Chioma Umeha

Nigeria can generate $500m from shea butter, sesame export – Expert By: Chioma Umeha  An expert has said that Nigeria can generate over $500 million yearly from shea nut butter and sesame oil. Stating this was former project 172 coordinator, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mrs Omowunmi Osibo, who maintained that  the country has the capacity to increase its 336,000 metric tonnes of shea butter production per year and create jobs.  She spoke during a training organised by  National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for traders, exporters and enforcement officers on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) / Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Project 172. Speaking on the theme, ‘Robust System For Safer Products And Exports Of Sesame Seeds And Shea Butter’, she said a larger percentage of the product was being smuggled to neighbouring countries, adding that the Federal Government should shift its attention to the sector to generate more

NAFDAC will soon start herbal medicine trial By: CHIOMA UMEHA To ensure that only good quality, safe and effective herbal medicines are distributed and used, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control, NAFDAC, and Nigeria Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRID, plan to commence limited clinical trial on some Nigerian herbal medicines used for life-threatening ailments like HIV/AIDS among others.  The Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, said this weekend, in Lagos during a one-day symposium to celebrate this year’s International Traditional Medicines Day, adding that the clinical trial had become necessary following recent noticeable swing from the earlier bias in favour of orthodox medicine to greater acceptance of traditional medicines in the country. Orhii said with this new trend, the need to ensure that only good quality, safe and effective herbal medicines were distributed and used became paramount to the Ministry of Healt

Insomnia sufferers lose focus – Scan suggests By: CHIOMA UMEHA  Brain scans of people who say they have insomnia have shown differences in brain function compared with people who get a full night’s sleep. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, said the poor sleepers struggled to focus part of their brain in memory tests.  Other experts said that the brain’s wiring may actually be affecting perceptions of sleep quality. The findings were published in the journal Sleep. People with insomnia struggle to sleep at night, but it also has consequences during the day such as delayed reaction times and memory. The study compared 25 people who said they had insomnia with 25 who described themselves as good sleepers. MRI brain scans were carried out while they performed increasingly challenging memory tests.  One of the researchers, Prof Sean Drummond, said: “We found that insomnia subjects did not properly turn on brain regions critical to a working memory task an

Scientists find cure for high blood pressure By: CHIOMA UMEHA  Scientists have discovered that de-activation of certain nerves in the neck can cure high blood pressure. An agency report Tuesday claimed that scientists experimented with rats and found that de-activating certain nerves in the neck can effectively treat high blood pressure – a discovery that could be an advance in tackling one of the world’s biggest silent killers.  However, researchers at Britain’s Bristol University found that in rats with high blood pressure, when they removed nerve links between the brain and the carotid body – a nodule about the size of a grain of rice on the side of each carotid artery – the animals’ blood pressure fell and remained low. The researchers’ results, published in the journal: Nature Communications, have already led the team on to conduct a small human trial of the technique, with results expected at the end of this year. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is referred to by t

Aggressive behaviour in children linked to carbonated drinks – Study By: Chioma Umeha A recent study has shown that children who drink soda tend to score slightly higher on scales that measure aggressive behaviour than those who don’t drink the carbonated beverages. The study’s lead author cautioned, however, that the increase may not be noticeable for individual children and the researchers cannot prove soda caused the bad behaviour.  “It’s a little hard to interpret it. It’s not quite clinically significant,” Shakira Suglia, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said. Despite the study’s limitations, Janet Fischel, director of developmental and behavioural pediatrics in the department of pediatrics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York, said the study is a step in the right direction. “I think it’s really important and a giant first step in gathering an evidence base for what’s becoming a very widespread dietary habit. I thi

Tough times await dealers of fake pharmaceutical products By: Chioma Umeha It will no longer be business as usual for dealers of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products as the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has concluded plans to proscribe open drug markets. Consequently (NAFDAC) in Lagos on Tuesday inaugurated the State and Mega Drug Distribution Centres (SMDDCs) to tackle challenges posed by the present drug distribution system in the country. Speaking at a stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting, ahead of the commissioning of Megacentre pharmaceuticals Limited, Onitsha, the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the uncoordinated drug distribution in Nigeria had posed a big challenge to the pharmaceutical sector. During the meeting which was organised by NAFDAC to sensitise stakeholders towards the September 3, 2013 commissioning of Mega Centre Pharmaceuticals Limited, Onitsha, Prof. Chukwu said fake, adulterated and sub-

No treatment for polio, causes permanent nerve damage – Funsho By: CHIOMA UMEHA Dr Tunji Funsho is the Chairman of Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee. Funsho recently addressed some journalists on the spread of polio, the Oral Polio Vaccine and other health issues. CHIOMA UMEHA (Health Editor) has the details. Excerpts: How does the polio virus spread? Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It leads to permanent paralysis (usually in the legs) and can cause death as well. The polio virus is silent. This means that polio can be widespread in a community before it manifests itself as a case of paralysis and can be fatal if it paralyzes the muscles used for breathing. Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. The polio virus spreads through the faecal-oral route (from excreta to hand and to the mouth). Usually this is a result of poor hand washing or by eating/drinking contaminated food or water. Those infected with the virus can excrete the virus