Aristotle said it first and best: "Good habits formed in youth make all the difference." But it's tough to know at 15 that your hunched posture while texting may cause you chronic neck pain when you're 40, or that living on diet soda and doughnuts in college can contribute to developing heart disease. The problems associated with getting older seem so far off.
The seeds of your future health are planted early. You can do a great deal as a pre-teen and teen to make sure you don't develop premature health issues, such as Type 2 diabetes (around 5,300 U.S. kids are diagnosed a year) and high blood pressure (now affecting an estimated 3.5 percent of American children and teens). What accounts for these numbers? Childhood obesity has skyrocketed - 13.7 million children and adolescents are now obese, and millions more are overweight.
Kids, we're talking directly to you. (You can get your folks in on this, too; they also need to participate in a "whole house gets healthy" redo.) You can reshape your future - and have fun doing it. So this one's for you!
Weight management: There are three simple guidelines that will transform your health.
- No sweetened beverages. Limit 100 percent natural juices (nothing added) to 4 ounces a day.
- No fried foods.
- Eat a salad or a pile of veggies at every meal. Have two pieces of fruit or servings of berries daily. (They really are good!)
Sleep: It matters for your grades, your health (you tend to overeat when you are sleepy), your mood and your 'tude. Kids 6-13 need nine to 10 hours; aim for eight to 10 hours if you are 14-17; seven to nine hours if you are 18-25. If you feel you have too much to do (homework, sports practice, after-school job) and school starts way too early (you're catching a bus at 7 a.m. or earlier) talk to your folks about petitioning for later school times. Study after study shows that kids have better grades and are happier if school times are moved up. Start a movement!
Physical activity: Unfortunately, a study last year found that at age 19 most Americans are as sedentary as a 60-year-old (who shouldn't be sedentary either!). Screen time is a brain killer and a heart dinger, and too much social media time ups your risk for depression. Aim to get out and about as part of a sports team, take a jog with a pal, go to a spin class or go for a bike ride. Your minimum goal: 60 minutes of aerobic activity a day. We say 120 minutes is a lot better. You have the energy, so use it!
Smart sports choices: Make sure you mix up your activities. If you stick with just one sport (early sport specialization) and overtrain, you risk early injury (you don't want to earn a college scholarship and then have a career-ending ACL tear). You also risk emotional repercussions, such as loss of enthusiasm and lack of interest in competition.
Stress management: Between school pressures, social anxieties, conflict with parents and worry about the future, many teens report feeling daily stress. Regular physical activity helps dispel an amped-up stress response. Talking with friends, a favorite teacher or counselor, or parents and siblings can help. So can declaring digital holidays (no Facebook this week!) and trying meditation (check out Sharecare.com for instructions).
You may think we're asking a lot of you, but we want you to have a healthy, happy future so that you can work, play, love, laugh and explore the world without having avoidable physical restrictions. Don't you one day want to climb the steps of Switzerland's Niesen Railway - all 11,674 of them? It's the longest stairway in the world and open to hikers once a year when the Niesen Run takes place along the 2 mile route (with 5,475 feet in elevation change). You can dream, and make dreams real, if you just start the journey toward good health today.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Read more http://cdn.kingfeatures.com/rss/feed/editorial/index.php?content=YouDocFeat_20190224