A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck a remote area of northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, shaking the capital Kabul and killing 233 people – 200 in Pakistan and 33 in Afghanistan – and injuring thousands, officials said. The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range area where the quake was ...

East London Genes & Health, the world’s largest community based genetics study, is celebrating its first milestone with 4000 local participants taking part so far. The research project has also received a funding boost of £5m from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to build an East London Genes & Health Population Genomic Medicine Centre on Newark Street, Whitechapel. Launched ...

Barts Health NHS Trust is delighted to announce that Alwen Williams has been appointed as its substantive Chief Executive. The appointment follows an open and competitive selection process which included independent external assessment. Commenting on the appointment, Chair of the Trust John Bacon said: “I am personally delighted by this appointment and I would like to congratulate Alwen and wish ...

Everyone dies. The goal is to last as long as possible, and to go peacefully and with dignity. For much of the world, dying well is a challenge. A new report from the Economist, dubbed the Quality of Death Index, ranks nations based on the quality of their palliative and hospice care. The United Kingdom tops the list, with the ...

Australia is making key moves to legalise the growing of cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes, the government announced. Health Minister Sussan Ley said on Saturday that changes to existing legislation that bans the growing of marijuana will be introduced to parliament, with the aim of providing alternate treatment for people with debilitating illnesses, reports Al Jazeera. “This government is ...

The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company’s decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August. CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments. The drug is used ...

If you believe in that stunning picture of your friend on Facebook showing an amazing scenery or attending a luxurious party, take another look. Chances are that he or she may just be trying to make you jealous of their “good life”. According to a new British survey done by smartphone maker HTC, almost everybody lies on their Facebook and ...

Flossing is supposedly done to get rid of pieces of food and plaque from between your teeth, which if left to fester, can cause inflammation and disease. But flossing requires a high level of dexterity and if wrongly done, will do more harm than good, according to Robin Seymour, emeritus professor of dental sciences at Newcastle University, the Daily Mail ...

Soft drink lovers beware! A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicates that soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages can contribute to the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.The study is part of a new focus in medical researches on excess sugar as a risk for heart disease.Vasanti Malik, a nutritionist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan ...

You should lose weight in case you are overweight in order to avoid cancer for a new study, which analysed data relating to more than five million people, has found links between obesity and cancer. According to the study, published in the journal Lancet, more than 12,000 new cancers every year in Britain alone are associated with being overweight, Daily ...