Health and Climate Change: Country profile 2025 - Saint Kitts and Nevis - Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

Dr. Vanessa Kerry has been named the special envoy for health resilience at the World Health Organization. Resilience is one of those buzzy buzzwords. But what does it mean, exactly? Bouncing back from tragedy? Conquering obstacles? Having the inner strength to follow a dream when the odds are against you? For Dr. Vanessa Kerry, the definition is pretty straightforward. It boils down to being prepared. In the world of global health, she says, that means "strong systems, primary care and the ability to respond. " Those are the ideas that will guide her in her new job as special envoy for health resilience at the World Health Organization.

If you’re a woman in your 40s, it’s time to think about osteoporosis. The bone disease may bring to mind an elderly patient, but the process that weakens the skeleton and makes a person vulnerable to bone fractures starts much earlier. Rapid bone loss begins two years before menopause, which happens at age 51 on average for women in the U. S., says Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein, an orthopedic surgeon at Duke Health in North Carolina and co-author of “The Complete Bone and Joint Health Plan: Help Prevent and Treat Osteoporosis and Arthritis.”“That sharp decline of bone loss happens a little earlier than most people realize it’s happening,” Wittstein tells TODAY.com. The main trigger for women is the midlife decline of estrogen because estrogen protects bones — it inhibits the cells that break them down, she notes. From two years before menopause to about a decade after it begins, the average woman loses 10% of her bone density, but there are things women can do to alter that trajectory, the doctor adds. “There is a tremendous amount of data pointing to the fact that this is preventable through exercise, diet and hormone therapy,” Wittstein says.