Is your teenager skipping breakfast? Why is that happening and what can you do? As per the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which surveyed adolescent health and well-being found that 1 in 4 students in high school ate breakfast, which means 3 in 4 high school students are not eating their breakfast. This data is as per the 2023 survey.

What Did The Study Intend?

The report describes a 10-year long trend and also recent changes among the two years. The study delved deeper into adolescents' dietary, physical activity and sleep behaviors. The study is also based on a national youth risk behavior survey of a representative sample of students from grade nine to 12.

What Did The Study Find?

The study found that while high school students drank slightly less soda and sports drinks and consumed more water, other healthy eating habits declined. In 2023, only 27% of students ate breakfast every day in the past week. The numbers were even lower for female students, with just 22% eating breakfast daily, compared to 32% of male students. Boys were also more likely to eat fruits and vegetables daily and drink water at least three times a day. Poor mental health and lack of physical activity have also been linked to skipping breakfast.

The other findings included a survey across 10-year period, where a decrease in the percentage of students eating fruits from 65% to 55%, eating vegetables, from 61% to 58%, and having breakfast daily from 38% to 27% was noted.

However, there was a positive trend among this, which was in children drinking plain water at least three times a day, which increased from 49% to 54% from when the survey began in 2015.. There were fewer students who also said that they drank soda in 2023 than in 2013. On an average, in 2013, around 22% students avoided soda, whereas in 2023, 31% students avoided it.

The report also emphasized that a healthy diet, along with daily physical activity and sufficient sleep further contributes to a healthy lifestyle. “The 10-year trends from 2013 to 2023 also show a decline in healthy dietary, physical activity, and sleep behaviors,” the survey reported.

Why Do High School Students Skip Breakfast?

While there is no one straightforward answer to it, psychologists and those who study children, believe that for many high school going kids, it is the easiest time to skip a meal. This is because they are caught between rushing to school, or not just that hungry in the morning. So for them, to sit down to have a breakfast may seem hassle and something they would have to take time out from their busy schedule. They at this age also prioritize their extra-curricular activities.

There has also been a shift in their circadian rhythm, and most teens cannot fall asleep before 11 pm, or even at midnight. Which means they wake up tired and struggle to do things right in the morning, which is why they choose to skip breakfast or give extra minutes to any other activities.

There is of course another, more popular reason, to lose weight. While experts and studies, like the one published in the Journal of Nutrition that found skipping breakfast leads to higher levels of hunger hormones, the students still feel the need to do this. However, it could lead to a slow metabolism, prompt the body to conserve energy and burn fewer calories, weight gain and deprive yo off the essential nutrients like calcium, iron, and vitamin D.

Without a morning breakfast, your blood sugar might drop too, which can increase irritability and stress, along with including the risk of depression in teenage.

Sepsis from dog lick led to a woman undergoing quadruple amputation. Manjit Sangha, a 56-year-old pharmacy worker from Birmingham, England came back home from work and was not feeling well on a Sunday evening in July 2025. Her husband Kam Sangha found her unconscious on the couch and saw her lips were blue, hands and feet were ice cold. Kam, 60, called ambulance and Manjit was rushed to hospital.

"Your mind is all over the place. You're thinking, 'How can this happen in less than 24 hours?' One minute on a Saturday, she is playing with the dog, Sunday she's gone to work, Monday night she is in a coma," he told BBC.

Manjit was rushed to New Cross Hospital and placed in a medically induced coma as her condition deteriorated rapidly. During her stay in intensive care, she suffered six cardiac arrests, with clinicians repeatedly warning her family she might not survive.

Sepsis From Dog Lick: What Led To All This?

Doctors later diagnosed sepsis, a severe and abnormal response of the body to infection. Medical teams believe bacteria may have entered through a small cut or scratch, possibly after contact with her pet dog.

Sepsis occurs when the immune system’s reaction to infection damages the body’s own tissues and organs. It can progress to septic shock, marked by a dangerous drop in blood pressure and failure of organs such as the lungs, kidneys and liver. Without urgent treatment, it can be fatal.

In Manjit’s case, the illness escalated into disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), a rare but critical complication in which widespread clotting occurs inside blood vessels. The process blocks circulation and starves tissues of oxygen, often resulting in irreversible damage.

Her family said doctors warned she had only days to live and, if she survived, amputation was likely.

Sepsis From Dog Lick: Amputation To Save Life

As circulation failed in her limbs, surgeons were forced to amputate both legs below the knee and both hands. She later required removal of her spleen after developing pneumonia and gallstones during prolonged hospitalization.

In total, Manjit spent 32 weeks in hospital before her condition stabilised enough for discharge.

Her relatives have since launched a fundraising campaign to support advanced prosthetics, rehabilitation, mental-health care and home adaptations.

“She is mourning the life she had before, where simple tasks were effortless,” the family said, adding they remain focused on helping her regain independence.

Now back home, Manjit says her goal is simple: to walk again and eventually return to work using prosthetic limbs.

She also hopes her experience raises awareness about sepsis, which can begin with seemingly minor symptoms but worsen quickly.

“It could happen to anybody,” she said, urging people not to ignore infections or sudden illness.

Medical experts echo that message: early recognition, including fever, confusion, extreme pain, breathlessness or mottled skin, and immediate treatment dramatically improve survival.

Her family describes her survival as extraordinary. “Every time we thought we’d lost her, she came back fighting,” a relative said.

One in seven stroke patients in India are young adults aged below 45 years, with hypertension leading as the major risk factor, according to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The study, published in the International Journal of Stroke, showed that two in five patients arrived in the hospital after 24 hours of onset of symptoms, highlighting the need for improving awareness about the first hour (golden hour) in stroke care.

“The findings highlight the gaps in acute stroke care, including delayed hospital arrival, limited access to advanced treatments, and inadequate follow-up services,” said Prashant Mathur, Director, ICMR—National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru, in the paper.

“Stroke continues to pose a major public health burden, with poor outcomes. The study shall contribute to the development of evidence-based comprehensive strategies for stroke prevention, effective management, and improved treatment outcomes,” he added.

What Stroke Patterns Did The Study Find?

The team included 34,792 stroke cases from 30 Hospital-Based Stroke Registries (HBSRs) across India, recorded between 2020 and 2022.

About 64 percent of the stroke patients were males, and 36.6 percent were females.

Stroke in the younger age group (aged below 45 years) constituted 13.8 percent of the total cases. More than 70 per cent of the participants were residents from rural areas.

Hypertension (74.5 percent) was the most common risk factor, followed by smokeless tobacco use (28.5 percent) and diabetes mellitus (27.3 percent).

Ischemic stroke accounted for 60 percent of cases. Only 20.1 percent were presented within 4.5 hours of symptom onset, while 37.8 percent of cases presented after 24 hours.

The commonest symptoms at onset included motor impairment (74.8 percent), followed by speech disturbance (51.2 percent), dysphagia (30.4 percent), and impaired consciousness (25.6 percent).

The study also highlighted substantial disparities in stroke care services. Time-sensitive therapies like thrombolysis were given in 4.6 percent of cases, while thrombectomy was administered in 0.7 percent of ischemic strokes.

At three months, 27.8 percent of patients had died, while nearly 30 percent suffered significant disability, and 1.1 percent had a recurrent stroke. This highlighted the need for improving comprehensive stroke care across India.

Burden Of Stroke In India

Stroke remains one of the leading global health burdens, causing significant deaths and disability worldwide, including in India. Compared to Western countries, stroke also tends to occur at a younger age and is associated with a higher case fatality rate in the country.

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 identified hypertension, air pollution, tobacco smoking, high cholesterol, increased salt intake, and diabetes as the leading risk factors of stroke.

Incidence of stroke is increasing significantly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially in India, due to population growth, aging, and greater exposure to risk factors.

The estimated stroke incidence in India ranged from 108 to 172 per 100,000 population, and 1-month case fatality varied from 18 percent to 42 percent.

As per data from the ICMR-NCDIR, India has a crude stroke incidence rate of 138.1 per 100,000 population and an age-standardized case fatality rate of 30 per 100,000 population.

Amid changing climatic conditions that are soaring temperatures and leading to over 200,000 deaths annually in South Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) today announced two health initiatives that will prevent the impacts of extreme heat and save lives in the region.

Extreme heat in South Asia, including in India, is rapidly threatening human health and can potentially also cause economic instability in the subcontinent.

The two initiatives -- the South Asia Climate–Health Desk and the South Asia Scientific Research Consortium -- were announced at the ongoing Mumbai Climate Week in collaboration with several global and regional partners.

The initiatives, with an investment of $11.5 million by the Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome, aim to connect climate science to health action to prevent heat-related deaths and illnesses.

“Few regions feel the impacts of extreme heat as sharply as South Asia, and I welcome the clear determination to respond. We all know that every death primarily due to excess heat can be prevented, and heat health action plans are saving lives,” said Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climate and Health Joint Programme.

“By uniting science, government leadership and support, and community action, countries here are proving that this challenge can be met,” Saulo added.

What Are The 2 Health Initiatives?

The South Asia Climate–Health Desk, implemented with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), India Meteorological Department (IMD), aims to improve how climate and weather information is translated into action to protect health.

It is one of the first units under the joint program to embrace research and development and operational domains in climate and health, and will also help develop more robust decision support tools, such as early warning and risk assessments.

The South Asia Scientific Research Consortium, under the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, is expected to deepen the region’s scientific understanding of how heat affects different populations.

By developing tailored heat‑risk thresholds, this consortium aims to ultimately strengthen heat action planning, early warning systems, and preparedness efforts, helping communities and institutions better adapt to rising temperatures.

The Risks Of A Warming South Asia

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for urgent global action to address the growing risk of extreme heat worldwide, which takes a heavy toll on health in South Asia – the world’s most populous region.

According to WMO, Asia is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, intensifying extreme weather and placing growing pressure on lives and livelihoods, health systems, economies, and ecosystems across the region, putting the most vulnerable and exposed communities at critical risk.

In India, pre-monsoon temperatures regularly rise above 50 degrees Celsius, with heat-related mortality exceeding 200,000 deaths per year.

Extreme heat also undermines economic stability and productivity.

In 2024 alone, heat exposure in India led to 247 billion potential labor hours lost. The Lancet Countdown reported that the reduced labor capacity led to an estimated $194 billion loss in income.