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US: The Iowa and Illinois health departments said on Thursday that they were investigating cyclospora infections linked to salads at McDonald Corp’s restaurants. McDonald’s shares fell 1.4 percent after-hours on Thursday. The Illinois Department of Public Health said it had seen about 90 cases, and the Iowa Department of Public Health said it had recorded 15 cases. In about one-fourth of the Illinois cases, people reported eating salads from McDonald’s in the days before they became ill. McDonald’s, the…

PARIS: Certain genes can determine which people are more at risk of getting sunburnt, and possibly develop skin cancer as a result, scientists said Tuesday. In a trawl of the genetics of nearly 180,000 people of European ancestry in Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and United States, researchers found 20 sunburn genes. Eight of the genes had been associated with skin cancer in previous research, according to findings published in the journal Nature Communications. And in at least one region of the genome, "we…

Higher levels of Vitamin D in the blood may be linked to a lower risk of developing certain cancers, a study in Japanese adults reported Thursday. "These findings support the hypothesis that Vitamin D has protective effects against cancers at many sites," researchers reported in a study published in The BMJ medical journal. Vitamin D is made by the skin in response to sunlight. By maintaining calcium levels in the body, it helps keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.  While the benefits of Vitamin D on bone health…

NEW YORK: Older teens struggling with depression are more than twice as likely to drop out of high school as peers without that mental illness or those who recovered from a bout of depression earlier in life, Canadian researchers say. Understanding that current or recent depression raises dropout risk may encourage schools to put a higher priority on mental health services, the study team writes in the Journal of Adolescent Health. “This is the first study of its kind to look at depression symptoms in the year before…

LONDON: Asthma attacks serious enough to require steroid treatment or hospitalization may be less likely when people take vitamin D supplements, a recent analysis suggests. Researchers examined data combined from seven previously published studies with a total of 955 asthma patients who were randomly selected to take vitamin D or a placebo pill, in addition to any other medicines prescribed to manage their symptoms. When asthma patients took vitamin D supplements, they were 54 percent less likely to have an attack…

WASHINGTON: Breathing dirty air may increase the risk for kidney problems, a study in U.S. veterans suggests. “Air pollution is a risk factor for kidney disease development,” Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in St. Louis, Missouri, who helped conduct the research, told Reuters Health by phone. “You can argue that it’s even more of a problem in countries like China or India, where pollution is much, much, much worse.” Dr. Al-Aly and his team studied particulate matter (PM), tiny…

PARIS: Fewer children are dying before their fifth birthday and although humans are living longer than ever before, one in five deaths last year were linked to poor diet, researchers said Friday. More than 1.6 million people in poor countries died in 2016 from diarrhoea caused by contaminated water and food, while another 2.4 million succumbed to lung infections that mostly could have been prevented or treated. Another two million mothers and newborns perished due to complications at birth that rudimentary health care…

ISLAMABAD: PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday said Pakistan had an important stake in peace and stability in Afghanistan as Pakistan has suffered the most due to conflict in the neighbouring country. “Our country is committed to its support for the Afghan people and this has been in evidence over decades including through the presence of more than five million refugees for over three decades. Afghanistan’s peace is linked with peace and security in Pakistan,” he said while talking to US CENTCOM Commander General Joseph L.…

LONDON: People with both sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes have more than double the risk of worsening retina disease compared to diabetics without the sleep breathing disorder, a UK study suggests. Researchers followed adults with type 2 diabetes over about four years and found that for those with milder eye disease at the start, having sleep apnea was linked to higher odds that it would become more advanced. At the outset of the study, they also found that advanced “sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy” was already…

ISLAMABAD: In a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Eklil Ahmed Hakimi in Washington on Sunday, Federal Minister for Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said peace in Afghanistan was directly linked with the peace in its neighbouring countries especially Pakistan. “Pakistan is willing to work closely with Afghanistan to establish peace in the region. The strong economic ties between the two neighbouring countries are necessary to achieve the goal of peaceful neighbourhood,” said Dar. He strongly condemned the tragic…