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.

A US doctor infected with the Ebola virus, while treating patients infected with the deadly disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo has been admitted to Berlin's Charité hospital today.

The German Health Ministry acquiesced to a request from the United States for the patient to be treated in Germany rather than the United States due to the shorter travel time from Uganda and the Charité's experience in dealing with Ebola, Deutsche Welle reported.

The patient was flown to Berlin on a special medical aircraft and was then driven to the hospital in a specially designed vehicle escorted by police. The aircraft also carried six other people with whom the infected man had contact.

The German Health Ministry has reassured the public that there is no danger of the deadly virus spreading to the general population.

The Charité hospital specializes in the treatment of such cases and the patient is being housed in a completely isolated ward, separate from the rest of the clinic, the report said.

The German Health Ministry, however, noted that the mortality rate following modern treatment and specialist monitoring at a clinic like Berlin's Charité drops from around 60 per cent to 20 per cent-30 per cent.

Ebola Cases Rise To Over 130: WHO Considers Use Of Experimental Vaccines

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola and 130 suspected deaths due to the Bundibugyo strain in DR Congo since the new outbreak began in April.

Global health leaders are also considering whether vaccines or medicines still in development could be used to fight Ebola. Dr Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior director of health at the International Rescue Committee, which works in the DRC’s Ituri Province, where most cases have been reported, told the The Guardian he expected current known cases were “the tip of the iceberg”.

Spread across the porous border to South Sudan, he said, was probably “a matter of when”. He warned that a weak public health infrastructure there meant “we are actually flying blind”.

A WHO official in Ituri province said the outbreak could take a long time to bring under control.

“I don’t think that in two months we will be done with this outbreak,” Anne Ancia, the WHO’s representative for the DRC, told reporters in Geneva at the World Health Assembly, pointing to a recent Ebola outbreak that took two years to end. Nearly 2,300 people died between 2018 and 2020 in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC to date.

“At the international level, [we are] looking at what candidate vaccines or treatment are available and if any could be of use in this outbreak,” Ancia added.

Australia has seen more than 220 cases of diphtheria so far this year, the biggest outbreak of the disease since national records began in 1991.

The Northern Territory has the largest number of positive cases at 133, followed by 82 in Western Australia, six in South Australia, and fewer than five in Queensland.

In response to the outbreak, the federal and state governments have mobilized, and the Commonwealth is preparing a support package to bolster vaccination rates for a disease once considered almost eradicated, ABC News reported.

Authorities are also waiting on the outcome of an investigation into a reported diphtheria-related death in the NT, which would be the first death from the disease in almost a decade.

Federal health minister Mark Butler said the numbers were “very concerning.”

“To put that in context, we've been recording case numbers nationally for about 35 years, and this, by a very big distance, is the biggest outbreak of diphtheria we've ever seen,” he said.

The cases are rising amid falling vaccination rates on the continent.

“I want to say this is not just very serious in terms of its numbers, but the vast majority of new cases we're seeing are respiratory diphtheria, which is far more serious in terms of its potential — about 25 per cent of cases are being hospitalized,” Butler said at a press conference on the NSW Central Coast.

Also read: US Doctor With Ebola Admitted To Hospital In Germany

2 Different Diphtheria Strains Identified

Two strains of diphtheria have been identified in Australia: respiratory and cutaneous. While respiratory diphtheria can affect the nose, throat, and airways, cutaneous affects the skin, causing pus-filled blisters on the skin or large ulcers surrounded by red, sore-looking skin.

The respiratory strain also spreads through droplets from coughing or sneezing, or direct contact with infected wounds.

Even with treatment, one in 10 people with respiratory symptoms die, according to the Australian CDC.

What Is Diphtheria?

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), diphtheria is a disease caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacterium that affects the upper respiratory tract and, less often, the skin. It also produces a toxin that damages the heart and the nerves. While it is a vaccine-preventable disease, multiple doses are needed to produce and sustain immunity.

Diphtheria has remained a leading cause of childhood death globally. But vaccination has long prevented mortality among children.

Those who are not immunized remain at risk. WHO also mentions that diphtheria can be fatal in 30 per cent of cases, with young children at higher risk of dying if they are unvaccinated and are not receiving proper treatment.

In 2023, an estimated 84 per cent of children worldwide received the recommended 3 doses of diphtheria-containing vaccine during infancy, leaving 16 per cent with no or incomplete coverage.

According to Australia’s Department of Health and Aged Care, between 1926 and 1935, more than 4,000 Australians died from diphtheria.

Vaccination started in Australia in the 1930s, and the disease has rarely been seen since the 1950s. But vaccine coverage has waned since the COVID pandemic, leading to a rising number of cases.

Diphtheria: Signs And Symptoms

Read More: UK Scientists Begin Drug Trial To Mend Broken Heart Syndrome

Within 2 to 5 days after exposure to the bacteria. The symptoms include

• a sore throat,
• fever,
• swollen neck glands,
• weakness.

Diphtheria: How the Disease Is Treated

It is usually treated with diphtheria antitoxin as well as antibiotics. Antitoxin neutralizes the circulating toxin in the blood. Antibiotics stop bacterial replication and thereby toxin production, speed up getting rid of the bacteria, and prevent transmission to others.

How To Prevent Diphtheria

Diphtheria can be prevented by vaccines and routine immunization. The vaccine is given most often combined with vaccines for diseases such as tetanus, pertussis, Hemophilus influenzae, hepatitis B, and inactivated polio.

For 57-year-old Brenda Young, her mother’s death last year caused an ‘intense, overwhelming pain in the middle of the chest’, so severe that she required hospital admission.

While her symptoms felt like a heart attack, the Scottish woman was diagnosed with ‘broken heart syndrome’.

Also called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, it is a sudden condition estimated to affect at least 5000 people in the UK each year.

Now she is part of a groundbreaking trial by a team of scientists in the UK to gauge a medication for the long-term management of the condition.

What Is Broken Heart Syndrome?

As the name suggests, the fatal condition is triggered by sudden emotional stress, such as the loss of a loved one. While it is often mistaken for a heart attack, it mimics a heart attack, causing sudden chest pain, breathlessness, and weakened heart muscles.

However, unlike heart attacks, it is not caused by a blockage in the heart arteries but instead, a severe weakening of the heart muscle.

There is currently no proven treatment for takotsubo, which means treatments can vary from person to person. We know that following an attack, the impact on the patient’s quality of life can be extremely debilitating.

Broken Heart Syndrome: 7-Year Study To Test Drug

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The seven-year-long study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will involve scientists and clinicians from Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Belfast, and almost 1,000 takotsubo patients from 40 hospitals across the country.

“Takotsubo syndrome affects thousands of people in the UK year on year – most of whom are women. The figures are stark in that one in ten will ultimately die from their condition. It is a growing problem, and with ever-improving clinical recognition, the diagnosis rate has increased 5-fold in the past decade,” said Dana Dawson, Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, who is leading the trial.

The long-term risk of death or serious health problems after a takotsubo attack is similar to that of patients who have had a heart attack. In those who survive the first attack, patients live with a higher risk of death, heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure, as well as a higher risk of repeated takotsubo attacks.

What Is The Trial Drug?

It has been suggested that a class of medicines that relax blood vessels, called 'renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors', could be an effective course of treatment in the longer term for takotsubo patients.

Currently used to treat heart attacks due to heart artery blockage, high blood pressure, or heart failure, this study will scientifically test the effectiveness of RAS inhibitors in takotsubo to establish if this could be a treatment pathway specific to the condition.

“We will test, for the first time, if RAS inhibitors could prevent deaths, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, and repeated takotsubo attacks in people who have suffered an acute takotsubo attack,” Professor Dana said.

“We hope that this will make it clear whether or not these drugs are effective at preventing repeated health problems in the long-term,” the expert said.

With the trial, the researchers aim to find the first therapy that improves survival and reduces the burden of disease after a takotsubo attack, or it may help redirect the search to other treatments that may work.