Editorial: Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine – opportunities for managing and treating neurodegenerative diseases and ischaemic stroke

Ischemic stroke and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are leading neurological causes of death and disability (Avan and Hachinski, 2023; An et al., 2025), yet both face profound research and therapeutic challenges. Stroke treatment is constrained by a narrow therapeutic window, thrombolysis and endovascular therapy must be administered within hours (Ho and Powers, 2025), limiting accessibility, especially in rural or underserved regions. Post-stroke care is complicated by heterogeneous patient presentations, variable reperfusion outcomes, and a lack of neuroprotective agents that translate from animal models to humans. Chronic inflammation, blood-brain barrier disruption, and comorbidities like diabetes or atrial fibrillation further obscure treatment efficacy and recovery trajectories (Pandian et al., 2023; Zeng et al., 2025).