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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.
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.
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.
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.
Credit: iStock/Merck
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Merck's Idvynso (doravirine/islatravir), a new, once-daily pill for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults.
The two-drug single tablet replaces the current antiretroviral regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA <50 copies per mL).
The single tablet contains 100 mg doravirine and 0.25 mg islatravir. The FDA has approved it for adults on a stable antiretroviral regimen with no history of virologic treatment failure and no known substitutions associated with resistance to doravirine.
“IDVYNSO combines islatravir, a next-generation NRTI with multiple mechanisms of action, including translocation inhibition, with doravirine, an NNRTI with an established efficacy and safety profile,” said Dr. Eliav Barr, senior vice president and chief medical officer, Merck Research Laboratories, in a statement.
The approval is based on data from two randomized, active-controlled, noninferiority trials. In the double-blind Trial 052, participants were randomly assigned to stay on Glilead's Biktarvy (bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide; 171 individuals) or switch to Idvynso (342 individuals).
Results showed that 1 per cent of participants in both groups had a viral load of ≥50 copies/mL at 48 weeks.
In the open-label Trial 051, participants were randomly assigned to stay on their oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen (185 individuals) or switch to Idvynso (366 individuals).
Results showed that 1 per cent of participants who were switched to Idvynso had a viral load of ≥50 copies/mL at week 48 versus 5 per cent who continued on ART.
"As the only two-drug, non-integrase strand transfer inhibitor, tenofovir-free regimen, Idvynso expands therapeutic diversity beyond the currently available oral treatment options," Barr said.
"As the health needs of adults living with HIV change over time, Idvynso gives clinicians a new choice for HIV treatment."
What Is IDVYNSO? How Does It Work?
IDVYNSO is a fixed-dose combination of two medicines, doravirine with islatravir.
Doravirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) that inhibits HIV-1 replication by non-competitive inhibition of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase.
Islatravir is a potent, next-generation nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that blocks HIV-1 replication by multiple mechanisms, including:
According to the latest data from UNAIDS, 40.8 million people globally were living with HIV in 2024. Of these, 39.4 million were adults (15 years or older) and 1.4 million were children (0–14 years).
While 1.3 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2024, 630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses.
About 87 per cent of all people living with HIV knew their HIV status, and 5.3 million people did not know that they were living with HIV.
Credit: AI generated image
The US eliminated measles in 2000, but since 2025, the highly infectious disease has spread to 45 states. As of early May 2026, the US has recorded 1,814 confirmed measles cases this year across 36 states. This follows a record-high 2,288 cases in 2025.
Now, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has warned about additional measles cases ahead of the travel season.
The CDC urged public health agencies across the US to be prepared for more measles cases in the coming months.
"With continued measles transmission in areas across North America and expected increases in international and domestic travel and large events during spring and summer, additional measles cases are anticipated in the coming months," the agency said.
The guidance advised public health agencies to document and report details of each case of measles, including close contacts and locations visited while a person was infectious.
Active surveillance should be conducted to identify any additional suspected cases and quickly transport specimens for laboratory confirmation, the guidance said.
The agency also encouraged outreach to under-vaccinated communities and suggested using state-based syndromic surveillance systems to detect changes in health care–seeking behavior for fever and rash illnesses or signs of vitamin A toxicity.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through direct contact or through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is a vaccine-preventable disease that can cause devastating complications, including blindness, pneumonia, encephalitis, and long-term immune dysfunction.
Also read: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Denies Link To Measles Outbreak At Senate Hearing
So far, there have been 24 new outbreaks reported in 2026, and 93 per cent of confirmed cases (1,688 of 1,814) are outbreak-associated (415 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,273 from outbreaks that started in 2025).
In 2025, 48 outbreaks were reported, and 90 per cent of confirmed cases (2,065 of 2,288) were outbreak-associated.
According to researchers at Boston Children's Hospital, the US has missed four of the seven criteria for measles elimination status, which could put the country off track. More are at risk, they said.
In a Correspondence published in The Lancet, the researchers explained the missed indicators of measles elimination status in the US.
Read More: India Concerned Over Measles Outbreak, Action Underway: Dr N K Arora| Exclusive
The researchers believe these findings make a strong case for vaccinating children to protect them from a young age.
"Viral infections aren't all benign, and a measles infection, even when cleared, can result in lifelong problems," said Maimuna Majumder, from Boston Children's.
"Babies less than a year old are among those at greatest risk for severe complications, and the full impact on children exposed during the current outbreak may only show up years later," Majumder added.
The sooner REDMOD is implemented, the better for pancreatic cancer patients.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most painful forms of tumour and is also likely to become the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US by 2030. This could be because 85 per cent of cancer cases in the US are not diagnosed until the disease has spread. Pancreatic cancer is a disease that is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage because there are no prominent early signs. However, a newly developed AI model from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center could change that—a new CT scan-based system can help with the timely diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
REDMOD (radiomics-based early detection model) was tested on CT scans of patients who were later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Researchers found that in nearly three out of four cases, REDMOD successfully identified the most common form of pancreatic cancer 16 months before diagnosis. It nearly doubled the detection rate of specialists reviewing scans without AI assistance. In some cases, REDMOD recognised suspicious tissue patterns more than two years before diagnosis. Researchers said that the AI system can detect cancer up to three years in advance.
Experts found that the greatest barrier to saving lives from pancreatic cancer was the inability to detect the tumour when it was still curable. AI can identify cancer signs from a normal-looking pancreas, and it can do so reliably across clinical settings. Researchers used 969 CT scans of the pancreas as training data for REDMOD to help it detect early-stage cancer signs.
Instead of looking for a prominent tumour, the model analysed radiomic patterns that disrupt tissue structure and texture—changes that are too subtle for the human eye to detect. Many cancers begin when normal cells acquire DNA mutations, which affect how cells divide and grow. However, it can take years before these changes develop into a tumour that produces symptoms or becomes clearly visible on a scan.
REDMOD was tested on a varied set of CT scans after training — 63 from patients who later developed cancer but were scanned before diagnosis, and 430 from healthy individuals. Out of the 63 cases, REDMOD flagged 46 as suspicious, resulting in a 73 per cent success rate. All these scans had previously been given the all-clear by radiologists who evaluated them at the same time as REDMOD.
Out of the 430 healthy individuals, 81 were identified as suspicious cases by REDMOD. This means that if AI were deployed in a real-world scenario, some individuals might be recommended for additional tests before receiving a final all-clear. A similar performance was observed in two other datasets from different hospitals using different equipment. For patients who had multiple scans available, AI produced consistent results, even when the scans were taken months apart.
The sooner REDMOD is implemented in clinical practice, the earlier it can detect pancreatic cancer. It could identify tumours at a stage when treatment is still possible. This could significantly improve survival rates and reduce cancer-related mortality. However, researchers now aim to test the effectiveness of AI in larger and more diverse populations.
The research has been published in the Gut.
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