South Asia has emerged as the global epicentre of anemia among adolescent girls and women, with more than 259 million currently affected, according to a joint warning issued by the United Nations agencies and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The condition, often overlooked, is not only a health concern—it’s a signal of deeper systemic failures across health, nutrition, and education sectors.

The Hidden Toll of Anemia

Anemia impairs the body's ability to carry oxygen, leading to chronic fatigue, weakened immunity, and in severe cases, complications during pregnancy and childbirth. It also limits educational attainment and economic participation, reinforcing gender inequality and poverty.

The impact extends beyond individuals. An estimated 40% of the world’s low birth weight cases are linked to maternal anemia, contributing to poor childhood growth, delayed cognitive development, and lifelong disadvantages.

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In economic terms, anemia costs South Asia a staggering $32.5 billion every year, draining resources and limiting regional development.

Anemia in Girls: A Preventable but Persisting Health Crisis

Despite its scale, anemia is both preventable and treatable. Public health experts emphasize that the tools already exist: regular iron and folic acid supplementation, diets rich in iron and essential vitamins, clean water and sanitation, deworming, and access to quality maternal health care.

However, to make meaningful progress, countries must take an integrated, multi-sectoral approach—linking health, nutrition, education, and social protection systems.

Countries And Their Strategies To Combat Anemia

Several countries in the region are already demonstrating how focused interventions can bring results.

Sri Lanka, where nearly one in five women of reproductive age is anemic, is expanding its national nutrition programmes, targeting high-burden districts with stronger maternal services.

India has begun integrating iron supplementation into school and antenatal care in high-prevalence states, aiming to reach adolescent girls and expectant mothers directly.

Pakistan is piloting community-based nutrition and reproductive health services, improving early detection and follow-up care in rural areas.

Bangladesh is leveraging school systems to deliver fortified meals and health education to adolescents, with ministries of health, education, and agriculture working in tandem.

Smaller nations like the Maldives and Bhutan are also stepping up, focusing on early prevention, public awareness, and food fortification. Both have invested in data-driven anemia monitoring and inter-ministerial collaboration.

Nepal, meanwhile, has shown what sustained, community-driven action can achieve. Since 2016, the country has reduced anemia among women of reproductive age by 7%, with particularly notable improvements in low-income regions. Much of this progress is credited to the efforts of female community health volunteers, who counsel families, connect them to services, and distribute nutrition support packages such as the Sutkeri Poshan Koseli—a food and cash support scheme for new mothers.

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Understanding the Root Causes of This Preventable Condition

The new report emphasizes that ending anemia is not just a medical goal—it’s a developmental imperative. While governments must lead the charge with strong policies and investments, meaningful change also requires engagement from communities, schools, health workers, and families.

Integrated health systems, targeted data, and cross-sector action can help South Asia’s girls and women break the cycle of malnutrition and unlock their full potential. Ultimately, addressing anemia is about more than preventing disease—it's about building resilient communities, stronger economies, and a healthier future for all.

The NHS has issued a warning for anyone using a common painkiller, highlighting possible harmful interactions with other medications. Across the UK, many people turn to over-the-counter medicines for daily aches, colds, and minor illnesses. Among these, paracetamol is one of the most widely used, often taken for headaches, back pain, and cold symptoms. But, like any medication, it carries certain risks.

Who Should Be Careful?

The NHS has provided guidance on using paracetamol safely, including which drug combinations should be avoided. “Paracetamol is not suitable for some people,” the health body explains. This includes individuals who take warfarin, a drug that prevents blood clots. If you are on warfarin, you should check with your GP before taking paracetamol, the NHS advises. “Paracetamol can raise the risk of bleeding in those who regularly take warfarin.”

Safe Dosing Guidelines

Small doses of paracetamol alongside warfarin are generally considered safe. The NHS adds: “It’s safe to take paracetamol if you’re on warfarin. Stick to the lowest dose that relieves your pain. Exceeding four 500mg tablets in 24 hours for more than a few days can slow your blood clotting, putting you at risk of bleeding.”

Avoid Double Dosing

Combining paracetamol with other medicines containing the same ingredient—like co-codamol or some cold and flu remedies—can be risky due to the danger of overdose. Other common painkillers, such as ibuprofen, aspirin, or codeine, do not contain paracetamol and can safely be taken at the same time.

Check with Your Doctor

The NHS advises consulting a doctor before taking paracetamol if you’re on medications for epilepsy or tuberculosis (TB), as these combinations can also pose risks.

Herbal Remedies and Supplements

Generally, paracetamol is not affected by herbal supplements, though the NHS notes: “There isn’t enough information to say whether herbal remedies, complementary medicines, or supplements are safe with paracetamol. They are not tested the same way as prescription or pharmacy medications and may interact differently.” Patients should inform their doctor or pharmacist about any other medicines or supplements they are taking.

Side Effects of Paracetamol

When taken at the recommended dose, paracetamol “very rarely” causes side effects. For a full list, refer to the information leaflet inside the packaging.

Serious Allergic Reactions

In rare cases, a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) can occur. The NHS advises calling 999 immediately if you notice:

• Swelling of lips, mouth, throat, or tongue
• Rapid or labored breathing, wheezing, or a choking sensation
• A tight throat or difficulty swallowing
• Skin, lips, or tongue turning blue, grey, or pale (on darker skin, check palms or soles)
• Sudden confusion, extreme drowsiness, or dizziness
• Fainting and unresponsiveness
• A child appearing limp, floppy, or unresponsive, with difficulty lifting or focusing their head

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related death, according to the American Cancer Society. They state that colorectal cancer deaths in 2025 is expected to be 52,900. But why is the number so high, despite so many available treatments? One of the reasons behind it is the lack of early diagnosis.

However, with the help of a recent study that could completely change how we treat bowel cancer, also called colorectal cancer, scientists have found a moment very early on in the cancer life that they call the "Big Bang."

This moment is the key to understanding how the tumor grows and, most importantly, how it figures out how to hide from your body's immune system. Finding this hidden step gives doctors a new target for stopping cancer early and making existing powerful treatments work better.

Why is Cancer Difficult To Treat?

Bowel cancer is a significant problem, and while immunotherapy (which uses your own immune system to fight the disease) is a very promising treatment, it only works for a small number of people. This new research explains why the rest of the tumors are resistant. The “Big Bang” is the stage where the cancer cells essentially change their identity. They use complex biological tricks to stop showing the normal signs that would alert the immune system. This allows the cancer to secure its survival right from the start, dictating how dangerous it will be as it continues to grow.

How Do Cancer Cells Hide?

The main trick the cancer uses to hide is tied to something called neoantigens. Think of these as little "wanted" posters on the cancer cell's surface that tell the immune system, "Attack me!" The study found that cancer cells disrupt the creation of these posters. They do this using epigenetics. This doesn't involve changing the actual DNA code itself, but rather changing how the DNA is organized and read—like changing the font size or color of the book without changing the words. By making the part of the DNA that creates the "wanted" posters inaccessible, the cancer cells remove their disguise, effectively cloaking themselves and becoming invisible to your body's defenses.

Does Catching Colorectal Cancer Early Help?

The discovery that some bowel cancers essentially have this hidden evasion capability built in very early has massive implications for how doctors fight the disease. Experts like Professor Trevor Graham suggest that if doctors can treat the tumor right at or even before this “Big Bang” moment, they could make current treatments much more successful. This is also key for making cancer vaccines. Instead of just treating the existing tumor, these new vaccines could train your immune system to recognize and attack those "born-to-be-bad" cells before they can fully hide and cause the cancer to come back.

Is There A Better Way To Treat Colorectal Cancer?

This study was incredibly detailed because the scientists combined multiple high-tech ways of looking at the cancer, genetics, RNA, and epigenetics. Since they know how the cancer uses epigenetics to hide, they can now look for new combined treatments. For example, they propose mixing immunotherapy with epigenome-modifying drugs.

These special drugs could potentially force the cancer to put its "wanted" posters back up, making the cells visible again for the immunotherapy to destroy. This kind of personalized approach could help doctors predict how a tumor will act and design treatment just for that patient.

This "Big Bang" discovery is a major step forward in understanding bowel cancer. It gives scientists a single, unifying event that dictates how the tumor will behave and resist treatment.

This knowledge is important because it could lead to biomarkers, through simple tests, that tell doctors which patients will respond well to immunotherapy and which won't. Ultimately, this research promotes a new way of thinking: instead of just reacting to cancer once it's established, doctors can start to understand it proactively at its very beginning, leading to better outcomes for patients.

That sudden, foggy feeling where you can't focus, especially when you're super tired? New research suggests that these moments of zoning out are actually your brain's last-ditch effort to do the important cleaning it normally saves for when you're fast asleep. Your brain is trying to take a quick, emergency break.

We have all had days when focusing seems too difficult and you keep ‘spacing out’. When this happens, you take a moment to regain your composure and get back to what you were doing. While you may think that it is a simple lapse in attention, there is a lot that happens in your brain during this time.

The research, published in the Nature Neuroscience, shows this is the time your brain does its ‘maintenance work’ to ensure maximum functionality.

Why Do We Zone Out?

Scientists at MIT used special scanners to look deep inside the brain while people were trying to concentrate. They discovered that the exact moment someone zoned out, a wave of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a clear fluid that surrounds the brain, whooshed out, and then flowed right back in. This movement of fluid looks exactly like the process that happens during deep sleep, when the fluid washes away built-up waste and toxins from the day. When you're awake and tired, your brain is trying to force this cleaning process to happen.

How Does Our Brain Keep Functioning Fluidly?

A leading neuroscientist from the study explained that if you skip sleep, these cleaning waves start happening while you're awake, even though they shouldn't. The problem is that while the fluid is flowing and cleaning, you lose your ability to pay attention. It's a trade-off: your brain tries to clean up, but the price is that you can't focus on what you're doing. It’s almost like your brain is desperately trying to squeeze in a tiny bit of "microsleep" maintenance, which steals your focus.

The researchers had people do tests in the lab twice: once after they were well-rested, and once after they stayed up all night. Unsurprisingly, people performed much worse when they hadn't slept. Critically, the zoning out happened far more often after the all-nighter. When they looked at the brain data, they saw a clear pattern: when people's reaction times slowed down (meaning they were zoning out), the big fluid cleaning waves were always present. This strongly suggests your tired brain is trying to use these quick cycles to restore function, even if it makes you temporarily lose focus.

How Do We Know When We Zone Out?

The research revealed that when people zoned out, not only did the brain fluid move, but other things changed, too. Their breathing and heart rate slowed down, and their pupils got smaller. This makes the scientists suspect that a single, powerful "master switch" in the body controls both your high-level functions (like attention and perception) and these automatic, basic physical processes (like fluid movement and heart rate). The finding suggests that a lack of sleep affects your whole body through one central system.