A three-fold jump since 1975 in the percentage of adults worldwide who are obese has been driven mainly by a shift in diet and lack of exercise, but genes do play a role as well, according a large-scale study.

KOTA KINABALU: For the past 25 years, Jean Chan, has been living with a disease with a thousand faces or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus), which can mimic so many other diseases.

PUTRAJAYA: Drug addicts in this country are no longer seen as criminals who must be punished but are patients in need of treatment and rehabilitation.

A new study by researchers at the University of Illinois suggests that three of the phenolic compounds in cocoa bean shells have powerful effects on the fat and immune cells in mice, potentially reversing the chronic inflammation and insulin resistance associated with obesity.

KOTA KINABALU: Cervical cancer is the second leading cancer after breast cancer among women in Sabah, according to the Sabah Cancer Registry Report 2006-2010. .

That’s the common refrain from hundreds of parents of preschoolers with peanut allergy that my colleagues and I have successfully treated with peanut “oral immunotherapy” over the past two years.

Around one in five children have eczema – and even mild cases can have a big impact on both the child and their family. For many, symptoms will come and go before they start primary school, but for others it can indicate the beginning of a genetic tendency to develop allergic conditions such as hay fever or asthma (or both).

Family physician and orthopedists rarely see a malignant bone tumour (most bone tumours are benign). The route to osteosarcoma diagnosis usually begins with an X-ray (pic), continues with a combination of scans (CT scan, PET scan, bone scan, MRI) and ends with a surgical biopsy.

Millions of people are infected with hepatitis B every year. Hundreds of thousands die. And small children are particularly at risk.

Researchers propose a possible therapeutic target to treat fatty liver, a disease for which there is currently no treatment.