Health

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) on Tuesday said it has intercepted 33 containers of Tramadol which were being conveyed to a yet-to-be-ascertained location in the country. The Director-General of NAFDAC Prof Christiana Adeyeye who disclosed this in Abuja while speaking at the National Chemical Security Training Conference also hinted that 3 trucks laden with tramadol were seized at the Apapa Ports in Lagos.

Two types of blood pressure medications — alpha blockers and alpha 2 agonist — show increased variability in blood pressure measurements between doctor visits, which is associated with an increased risk of death, according to new research from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has added a so-called Disease X to its list of maladies that could potentially harm humanity and result to an epidemic of global proportions, despite the fact scientists are yet to discover it.

The unknown disease could be as detrimental as some diseases that spread terror across the world centuries ago, before modern medicine techniques appeared and fought diseases that were thought to be incurable.

WHO on its website said “Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.”

The Federal Government says treatment for Lassa fever remains free and urged members of the public to disregard news to the contrary.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this in a statement on Sunday.

The NCDC boss disclosed this in a reaction to newspaper reports that the high cost of treating Lassa fever was responsible for the high mortality rate recorded so far in the country.

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.

According to a study published in the Journal Neurology, people living in areas that receive more sun rays are likely to develop multiple sclerosis later in life. In multiple sclerosis, immune system tends to attack the protective sheath that covers nerve fibres and cause communication problems between the brain and rest of the body.

The disease can cause the nerves themselves to deteriorate or become permanently damaged. As per the researchers, adequate sun exposure in childhood and young adulthood may especially be beneficial in terms of reduced multiple sclerosis risks.