Coming Together for Better International Oral Health: A Model for Hope.

Good oral health is crucial to overall well-being, and everyone needs to have equal access to quality oral healthcare. Despite this, disparities in oral health still exist on an international scale. In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a global oral health strategy to reduce oral diseases and health inequities through public health approaches, integrating oral health with primary healthcare and adopting innovative workforce models.

Fertility Awareness Methods Are Not Modern Contraceptives: Defining Contraception to Reflect Our Priorities.

A recent article in GHSP calls for classifying fertility awareness methods as “modern contraceptives” despite their inferiority. We believe in a rights-based approach, which considers the real-world conditions that many women face, including constrained sexual agency and low baseline reproductive health literacy. We must demonstrate true commitment to increasing access to the most effective and reliable contraceptive methods.

Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta improves tolerance to ischemia in hypertrophied hearts.

Background: Hypertrophied myocardium is more susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion injury, in part owing to impaired insulin-mediated glucose uptake. Glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) is a key regulatory enzyme in glucose metabolism that, when activated, phosphorylates/inactivates target enzymes of the insulin signaling pathway. Glycogen synthase kinase-3beta is regulated upstream by Akt-1.

Vascular endothelial growth factor prevents apoptosis and preserves contractile function in hypertrophied infant heart.

Background: Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive response to increased workload that, if unrelieved, leads to heart failure. It has been reported that cardiomyocyte apoptosis contributes to failure, and that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment of hypertrophied myocardium increases capillary density and improves myocardial perfusion. In this study we hypothesized that VEGF treatment reduces cardiomyocyte apoptosis and thereby preserves myocardial contractile function.