Like other parts of the globe, World Health Day was also observed in Pakistan on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organization (WHO). Each year on its anniversary, the organization selects a key global health issue and organizes international, regional and local events on the day and throughout the year to highlight the selected area. On this occasion, the WHO has called for an urgent action to ensure that … full story

Commonly prescribed sleeping pills are linked to manifold risk of premature death, says a study. These medications were also associated at higher doses with a 35-percent increased risk of cancer as compared with non-users, but the reason for this is unclear. Doctors led by Daniel Kripke of the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, looked at the medical records of more than 10,500 adults living in Pennsylvania who were … full story

A person's surrounding atmosphere and active daily life are important helpful factors to cure the disease of insomnia. Talking to PTV, Psychiatrist Aysha Mokim Qurashi said on Monday insomnia has many kinds such as primary and transitory insomnia. Sleeplessness in patches leads to chronic condition of insomnia in which the patient could never sleep properly in the normal sleeping hours. She said treatment of insomnia patients differ from person … full story

Once again, eating a diet based on fish, legumes, vegetables and moderate amounts of alcohol is linked to lower chances of dying from a heart attack, stroke or other vascular "events," according to a new study of New York City residents. The mostly Hispanic and black study participants did not necessarily eat traditional foods from Mediterranean countries, but the closer their diets were to the spirit of Mediterranean eating - with plenty of fish, … full story

Hi-tech medical scanners could be used to probe causes of death, reducing the need for invasive autopsies that can upset bereaved families, a study published in The Lancet on Tuesday says. In Britain, post-mortems are ordered in about a fifth of deaths, notably where crime is suspected. The procedure has changed little over the past century, entailing evisceration and then dissection of the major organs. Keen to find whether a non-invasive alternative … full story

Some brain cells are naturally protected against a stroke – and now we know why. Jack Mellor at the University of Bristol, UK, exposed slices of rats' hippocampi to the low-oxygen conditions typical of a stroke. Neurons in the hippocampi known to resist stroke damage acted differently from a population of vulnerable cells: they removed receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate from their cell surface, reducing their sensitivity to the chemical. … full story

Dietary protein reduces hunger and increases fullness in overweight men during weight loss programmes, a study says. Diets “containing 18 to 35 percent of daily calorie intake from dietary protein, are associated with reductions in hunger and increased fullness throughout the day and into the evening hours,” said Heather Leidy, study author and professor in nutrition at the University of Missouri. “In our study, the two groups ate either 25 or … full story

A breast cancer wonder drug could be turned into a universal weapon against tumours. Newcastle University researchers said a family of cancer drugs, known as PARP inhibitors, affect the way tumour cells repair themselves. These inhibitors target hereditary forms of breast cancer as well as ovarian prostate cancer and pancreatic tumours with the same rogue gene, the journal Nature Medicine reports. The drugs exploit the “Achilles heel” of hereditary … full story

If you want to improve the way you eat, the best way to do so is to first make an action plan and then visualise yourself carrying it out, researchers say. “Telling people to just change the way they eat doesn’t work; we’ve known that for a while,” says Bärbel Knäuper of McGill’s Department of Psychology. “What we’ve done that’s new is to add visualisation techniques to the action plan,” adds Knauper, the journal Psychology and Health reports. … full story

Curcumin, an extract of root turmeric, could destroy chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells and help fight the disease. This could improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy and also help prevent the condition from returning. Researchers at the University of Leicester in Britain have been using curcumin to target chemo-resistant cells. The aim is to use the extract in colorectal tumour tissue, which kills far more than 600,000 people every year and … full story