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.

According to the World Health Organisation, the global life expectancy has recovered to almost pre-pandemic levels, a significant public achievement, but the world is facing a growing burden from chronic diseases,

WHO's latest health estimates, which released recently, offer a glimpse into the pattern of life expectancy and disease burden between 2000 and 2023. It also says that while damages due to COVID-19 have been reversed, the world is grappling with a growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

Global Life Expectancy Is Almost Back To 2019 Levels

Global life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, compared to 73.4 years in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, the pace at which healthy life expectancy has recovered has been slow and steady. It stood at 62.8 years in 2023, which was still 0.4 years below the 2019 level.

This means people are living almost as long as they were before the pandemic, but the number of years they can expect to live in good health has not fully recovered.

Dr Alain Labrique, Director of WHO’s Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and AI said, "Living longer is one of the great achievements of public health."

"The next challenge is to ensure that those additional years are lived in good health, while health systems are equipped to respond to the changing needs of populations."

NCDs Now Account For 74% Of Global Deaths

One of the clearest changes in the WHO data is the growing share of deaths caused by NCDs.

In 2023, NCDs accounted for 74% of all deaths globally, up from 58% in 2000.

Eight of the world's 10 leading causes of death were NCDs in 2023. These include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.

The shift is not limited to wealthier countries. In 2023, for the first time, communicable diseases accounted for less than half of all deaths in low-income countries, showing how disease patterns are changing even in populations that have traditionally carried a higher burden of infectious diseases.

Heart Disease Remains The World's Biggest Killer

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide.

Ischaemic heart disease alone caused about 9.5 million deaths in 2023, along with an estimated 210 million disability-adjusted life years, a measure that combines years lost because of premature death and years lived with disability.

While there has been progress in reducing the burden of ischaemic heart disease in many parts of the world since 2000, the WHO noted increases in individual-level cardiovascular risk in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions.

This highlights continuing differences in cardiovascular health between populations.

Diabetes And Dementia Are Also Rising

The WHO estimates point to growing concerns around other chronic conditions.

The risk of dying from diabetes has increased substantially since 2000, particularly in South-East Asia.

Dementia has also moved sharply up the global ranking of causes of death. Alzheimer disease and other dementias became the fifth leading cause of death worldwide in 2023, compared with 19th in 2000.

Global deaths from dementia tripled between 2000 and 2023, according to the WHO.

Mental Health Adds To The Global Disease Burden

The changing health picture is not limited to physical diseases.

Between 2019 and 2023, the global age-standardised disability-adjusted life year rate increased by approximately 20% for depressive disorders and nearly 45% for anxiety disorders.

Together, these conditions were responsible for an estimated 110 million years of healthy life lost through premature death and disability in 2023.

Drug use disorders have also followed different trends across regions. Between 2000 and 2023, the WHO Region of the Americas recorded the largest increases in the risk of death and healthy life loss linked to these disorders, while the Western Pacific region saw substantial declines.

What Does The WHO Data Mean For Global Health?

The latest estimates present a mixed picture.

The world has largely recovered the ground lost in overall life expectancy during the pandemic. But simply living longer does not necessarily mean living healthier.

As populations age and infectious diseases account for a smaller share of deaths in many regions, health systems are increasingly required to manage conditions that often need long-term prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

“The value of these estimates is not only in the numbers themselves,” said Dr Labrique. “By showing how causes of death and disease burden are changing over time and across populations, they give countries evidence to help shape health policies and priorities.”

“These capabilities are critical to better enable targeted, effective interventions and ultimately further improving health and well-being for all.”

The WHO estimates therefore point to a new global health challenge: helping people live not just longer, but healthier lives, while health systems adapt to a growing burden of chronic disease.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pirtobrutinib as a first-line treatment for adults with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) who do not have a known deletion of chromosome 17p.

The approval expands the use of the targeted cancer drug, which was previously approved for certain patients whose CLL or SLL had returned or stopped responding to earlier treatment. It is developed by Eli Lilly and Company and will be sold under the brand name Jaypirca.

More About Pirtobrutinib

CLL is a type of blood cancer in which the bone marrow produces too many abnormal B lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. These abnormal cells can build up in the blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes.

SLL is closely associated with CLL, but the cancer cells are found mainly in the lymph nodes. CLL can progress slowly in some people, while others may develop more aggressive disease.

Pirtobrutinib is a Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, a type of targeted therapy. BTK is a protein that helps B cells receive signals needed for their growth and survival. By blocking BTK, pirtobrutinib interferes with signals that cancerous B cells depend on.

Unlike older covalent BTK inhibitors, pirtobrutinib is a non-covalent, reversible BTK inhibitor, meaning it binds to BTK differently.

A dose of 200 mg once a day is recommended for newly diagnosed patients covered by this approval. It should be taken until the cancer progresses or side effects become severe.

Also read: 2 Indians Charged In US Over Fake Ozempic Scheme: How To Spot Counterfeit GLP-1 Drugs

Findings From Pirtobrutinib's Trial

The FDA based its decision on the BRUIN CLL-313 trial, which included 282 adults with previously untreated CLL or SLL without a 17p deletion.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either pirtobrutinib or the chemotherapy combination bendamustine plus rituximab.

After a median follow-up of 28 months, the median progression-free survival could not yet be calculated for patients receiving pirtobrutinib because enough disease-progressing events had not occurred. In the bendamustine-rituximab group, median progression-free survival was 33.5 months.

The risk of disease progression or death was 80% lower with pirtobrutinib than with bendamustine plus rituximab in the trial, based on the reported hazard ratio of 0.20.

However, overall survival data are still not 100% reliable. There were 13 deaths at the time of the primary analysis - three in the pirtobrutinib group and 10 in the comparison group.

Also read: 21% In 80 Weeks: Lancet Study Finds Lilly’s Retatrutide Delivers One Of The Biggest Weight Losses Ever

Pirtobrutinib's Side Effects

The most common non-laboratory side effects reported with pirtobrutinib included:

• Upper respiratory tract infections
• Rash
• COVID-19

According to the FDA, side effects also include infections, bleeding, reduced blood cell counts, abnormal heart rhythms, other cancers, liver toxicity and harm to an unborn baby. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 28% of patients receiving pirtobrutinib in the trial.

The approval gives eligible people with previously untreated CLL or SLL another targeted treatment option that can be taken as a daily oral medicine.

Jennifer A. Woyach, MD, director of the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, said, “This approval is grounded in data from BRUIN CLL-313, which showed a significant delay in disease progression for pirtobrutinib compared to chemoimmunotherapy, along with safety and tolerability consistent with its established profile.”

The FDA's decision applies specifically to adults with previously untreated CLL or SLL without a known 17p deletion. It therefore does not mean that pirtobrutinib is automatically the first treatment for every person newly diagnosed with CLL.

UK hospitals are seeing an increase in COVID-19 activity as the SARS-CoV-2 XFG variant, dubbed “American Covid” or “Stratus,” circulates in the country.

According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), COVID positivity in hospital settings increased from 5.9% to 7.0%. The weekly hospital admission rate also rose from 0.81 to 1.20 per 100,000, an increase of about 48%.

London recorded the highest increase among regions, with its COVID hospital admission rate rising by 79%.

More than half of the sequenced positive samples were reported to be XFG. Among people aged over 85, hospital admission rates increased from 7.08 to 12.43 per 100,000.

However, the true number of infections could be higher because fewer people are testing for COVID-19 than during the pandemic.

Also read: Flu 2026: Symptoms To Watch For As New Season Begins

What Is the XFG Variant?

XFG is a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 variant formed from Omicron subvariants LF.7 and LP.8.1.2. The WHO records the earliest documented XFG sample on January 27, 2025, and designated it a variant under monitoring in June 2025.

The variant has since been detected in multiple countries and remains among the SARS-CoV-2 variants being monitored by WHO.

What Are the Symptoms of XFG?

COVID symptoms can vary between individuals. Reported symptoms associated with the current circulation of XFG include:

• Cough

• Fever

• Sore throat

• Headache

• Runny nose

• Fatigue

Some people may also experience muscle and joint aches, gastrointestinal symptoms as well as eye or chest infections, while others may have no symptoms.

London GP Dr Renée Hoenderkamp has highlighted symptoms including sore throat, headache, runny nose, fatigue and flu-like aches, Daily Mail reported.

Read More: WHO Sets 2027 Flu Vaccine Strains; US States Can Now Order Free COVID Shots For Kids

Does XFG Cause More Severe Disease?

There is currently no evidence that the variants circulating in the UK are causing more severe disease.

“There is no evidence that variants currently circulating in the UK are causing more severe disease,” Dr Siggins said. “However, COVID can still cause serious illness in those at greatest risk.”

The latest available figures cited in reports recorded seven deaths involving COVID in England in the week ending August 28, compared with six the previous week.

Older adults and people with underlying conditions remain more vulnerable to severe COVID.

How Worried Should We Be?

The current increase is not comparable with the waves seen during the height of the COVID pandemic. UKHSA classifies the current hospital admission rate as being at a baseline level.

“COVID is increasing, but from a low level, which is not unexpected at this time of year,” said Dr Matthew Siggins, lecturer in immunity and infection biology at the University of Surrey, according to reports.

WHO has assessed the additional public health risk posed by XFG as low at the global level. Current evidence does not indicate that XFG causes more severe illness or deaths than other circulating variants.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

People who develop a high temperature or feel particularly unwell should stay home and avoid contact with others while they recover.

People eligible for the autumn COVID vaccination are advised to get vaccinated to maintain protection against serious illness.

Most people have some immunity from previous infection, vaccination or both. However, immunity may decline over time and does not always prevent infection. Protection against severe disease is generally stronger.

WHO has said currently approved COVID vaccines are expected to continue providing protection against symptomatic and severe disease from XFG.