Health and wellbeing

Health and well-being have a central role in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the United Nations, emphasizing the integral part they play in building a sustainable future. The third SDG explicitly calls for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. This goal encompasses a wide range of health objectives, from reducing maternal and child mortality rates, combatting disease epidemics, to improving mental health and well-being. But beyond SDG 3, health is intrinsically linked with almost all the other goals.

When addressing SDG 1, which aims to end poverty, one cannot neglect the social determinants of health. Economic hardship often translates into poor nutrition, inadequate housing, and limited access to health care, leading to a vicious cycle of poverty and poor health. Similarly, achieving SDG 2, ending hunger, also contributes to better health through adequate nutrition, essential for physical and mental development and the prevention of various diseases.

Conversely, the repercussions of climate change, encapsulated in SDG 13, profoundly impact health. Rising global temperatures can lead to increased spread of infectious diseases, compromised food and water supplies, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, all posing severe health risks. Conversely, the promotion of good health can also mitigate climate change through the reduction of carbon-intensive lifestyles and adoption of healthier, more sustainable behaviors.

SDG 5, advocating for gender equality, also has substantial health implications. Ensuring women's access to sexual and reproductive health services not only improves their health outcomes, but also contributes to societal and economic development. Furthermore, achieving SDG 4, quality education, is also critical for health promotion. Education fosters health literacy, empowering individuals to make informed health decisions, hence improving overall community health.

Lastly, SDG 17 underlines the importance of partnerships for achieving these goals. Multi-sector collaboration is vital to integrate health considerations into all policies and practices. Stakeholders from various sectors, including health, education, agriculture, finance, and urban planning, need to align their efforts in creating sustainable environments that foster health and well-being.

Hence, the relationship between health, well-being, and the SDGs is reciprocal. Improving health and well-being helps in achieving sustainable development, and vice versa. In this context, health and well-being are not just outcomes but are also powerful enablers of sustainable development. For the world to truly thrive, it must recognize and act upon these interconnections.

It is important to have scientifically analyzed data to support the policy direction for children's schools, as they are a vulnerable group when it comes to emerging infectious diseases. [hotspot – schools]
The study emphasizes practical application with a user-friendly website, empowering radiologists to predict class probabilities, track disease progression, and visualize patient images in both 2D and 3D formats, contributing significantly to the advancement of early AD detection.
This review explores the role of platelet dysfunction in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), discussing in vitro, in vivo, and clinical evidence related to platelet activation, adhesion, and aggregation, and highlighting potential therapeutic targets to address amyloid-related AD pathogenesis.
The activation of the innate immune system and subsequent neuroinflammation are common hallmarks of all neurodegenerative diseases. Castro-Gomez and Heneka review the emerging evidence related to receptors implicated in the activation of innate immunity during neurodegenerative processes. They predominantly focus on the role of microglia, PRRs, and other DAMP-sensing receptors in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, tauopathy, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
This article shows that rTMS over frontal regions and tDCS over temporal regions can improve memory abilities in people with Alzheimer's Disease. However, the prolonged effect of rTMS showed a statistical tendency towards enhancing memory, whereas the long-term effects of tDCS could not be assessed due to insufficient data.
This study aimed to assess the associations of both serum vitamin D status and supplementation with all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD) incidence. It highlighted consistent associations between various facets of vitamin D and multivitamin intake, objectively measured vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency from blood samples, and 14-year dementia incidence in a study population aged 55 to 69 years at baseline. Subgroup analyses revealed effect modification by skin color with associations only observed in the non-brown/non-black skin color group and stronger effect estimates for vitamin D supplementation in younger compared to older study participants. Although results are encouraging and suggest a potential role for vitamin D supplementation in dementia prevention, particularly for those with vitamin D deficiency, caution is advised due to the observational nature of this study. RCTs with long follow-up periods are indispensable to establishing the efficacy of dementia prevention strategies.
This article discusses the potential therapeutic strategy of enhancing mitophagy through rapamycin treatment to alleviate cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease by improving mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal loss, suggesting a novel mechanism for the neuroprotective effects of rapamycin in AD.

2025's World Leprosy Day: A Unified Call for Dignity and Healing

Celebration and Recognition

World Leprosy Day is commemorated each year on the final Sunday of January, promoting worldwide unity in the battle against leprosy. On January 26th, 2025, this day will occur. In India, January 30th is an important event that is observed annually to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary. Gandhi was a strong supporter of the rights and respect for individuals stricken with leprosy.

This study investigated antiviral effects in a real-world cohort of non-cirrhotic CHB patients with varying degrees of HS, assessed by transient elastography (TE) with controlled attenuation parameter (CAP).
This study aims to develop novel prognostic models based on the dynamic changes in variables to predict the short-term mortality of HBV-associated ACLF (HBV-ACL)

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