Syed Wali desperately wants to immunize his three young children against polio but fears the Islamic militants who banned the vaccine from this remote area in northwest Pakistan will catch him if he tries to smuggle it in.

"I can afford to bring the vaccine for my children, but what answer will I give the Taliban if they recover the vaccine bag from my possession?" Wali asked.

Pregnant women are consuming less alcohol overall but the trend to cut back has failed to carry through to high-risk drinkers, a new Australian study found Monday.

The study published in the Medical Journal of Australia drew on data from more than 2,700 women living in the most populous state of New South Wales and neighbouring Queensland over a five-year period.

Nervous nibbles alone do not explain the weight that people tend to gain when they give up smoking, Swiss researchers said Thursday, turning the spotlight instead on a bacterial shift in the intestines.

Studies have shown that quitting smoking leads to an average weight gain of four to five kilograms (nine to 11 pounds) in the first year.

An Indian pharmaceutical firm said Thursday it would soon launch the world's first vaccine against typhoid which can be given to infants, protecting the most vulnerable victims of the illness.

Bharat Biotech, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, said it would also offer long-term protection of more than 10 years, unlike other vaccines which must be boosted with regular injections.

Eating more whole fresh fruit, especially blueberries, grapes, apples and pears, is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, but drinking more fruit juice has the opposite effect, says a study.

British, U.S. and Singaporean researchers pored over data from three big health investigations that took place in the United States, spanning a quarter of a century in all.

Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse.

In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.

Scientists have found a compelling clue in the quest to learn what causes age-related memory problems, and to one day be able to tell whether those misplaced car keys are an early warning of Alzheimer's.

Wednesday's report offers evidence that age-related memory loss is a distinct condition from pre-Alzheimer's — and offers a hint that what we now consider the normal forgetfulness of old age might eventually be treatable.

Migraines may cause permanent changes in brain structure, though just how this affects patients over the long-term is unknown, according to research out Wednesday.

A meta-analysis performed on six population-based studies and 13 clinic-based studies was published in Neurology, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Young women who drink alcohol every day may be raising significantly their risk of breast cancer, according to U.S. research published Wednesday.

Each alcoholic drink a woman takes daily from when her menstrual periods start until her first full-term pregnancy ups her lifetime risk of breast cancer by 13 percent, said the study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A six-year-old Chinese boy who had his eyes gouged out does not know he has been blinded and asks his family why the sun has yet to rise, state media reported Wednesday.

The boy, surnamed Guo, was found covered in blood in the northern province of Shanxi after he went missing while playing outside, Chinese media reported previously.