thousands patients were benefited from the free medical camps arranged by FATA Health Directorate under mobile hospital program, said a press release issued here today. In the said camps thousands of people got free medical treatment in the form of free medicines and diagnostic tests at their doorsteps. The camps are arranged frequently in far flung areas of FATA where ...

Commonly used drugs for problems like colds, allergies, depression, high blood pressure and heart disease have long been linked to cognitive impairment and dementia. Now researchers have some fresh evidence that may help explain the connection. The drugs, known as anticholinergics, stop a chemical called acetylcholine from working properly in the nervous system. By doing so, they can relieve ...

Scientists in Brazil have uncovered a new brain disorder associated with Zika infections in adults: an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, that attacks the brain and spinal cord. Zika has already been linked with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis that ...

Two Vietnamese women have contracted the Zika virus which has been linked to thousands of suspected cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, and are the first Zika infections in Vietnam, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. A 64-year-old woman in the beach city of Nha Trang and another woman, 33, in Ho Chi Minh City fell sick in late March, and three rounds of tests have confirmed ...

India's top cigarette maker ITC Ltd, part-owned by British American Tobacco, said it was not ready to print bigger health warnings on its packs as mandated by the government and will keep its factories shut until clarity emerges on the new rules. ITC's comments highlight the latest tussle between India's $10 billion cigarette industry and the government after new rules kicked in on Friday ...

Researchers around the world are now convinced the Zika virus can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The statement represented the U.N. health agency's strongest language to date on the connection between the mosquito-borne virus and the two maladies. The ...

U.S. scientists have identified a genetically modified strain of mice that develop Zika, an important tool needed for testing vaccines and medicines to treat the virus that is rapidly spreading across the Americas and the Caribbean. Early tests on the mice show the virus growing in the testes, offering clues about how a virus typically spread by mosquito bites can be transmitted sexually. "We are ...

Chile has confirmed its first case of the Zika virus having been sexually transmitted, the health ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday. The virus is linked to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects in Brazil. The new case in Chile is that of a 46-year-old woman whose partner was infected while in Haiti. Chile, where the mosquitoes that transmit the virus are not found, ...

A fifth person has died of Ebola in southeast Guinea since March 17, a health official told Reuters on Tuesday, raising concerns that a recent flare-up of the deadly virus could spread. The latest case was detected in Macenta prefecture, about 200 kilometers from the village of Korokpara where the four other recent Ebola-related deaths occurred, said Fode Sylla Tass, spokesman for National ...

SRINAGAR: Wailing parents carrying babies in their laps rushed to hospitals in whatever transport they could gather when rumour spread through the Indian Occupied Kashmir Valley on Sunday that children were dying after they were given anti-polio drops. The rumour started on social networking sites, with WhatsApp and mobile phone calls doing the rest. Within hours, streets choked with cars, autos, ...

Islamabad: A new study suggests that a form of acupuncture may benefit patients with high blood pressure and lower their risk of stroke and heart disease. Electroacupuncture is a form of acupuncture that applies low-intensity electrical pulses through needles inserted at specific points on the body. The single-blind trial, conducted at the University of California-Irvine (UCI), is the first ...

Islamabad: Kids who skip breakfast will be nutritionally short-changed all day, an expert says. "Growing bodies and developing brains need regular, healthy meals," Carole Adler, a dietitian at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said in an agency news release. The morning meal doesn't have to include traditional breakfast foods. Give children foods they like, as long as you maintain a healthy ...

LOS ANGELES: McDonald's Corp, which is expected to offer all-day breakfasts starting this fall to turn around slumping U.S. sales, is the top choice for "Breakfastarians," who crave breakfast food at any hour, according to a new survey obtained on Monday. Forty-one percent of consumers who eat breakfast twice a day consider McDonald's for their next meal, according to the survey from YouGov ...

Islamabad: Smartphones could provide a useful way of telling when people are depressed, according to new research.Tracking the number of minutes a phone is used, and its location, can provide clues about the user's state of mind, a study suggests.The more time someone spends on his or her phone, the greater the chance they are depressed, the researchers claim.The average daily usage for depressed ...

Spending more leisure time sitting down increases the risk of cancers of the breast, ovaries and bone marrow in women, scientists have found. More time sitting down increased the chance of cancer by 10 per cent in women – but did not affect men. For years, too little physical activity has been recognised as bad for one’s health. But recently researchers have focused on sitting down as ...