-AFP ROME: The UN's food agency on Tuesday said obesity and poor nutrition weigh heavily on the global economy and told governments that investing in food health would bring big economic as well as social returns. Lost productivity and spiralling health care bills linked to malnutrition "could account for as much as five per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP)," equivalent to $3.5 trillion (2.6 trillion euros) a year, the Food...

-The Telegraph About half of Delhi's police personnel are overweight and have high blood pressure or cholesterol, heart problems, diabetes, insomnia or weak eyesight, a health camp has found out. Senior officers declined comment but their juniors, requesting anonymity, blamed overwork and stress. An internal police report says that 48 per cent among the 2,000 who participated in the 19-day camp were overweight and had high cholesterol. Over a third - 34 per...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: Aarti Sharma, a 29-year-old program manager with an IT major, was enjoying a successful run professionally and was about to tie the knot in November this year. But some seven months ago, she started experiencing anxiety and mood swings. Also, she began suffering sleepless nights at least two-three days in a week. Her menstrual cycle, too, became irregular. Referred to a gynaecologist by her physician, Sharma (name...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Turf war between Big Pharma and generic companies, which was largely restricted to exorbitantly priced life-saving drugs for cancer and HIV, is now spilling over to other chronic ailments like diabetes, and threatening to change dynamics of the nearly Rs 70,000 crore Indian pharma market. Triggering a full-blown patent fight with US-based Merck, domestic generic company Glenmark has launched a more affordable version of the multinational's blockbuster...

-The Hindu The United Nations has been drawing attention in recent years to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, which have been adding to morbidity and premature deaths in most countries. In a declaration issued at a high-level meeting in 2011, the U.N. argued that low and middle income countries should actively pursue public health policies that will reduce the incidence of NCDs arising from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and a...