This World Health Day, the World Council of Churches (WCC) offered a powerful morning prayer under the global theme “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures,” spotlighting the vital importance of maternal and child health as the bedrock of community well-being.
Dr. Birgitta Rubenson, a long-time pioneer in the WCC’s work on Health and Healing, reflected on the Church’s early response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, emphasizing the challenges of combating stigma, misinformation, and fear. “These issues are continuously relevant, and possibly even more important today than ever,” she noted.
Dr. Manoj Kurian, Director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, underscored stark statistics: annually, 300,000 women die due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth, and over 2 million newborns die within their first month. He called for both prayerful action and advocacy, urging churches to be healing communities and champions for equitable health systems, especially as global cooperation on health funding declines.
As part of the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, WCC also lifted up prayers for the people and churches of the Balkans.
Healthy Diets, Longer Lives: National Study Reveals Clear Link for Women
In line with this year’s World Health Day focus on long-term health, Australia’s largest dietary study of women has found that those who follow diets aligned with national guidelines or a Mediterranean-style approach are 40% more likely to live into their late 70s.
Published in The Journal of Nutrition, the 17-year study tracked over 9,500 women from the 1946–1951 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Researchers from The George Institute for Global Health and the University of Newcastle found a strong correlation between high-quality diets and lower all-cause mortality. However, they observed only limited links to cardiovascular disease and dementia outcomes—two major health issues facing older women.
Lead author Dr. Briar McKenzie emphasized that more sex-specific nutrition research is urgently needed. Co-author Professor Clare Collins cautioned against fad diets marketed to women and advocated for whole-food-based eating rooted in Australian Dietary Guidelines.
With over 61% of Australian women now living with overweight or obesity and millions affected by diet-related diseases, researchers are urging systemic changes—both to support women’s dietary habits and to reframe national guidelines through a gendered lens.
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