The COVID-19 pandemic may be over, but our immune systems are still feeling the impact. After years of battling constant viral threats, from COVID-19 to seasonal flu and other infections, our body’s defense system is exhausted. Many people continue to experience lingering inflammation, frequent illnesses, and slower recovery times. This extended state of immune stress has compromised us further to chronic illness, including autoimmune diseases and even neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. So why is our immune system still in trouble? And how do we give it its power back? Understanding immune exhaustion is the beginning of rebuilding our body's natural immunity.

A weakened immune system makes people more susceptible to disease, mental illnesses, and even sleep disorders. Now, new research indicates that immune system depletion may play an important role in the onset of Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurologic disorder that compromises movement and cognition.

Role of Inflammation in Parkinson's Disease

Dysfunctional immune response is a leading cause of long-standing inflammation within the body, that has been found to contribute towards a multitude of conditions, including cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

As people age, their immune system naturally becomes less effective. This deterioration, referred to as immune exhaustion, may be a key contributor to the onset and progression of Parkinson’s disease. Rebecca Wallings, a Parkinson’s Foundation Launch Award grant recipient and senior postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida, believes that an accumulation of exhausted immune cells could be driving neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s patients.

How a Tired Immune System Might Affect Parkinson's?

Parkinson's disease is most commonly linked with the degeneration and loss of dopaminergic neurons—motor nerve cells that produce dopamine, an essential neurotransmitter for movement. While researchers have long suspected inflammation is involved in this neurodegeneration, the mechanisms are not yet well understood.

Wallings' study is on immune cell exhaustion, a process by which aging immune cells fail to control immune responses effectively. Her research indicates that instead of dampening inflammation in Parkinson's patients, attempts should be made to rejuvenate the immune system to regain its functionality.

Energy Deficiency in Immune Cells

One of the major findings of Wallings' work is the function of mitochondrial impairment in immune cell exhaustion. Mitochondria are commonly called the powerhouses of cells, as they are vital for generating energy. As mitochondria age and become inefficient, immune cells fail to function well, potentially accelerating neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease.

Wallings has found that mutations in the LRRK2 gene, a recognized genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease, are linked with defective mitochondrial function and immune cell exhaustion. Her current work includes testing various therapeutic approaches to restore mitochondrial function in immune cells with the potential to enhance the immune system and potentially prevent or treat Parkinson's disease.

Will Rejuvenating the Immune System Help in Treatment?

For decades, the standard practice in treating Parkinson's has been to suppress brain inflammation. Yet Wallings' work indicates that instead of slowing down immune responses, restoring the immune system could be a more successful strategy. By addressing mitochondrial impairment and immune resilience, researchers can potentially reverse or slow down Parkinson's disease.

Wallings is now looking into how to rejuvenate immune cells by fixing mitochondria. She studies immune cells from patients with Parkinson's as well as from healthy subjects and performs experiments on animal models to determine if rejuvenation of the immune system could result in improved disease outcomes.

Lifestyle Factors That May Affect Parkinson's Risk

While there is no cure for Parkinson's disease, some lifestyle adjustments may decrease the chances of developing the illness. Since neurodegenerative diseases are associated with chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction, developing habits that enhance immune function might prove helpful.

Diet: There is evidence to suggest that eating in accordance with the Mediterranean or MIND diets, both high in antioxidants, healthy fats, and anti-inflammatory foods, can encourage brain wellness and reduce Parkinson's risk.

Avoiding Dangerous Substances: Restricting alcohol and nicotine use can maintain a robust immune system and suppress inflammation.

Reducing Stress: Chronic stress weakens immune function, so methods such as meditation, exercise, and sufficient sleep can lead to improved overall well-being.

India has approximately 101 million people living with diabetes, one of the largest such populations in the world. Blood sugar levels, HbA1c targets, and medication compliance tend to dominate the clinical conversation around the condition. What receives considerably less attention, from both doctors and patients, is what diabetes does to the feet, and what the consequences of that neglect look like over time.

How Diabetic Foot Ulcers Develop

Diabetic foot ulcers develop when nerve damage caused by prolonged high blood sugar, referred to as diabetic neuropathy, reduces sensation in the feet. A small cut, blister, or pressure sore that a person without neuropathy would notice and address goes unfelt. In the absence of pain as a warning signal, the injury progresses. Infection sets in. By the time the patient presents for medical attention, the wound has often reached a stage where conservative management is no longer sufficient.

The High Cost of Delayed Treatment

The clinical outcomes associated with delayed presentation are sobering. A 2024 study published in Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, drawing on real-world data from a tertiary care facility in India, found that amputation was required in 43.4 percent of diabetic foot ulcer patients. Ten-year mortality among those who underwent amputation reached 30.9 percent, compared to 24.5 percent among those who achieved primary healing.

A 2025 cross-sectional study published in Cureus found a significant disparity in mortality rates between individuals with diabetic foot ulcers and those with diabetes alone, at 231 deaths per 1,000 person-years compared to 182. Globally, 18.6 million individuals develop diabetic foot ulcers annually.

Prevention Requires Daily Foot Care

The gap between the clinical evidence on diabetic foot complications and the attention the condition receives in routine diabetes management is where the preventable harm accumulates. Most patients presenting with advanced diabetic foot disease describe a history of minor symptoms that were attributed to something else, ignored, or left unaddressed because they were painless.

Regular foot inspection, appropriate footwear, avoidance of barefoot walking, and early medical review of even minor foot injuries are the practices that interrupt this progression before it reaches the point of irreversibility. Dedicated foot care clinics are built around exactly this philosophy, bringing together the multidisciplinary expertise needed to catch complications early and treat them before the window for limb salvage closes.

Why Multidisciplinary Care Matters

Eastern India carries a significant share of this burden, with patients across West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, and the Northeast frequently facing limited access to the multidisciplinary care that diabetic foot management requires. Diabetologists, vascular specialists, wound care experts, reconstructive surgeons, and rehabilitation teams working in coordination produce outcomes that sequential, single-specialty care cannot consistently achieve. Where such integrated care is available and accessed early, limb salvage rates improve, and amputations are reduced.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s recent advisory on diabetic foot care reinforces that foot health in diabetes management warrants systematic attention, not as an afterthought to glycemic control, but alongside it.

(Dr. Anupam Golash, Consultant - Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, CK Birla Hospitals, CMRI)

A small implanted device that stimulates the vagus nerve may offer substantial and lasting relief for people with severe treatment-resistant depression, according to a large multicenter clinical trial.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, showed that improvements in depressive symptoms, quality of life, and daily functioning were sustained for at least two years in most patients who responded to treatment.

Notably, more than 20% of treated participants (39 patients) were in remission after two years, meaning their depressive symptoms had improved enough for them to function normally in daily life.

"We were shocked that one in five patients was effectively without depressive symptoms at the end of two years," said lead author Charles Conway, professor of psychiatry and director of Washington University's Treatment Resistant Mood Disorders Center.

Depression Remains A Major Health Burden

Also read: Bryan Johnson Blames Sugary Cereals, Soda and Stress for His Autoimmune Disease; Shares Treatment Plan

Earlier this week, Republican Tom Kean Jr. revealed that he had been diagnosed with depression, explaining his absence from public life for more than 100 days.

He is far from alone. About 20% of U.S. adults experience major depression during their lifetime. While most people improve after antidepressants or psychotherapy, up to one-third develop treatment-resistant depression, in which standard treatments fail to provide adequate relief.

Study Focused on the Most Severe Cases

The RECOVER trial, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, enrolled nearly 500 patients across 84 sites in the US. On average, participants had:

• Lived with depression for 29 years
• Tried 13 unsuccessful treatments
• Undergone therapies including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• Three-quarters were too ill to work.

"We believe the sample in this trial represents the sickest treatment-resistant depressed patient sample ever studied in a clinical trial," Conway said.

"There is a dire need to find effective treatments for these patients, who often have no other options. With this kind of chronic, disabling illness, even a partial response to treatment is life-altering, and with vagus nerve stimulation, we're seeing that benefit is lasting," he added.

Read More: Wegovy Weight Loss Pill Available in UK Pharmacies From Today: All You Should Know

Benefits Lasted for Two Years

The VNS Therapy System, manufactured by LivaNova USA, Inc., involves implanting a small device beneath the skin of the chest. The device delivers carefully calibrated electrical pulses to the left vagus nerve, which serves as a major communication pathway between the brain and internal organs.

Although every participant received an implant, only half had their devices activated during the first year, allowing researchers to compare outcomes.

The latest analysis focused on 214 patients whose devices were activated from the beginning of the study.

Among them:

• About 69% (147 patients) achieved a meaningful improvement in at least one outcome after 12 months.
• More than 80% of those responders maintained or improved those benefits after 24 months.
• Among patients with a substantial response after one year, 92% continued to experience benefits two years later.

Conway noted that even a 30% improvement can dramatically change the lives of patients with severe depression, who often struggle to carry out basic daily activities and face a higher risk of hospitalization or early death.

READ: Donald Trump Posts AI Video of Himself Treating Critics for 'Derangement Syndrome'

Some Patients Improved Later

The study also found that recovery may take longer for some people.

Nearly one-third of participants who had not responded after the first year reported meaningful improvements by the end of the second year, suggesting prolonged stimulation may continue to produce benefits.

Researchers also observed consistently low relapse rates among patients who improved, particularly among those with the strongest responses.

In the last few years, biohacker and longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has become famous for maintaining a picture-perfect health in order to defy the norms of aging.

But this week, Johnson shared a shocking health update with his followers. He said that he has been diagnosed with Autoimmune Gastritis (AIG), a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the stomach lining. He said, “My stomach is eating itself.”

Bryan Johnson's Diagnosis Of Autoimmune Gastritis

Despite years of optimizing his body, Bryan’s Johnson Autoimmune Gastritis diagnosis shocked the internet. While his strict routines, meticulous diet, and million-dollar anti-ageing protocol continue to inspire millions, they also receive equal amounts of skepticism and criticism.

Johnson recently revealed that he had struggled with persistently low iron stores for nearly 11 years, despite taking supplements.

Also Read: Legionnaires' Disease Outbreak Grips NYC After At Least 14 Cases Reported Across 2 Neighborhoods

He said that a detailed evaluation confirmed Autoimmune Gastritis, an illness that damages the acid-producing cells of the stomach. The condition can impair absorption of iron and vitamin B12 and may increase the long-term risk of gastric cancer.

He also disclosed that he has autoimmune thyroid disease, suggesting that multiple autoimmune conditions may be interconnected in his case.

Amid his diagnosis, Johnson's journey raises a practical question: Which of his longevity habits are genuinely backed by science and worth adopting, and which remains experimental?

Five Bryan Johnson Habits That Are Actually Worth Copying

Prioritising Sleep

Among all longevity interventions, sleep has the strongest scientific backing. Johnson consistently aims for a regular sleep schedule and treats sleep as a primary health priority. Unlike expensive biohacks, sleeping 7 to 9 hours consistently benefits almost everyone.

Research has linked quality sleep with:

• Better immune function

• Lower cardiovascular risk

• Improved memory

• Better metabolic health

• Reduced inflammation

Read more: Ebola Deaths In DRC Top 500 With At Least 1528 Cases Reported; What Makes This Outbreak Different & Deadlier?

Eating Whole, Plant-Based Foods

Johnson follows a predominantly plant-based diet rich in vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats.

While optimal health is not connected with veganism, evidence supports that diets including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and nuts are associated with lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, and several cancers.

Exercising Consistently

Johnson combines strength training, cardiovascular exercises, mobility exercises, and walking throughout the day to stay healthy and fit.

Research, too, recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week to enhance longevity.

Tracking Basic Health Markers

One of Johnson's greatest takeaways from his blueprint is tracking basic health markers. His long-standing low ferritin eventually prompted further investigation that disclosed his autoimmune gastritis.

It reminds us that routine health check-ups often identify silent diseases before symptoms appear. For most people, daily monitoring should include:

• Blood pressure

• Blood sugar

• Cholesterol

• Iron levels

• Vitamin B12 if deficient or vegetarian

• Thyroid function when indicated

Read more: Men Account For Nearly 3 Out Of 4 Suicides In India — Are We Ignoring A Growing Men's Mental Health Crisis?

Avoiding Smoking And Drinking Alcohol

Bryan avoids alcohol and tobacco completely. Research consistently suggests that avoiding smoking and limiting alcohol significantly reduce risks of cancer, liver disease, heart disease, stroke and other chronic lifestyle disorders.

Which Parts Of Bryan Johnson's Routine Are Controversial?

• Hundreds of daily supplements

• Intensive biomarker testing far beyond routine medical recommendations

• Experimental anti-ageing therapies

• Frequent advanced imaging

• Highly personalised protocols based on proprietary algorithms

Many of these approaches have not been proven to extend lifespan in humans, and experts caution against assuming that more testing or consuming supplements automatically leads to better health.