The heat waves are rising all over the world and causing a lot of damage. While there are issues of dehydration and heat strokes, studies are suggesting that it might also be responsible for declining mental health, the heat among other things is not only affecting the physicality of human beings but is also having adverse mental health.

Emotional distress: The heat can trigger mood swings, making you feel irritable, anxious, depressed, or even aggressive. You may not be able to predict your reaction, you may be good one moment and then any minor inconvenience will make you angry or sad. Heat often triggers that helplessness in people.

Scattered Focus: Concentrating on tasks becomes a struggle when it's hot. Simple things feel overwhelming, and staying focused is a challenge. While you may be in the zone working on completing something, the heat and sweating will disrupt your flow and then you will not be able to focus on anything other than the heat.

Sleepless Nights: High temperatures, especially at night, disrupt your sleep. This lack of rest can leave you feeling tired, and grumpy, and worsen existing mental health issues. All humans require a comfortable temperature to sleep in, if your body is too wound up or heated up, it will not be able to relax and sleep.

Feeling the Pressure: The heat can pile on stress and make you feel overwhelmed. Concerns about the heat itself or its impact on other aspects of your life can contribute to this feeling. You will feel overwhelmed and unable to work on anything else. The heat makes you feel a certain helplessness, as you cannot stop the sun or turn down the heat.

Body Blues: The heat can cause physical symptoms that affect your mental well-being. Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea can all contribute to anxiety and low mood. When your body is already fatigued, the urge to do anything else disappears. Your body is drained of energy to function at all and will seek rest and sleep.

Behavioural Shifts: The heat can influence your behaviour. You might act impulsively or have difficulty managing anger. It's like the heat turns up your emotional thermostat. When your body and brain are overheating, it is difficult to think straight and you will grasp at straws to release this energy and pressure off of you.

Some other side effects of the heat are.

• Mental Health Flare-Ups: If you already have a mental health condition, hot weather can worsen your symptoms. Existing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia might feel more intense.
• Heat and Suicide Risk: Studies show a disturbing link between hot weather and increased suicide rates, particularly among men and older adults. Hot weather can be a tipping point for those already struggling.
• Heatwave Hospitalizations: When temperatures soar, people with existing mental health issues may require increased hospitalization. This highlights the need for healthcare systems to be prepared for heat waves.
• Climate Change and Mental Health: Climate change is leading to more frequent heatwaves. Research suggests this could lead to a rise in mental health problems and suicides. Taking action against climate change is crucial for protecting mental well-being.

The impact of social media on adolescents’ well-being is significant, said the World Happiness Report 2026 today, warning that the scale of harm is significant enough to affect entire populations.

The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, points to overwhelming evidence of both direct and indirect harm.

Direct harms include exposing them to videos of graphic pornography and real-life violence, facilitating cyberbullying and deepfakes, promoting dangerous “challenges”, connecting them with sexual predators, and facilitating the purchase of illegal drugs.

The indirect harms involve rising levels of depression, anxiety, and reduced life satisfaction.

“The harms and risks to individual users are so diverse and vast in scope that they justify the view that social media is causing harm at a population level,” the report said.

The harmful "experiences are so common that they should also count as ordinary use,” it added.

Notably, the report called the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X, "dangerous consumer products that harm adolescents at a massive scale”.

“The evidence of harm – both direct and indirect – is so strong and comes from so many sources in so many countries that we believe policymakers around the world now have enough evidence to justify action to protect children and adolescents,” the report said.

In line with this, countries such as Australia and Indonesia recently introduced legislative restrictions on social media use among young people. In India, states including Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have announced bans, while Bihar is considering similar measures.

The report pointed out that social media is causing direct harms to millions of people globally. This includes:

• Addiction and problematic use
• Sleep deprivation
• Sextortion
• Sexual harassment

Impact on Youth Well-being

Research cited in the report shows a clear link between heavy social media use and lower life satisfaction among adolescents. Youth and teens who spent more time on social platforms reported poorer mental well-being compared to those who used less.

Overall, internet use was linked with negative effects, particularly among girls and in countries such as the UK and Ireland. Yet, among those who used the internet for communication, learning, news consumption, and content creation, higher life satisfaction was reported.

The report noted that negative emotions are becoming more common across all regions. Worry increased among young people, while the frequency of anger declined across both younger and older populations.

Despite these trends, positive emotions still occur about twice as often as negative ones globally.

Global Happiness Rankings

Finland has been ranked the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year, followed by Iceland, Denmark, and Costa Rica. Other countries in the top 10 include Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

In contrast, when measuring changes in happiness among people under 25, countries in the NANZ region -- the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand -- rank much lower, placing between 122 and 133 out of 136 countries.

Hormonal changes during menopause can significantly increase Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in women, according to Dr Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist and women’s brain health specialist.

In a new The Journal of Clinical Investigation review, the renowned AD expert noted that menopause can change brain biology and metabolism and may contribute to amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which are key biological markers of AD.

Alzheimer disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting over 55 million individuals worldwide, with projections exceeding 150 million by 2050 . Out of the reported cases, nearly two-third are made up of women, with the majority being postmenopausal women

Estrogen protects the brain by lowering inflammation, increasing neuronal survivals supporting non-amyloidogenic processing, and reducing amyloid-beta-related neurotoxicity, all of which are factors contributing to the development of AD.

However, when estrogen levels drop during menopause and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) rise, the brain becomes more likely to develop AD-related damage.

Previous research has also shown that early menopause, especially before age 45, is linked with increased risk of dementia and the removing the ovaries before natural menopause could increase long-term dementia risk, with the greatest excess risk seen at younger ages, especially before 45.

READ MORE: Simple Blood Test Can Predict Dementia Risk in Women 25 Years Before Symptoms

What Is Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common forms of dementia and mostly affects adults over the age of 65.

About 8.8 million Indians aged 60 and above are estimated to be living with Alzheimer's disease. Over seven million people in the US 65 and older live with the condition and over 100,00 die from it annually.

Alzheimer's disease is believed to be caused by the development of toxic amyloid and beta proteins in the brain, which can accumulate in the brain and damage cells responsible for memory.

Amyloid protein molecules stick together in brain cells, forming clumps called plaques. At the same time, tau proteins twist together in fiber-like strands called tangles. The plaques and tangles block the brain's neurons from sending electrical and chemical signals back and forth.

Over time, this disruption causes permanent damage in the brain that leads to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, causing patients to lose their ability to speak, care for themselves or even respond to the world around them.

While there is no clear cause of Alzheimer's disease, experts believe it can develop due to genetic mutations and lifestyle choices, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and social isolation.

Early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include forgetting recent events or conversations. Over time, Alzheimer's disease leads to serious memory loss and affects a person's ability to do everyday tasks.

There is no cure for this progressive brain disorder and in advanced stages, loss of brain function can cause dehydration, poor nutrition or infection. These complications can result in death.

Can You Detect Alzheimer's Early On?

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a blood test which can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in adults aged 55 and above.

The blood test, known as Lumipulse, can detect amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease and has proven to be a “less invasive option” that “reduces reliance on PET scans and increases diagnosis accessibility.”

FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary said of the landmark decision, "Alzheimer’s disease impacts too many people, more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

"Knowing that 10 percent of people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer's, and that by 2050 that number is expected to double, I am hopeful that new medical products such as this one will help patients."

It remains unclear when this test will be available for commercial use across the world.

While GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are popular for weight loss, a new study published today in The Lancet Psychiatry journal showed that it can also help tackle the burden of depression, anxiety, and self-harm in high-risk diabetic patients.

The GLP-1 drugs, with ingredients such as semaglutide and liraglutide, were found to effectively reduce the risk of these mental health conditions in patients already taking the medications to manage their diabetes or obesity.

Also Read: ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guidelines 2026 Explained: Start Screening For Cardiovascular Diseases Early

The study found that these medications were linked to

• fewer psychiatric hospitalizations,
• taking sick leave due to mental illness,
• death by suicide.

The study comes as people with diabetes are known to have a higher risk of depression (2-3 times), anxiety (20 percent), and suicide than the general population.

“Our findings suggest that GLP-1 drugs, particularly semaglutide, might contribute to better mental health in people with diabetes and obesity,” said Jari Tiihonen, specialist physician and professor at the Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

Calling the results "observational", Tiihonen urged the need for controlled clinical trials to confirm the findings.

Also read: Ozempic Can Help People With Diabetes Walk Better Despite Poor Blood Flow To Legs

Key Findings

The researchers followed more than 95,000 participants diagnosed with depression or anxiety and were prescribed various antidiabetic medications through Swedish national registers between 2009 and 2022. Of the patients, 22,480 had used GLP-1 drugs.

Semaglutide, the main ingredient in Ozempic, showed the highest benefits against the mental health conditions. Semaglutide led to a:

• 42 percent reduced risk of worsening mental health
• 44 percent lower risk of worsening depression,
• 38 percent lower risk of worsening anxiety,
• 47 percent lower risk of worsening substance use disorder.

On the other hand, liraglutide, sold under the brand names Victoza (for type 2 diabetes) and Saxenda (for chronic weight management), was linked to an 18 percent lower risk of worsening mental health.

Other GLP-1 medications, including exenatide and dulaglutide, did not show the same benefit.

Also read: Oprah Winfrey Sparks Ozempic Buzz at Paris Fashion Week with Slim Figure

How Do GLP-1 Medicines Fight Against Addiction?

A recent study, published by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, reported that Ozempic could prevent substance use disorder and could also treat it.

Not just the lack of will to eat food, but some people have actually reported a lack of interest in alcohol or nicotine consumption.

Previously, observational studies have also shown how it could lower the risk of alcohol and cannabis use disorders, opioid overdose, and alcohol related hospitalization.

The findings published in The BMJ showed that people taking GLP-1 drugs had a 14 percent lower risk of developing any substance use disorder.

Their substance-specific reductions:

• Alcohol use disorder risk fell by 18 percent
• Cannabis use disorder fell by 14 percent
• Cocaine and nicotine use disorders fell by 20 percent
• Opioid use disorder fell by 25 percent