The United Arab Emirates has contradicted claims by the Nigerian government that it is to lift a year-long visa ban on Nigerian travelers.

A mother who felt she was being “eaten away” after hot flushes led to an incurable blood cancer diagnosis in her late 50s has urged women not to ignore symptoms. In the summer of 2022, Barbara Geraghty-Whitehead, 58, a school inclusion manager who lives in Cheshire, began to experience hot flushes, dizziness and she developed an ear infection. She said she “put it to the back of (her) mind”, but her symptoms persisted – and eventually, after months of hesitation, she visited her GP in September 2022 and underwent blood tests. Within a matter of hours, she received a phone call from her doctor, saying that they were concerned about how high her white blood cells were and that they suspected it could be cancer. One week later, after further tests, Geraghty-Whitehead was told she has chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and it is incurable. “You say you want to carry on as much as normal, but from that second nothing else was going to be normal anymore,” she told PA Real Life. “I wanted to go in and for them to say, ‘No, it was a mistake, it’s something else,’ but they didn’t, they said it was CML.” Geraghty-Whitehead started taking chemotherapy tablets that same day – and despite experiencing side effects of fatigue, nausea, acid reflux, and a loss of taste, nearly one year later she has responded well to treatment and has been able to see her daughter get married in Cyprus. After nearly ignoring her own symptoms, she wants to encourage others not to “make excuses”, as “people need to know the signs so they can get diagnosed early”. “When I was first diagnosed, you don’t know where to start and that in itself is overwhelming, but the support I’ve received has been fantastic,” Geraghty-Whitehead said. “I think about [my diagnosis] every day and it is hard and I do get upset, but now I’ve just got to face the fact that this is the new me. “I’m never going to be the person that I was before but I’m going to recreate the new me.” Geraghty-Whitehead said she almost ignored her cancer symptoms and attributed her hot flushes to warm weather and “thought no more of it”. She said she did not think it was related to menopause, as she had already been taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches for years to treat her bone pain. “I started not feeling right and I couldn’t figure out what it was, but I didn’t do anything about it – I just left it,” she explained. She added: “I never ever got hot flushes. Even though I was put on HRT patches, it was mainly for my bone pain, so I just put it to the back of my mind and I thought no more of it.” Looking back now, she realises she should have acted sooner – but on September 16, she visited her GP and underwent blood tests. Days later, on the day of the Queen’s funeral, she found herself sat in an empty hospital waiting room, preparing for further blood tests – and by the end of that week, on September 23, Geraghty-Whitehead received the news she has CML and the following minutes felt like “a blur”. “Everything happened so fast, it was just like a roller-coaster,” she said. “I think it was worse waiting for the blood test results because I didn’t know what type of cancer it was, whether I was going to live, whether I was going to die. “But all I wanted was to get the very first tablet into my body, as I felt like I was being eaten away because it was in my blood and your blood travels everywhere.” Geraghty-Whitehead started treatment the same day she was diagnosed, which she said was the “first positive move”. Although she was told her CML is incurable, doctors reassured her other patients had responded well to the chemotherapy tablets she needed to take daily, and this gave her hope. For more information and support, visit Leukaemia Care’s website here: leukaemiacare.org.uk Read More 9 arthritis myths we all need to stop believing What happens at a sexual health check-up? 9 key signs of leukaemia, as awareness is called ‘non-existent’ Cancer-hit dad who planned own funeral outlives three-week prognosis What happens at a sexual health check-up? 9 arthritis myths we all need to stop believing

Already feel like you’ve had your fill of sore throats, coughs and stuffy heads this winter? Colds may be common and minor – but they can still leave you feeling rotten, not to mention being a major inconvenience. They aren’t really something you want to be traipsing to the GP surgery with either – but wouldn’t it be helpful to know what your doctor really thinks about managing winter ailments? We asked them… Getting ill is not always terrible Nobody enjoys having a cold, of course. But GP and TV medic Dr Hilary Jones – known for regular appearances on Good Morning Britain – says we can’t always “prevent exposure to viruses, especially in winter when people flock together for warmth indoors”. And if symptoms are mild, we probably don’t need to worry too much. “Let your own immune system deal with it,” says Jones. “That’s what your immune system is for – and looking on the positive side, the more you tickle up your immune system, the healthier it is. In a way, you’re stimulating your immune system to be healthy.” Antibiotics can be harmful if you don’t actually need them If symptoms are proving tougher to tolerate, it can be tempting to try antibiotics. But while there are certainly times when antibiotics are vital, they only work for bacterial infections, so taking them when you have a viral infection (such as a cold) is not only futile, but could cause harm. “Often, both clinicians and patients will be tempted to try antibiotics, even when there is little-to-no chance of them helping – ‘just in case’ and often accompanied with the reasoning of ‘what harm can it do?’,” says Dr Tom Jenkins, GP and developer of Centoreze Pelargonium. “We are now beginning to appreciate that there is potential harm at an individual level,” Jenkins adds. “There are more bacterial cells in the human body than human cells, and most of those bacterial cells are helpful and essential for healthy functioning. Because antibiotics are not selective and do not single out just bad bacteria, taking them upsets our bacterial microbiome, and we are now starting to learn about the subtle and sometimes lasting consequences of this.” Another major concern is bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics – which the World Health Organisation (WHO) describes as one of the biggest threats to global health today. Tackling this is complex, but on an individual level, WHO guidelines suggest people only use antibiotics when suitable. Soothing home remedies are worth it Jones, who is working with Manuka Doctor, also points out: “If you do get sick, comforting symptomatic relief is really important, starting with the simple things. I’m an advocate of manuka honey – the genuine manuka honey from New Zealand, which carries a number for the antibacterial activity, the MGO methylglyoxal.” As well as its antibacterial properties, Jones says it’s “soothing for throats” and can provide an “energy boost” – plus his 97-year-old mother is a fan. “Not only does she put it in her porridge, she put it on her skin for a few lesions that she has – perfectly well-endorsed by the district nurse who comes to visit her as well. “You can also put honey in a grog, in hot water, with a bit of lemon, a bit of cinnamon – that’s something our grandmothers used to use, and to good effect.” The herbal remedy that’s doctor-approved There are so many natural remedies out there promising to fight off symptoms, and deciding between them can be overwhelming. But did you know there’s one herbal remedy that is recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for managing certain upper respiratory tract symptoms? Pelargonium, licenced as a Traditional Herbal Remedy, is recommended by GPs to consider as one of four self-care treatment options for adults and children aged 12 and above. It’s mentioned on the NHS website’s page for coughs, too – along with getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated, Paracetamol and Ibuprofen where suitable for pain relief, and honey and lemon. Derived from plants found in South Africa and Lesotho, Pelargonium was widely used to help treat infections before antibiotics boomed. But “over the last quarter of a century”, Jenkins says , “clinical research has begun to revisit this forgotten treatment, especially in Germany, and now more recently here in the UK too.” This has “resulted in the publication of over 70 peer reviewed pre-clinical and clinical studies supporting its effect”, says Jenkins. He explains it contains “a large number of biological molecules” that work in a number of ways to “stimulate the body’s immune system to fight infections”. Diet and lifestyle do play a part “Diet is always important,” says Jones. “A healthy lifestyle does protect us and helps our immune system. Clearly there are obvious things not to do – smoking and excess alcohol – as well as poor nutrition. “We know vitamin D is important for good immune health, and there are many people who are deficient in vitamin D, who should be taking a supplement as recommended by the WHO and NHS, particularly through winter,” Jones adds (when there isn’t enough sunlight in this part of the world for our bodies to make sufficient amounts). “So vitamin D, adequate vitamin C, zinc, and sometimes things like garlic and echinacea can be helpful in making sure your immune system is healthy.” While a balanced diet comes first, Jones believes “it’s always worth considering a multivitamin, which gives you a little bit of everything, particularly if your diet is restricted or selective in any way or if you’ve got extra needs”, he adds. “But healthy eating, plenty of fruit and vegetables, adequate protein, exercising moderately and avoiding pollutants and cigarettes – those are the main things.” Check in with your doctor if you’re constantly rundown Still feel like nothing seems to help? Then it may be time to check in with your doctor. “If you’re concerned that you have any possible underlying medical problem, I would always advise discussing matters with your GP,” says Jenkins.“Sometimes recurrent infections can be a sign of an underlying infection, but sometimes they can be because you are rundown. Your GP is ideally placed here because they have your medical record, are able to look into things in more detail, and can follow you up.”

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WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 27, 2023--

UPDATE: Jul. 12, 2023, 2:40 p.m. EDT This list has been updated with the best

Food safety experts have been taking to TikTok to warn against fried rice syndrome and what causes it. Fried rice syndrome is a type of food poisoning which occurs when certain dry foods, such as pasta and rice, contain a bacterium called Bacillus cereus that produces a toxin when heated and left out too long, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Concern over the food poisioning has grown recently after reports of 20 year old dying in 2008 from eating five-day-old pasta circulated on TikTok. The concern over the possibility of food poisoning from leftovers has prompted dieticians and other food safety officials to explain what temperatures are and aren’t safe for leftovers. Kyndall Weir is a sports dietician who goes by the username @theathletedietitian on TikTok. In her video, she recalled one of her clients who was eating from the same pizza every week without storing it in the fridge. She then explained why doing something like that can be dangerous by referring to the “temperature danger zone,” which is echoed in the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service’s food safety website. “If something is supposed to be refrigerated and it reaches above 40F degrees, bacteria can start to grow,” Weir explained. “On the other hand, something that is supposed to be hot, like that rice that was cooked, cools down below 140F. That is also in the temperature danger zone.” People had so many questions that the TikToker began a food safety series on her page. One person asked, “Can I heat food up [and] put it directly back in the fridge hot? Bc I heard that’s bad but I do it secretly. BUT I will stop if I should.” Weir responded, “Technically you should let it cool before putting it back in the fridge.” But Weir isn’t the only content creator speaking out about food safety and fried rice syndrome. Dr Shazma Mithani, who goes by the username @drshazmamithani, also posted about the same subject. @theathletedietitian #stitch with @Jpall20 #greenscreen why food safety is so important!!! Im immediately turning this into a series #athletenutrition ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs - Skittlegirl Sound “Do not leave starchy food like rice, pasta, or potatoes out at room temperature,” she warned in the video. “There’s a very specific bacteria that thrives in this environment and produces a toxin that is heat stable, meaning that even when you reheat the food, it does not kill that toxin.” She included more information in the caption, where she clarified that leaving out leftovers longer than they should is usually not a problem, but “starchy foods” can be more prone to the bacteria exposure than other foods. @drshazmamithani Share this to keep your friends and family safe! We are all guilty of letting food sit out for longer than we would like to. Often, it’s not a big deal, but for starchy foods like rice, it’s the perfect breeding ground for a bacteria called Bacillus cereus. This bacteria produces a heat stable toxin that survives even when the rice is reheated. It’s can cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. Please share this and follow for more tips and tricks to keep you and your entire family healthy and out of the ER. . . . . . #foodsafety #food #rice #pasta #potatoes #toxin #bacteria #foodpoisoning #vomiting #diarrhea #er ♬ original sound - Dr. Shazma Mithani, MD, FRCPC According to the USDA, best practices for safely storing hot leftovers is to refrigerate leftovers within two hours of cooking the food or after it is removed from an appliance keeping it warm. After food is safely cooked, hot food must also be kept hot at 140F or warmer to prevent bacterial growth. With cold food, it should be discarded after sitting at room temperature for over two hours, and one hour if it’s been sitting at a temperature above 90F. Read More ‘It can be hard when your kids leave the nest,’ mother says as study finds parents want their children back Sitting this many hours a day ‘rapidly increases’ dementia risk, study warns Woman warns not to ignore symptoms after hot flushes lead to leukaemia diagnosis Schoolboy almost dies from swallowing magnets for TikTok challenge Woman shares honest review of New York City apartment TikTok mom slammed after making 5-year-old son run in 104 degree heat

The Formula 1 roadshow reaches Barcelona after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen survived a mid-race downpour to win the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso last weekend. The Dutchman now leads Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in the drivers’ championship by 39 points after the Mexican had a disastrous, point-less weekend. Fernando Alonso came second in Monaco and will be eyeing a 33rd F1 victory - and his first for 10 years - at his home race as the paddock takes to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix. The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will be eyeing an improved weekend too in their revamped cars after Hamilton admitted the changes ‘were not the step forward’ they’d been hoping for in Monaco. Follow all the action from Barcelona as the teams go through their practice runs: Read More Lewis Hamilton declares Mercedes car upgrade ‘definitely not the step forward we hoped for’ Fernando Alonso eyes statement home victory, a decade on from his last triumph Monaco showed mesmeric Max Verstappen only has one obstacle to title – and it’s not Sergio Perez

Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.