Health is low on the list of teenage priorities – below friends and fashion, according to research by the British Chiropractic Association. Perhaps today’s teens are so engrossed in their social lives and with their appearance that the most important thing, their health, has slipped off the agenda.

Healthy Teen Diet

What does healthy eating really mean?

There is no single "healthy diet". As long as you eat a variety of foods, from the main food groups (fruits, vegetables, grains [rice, pasta, oats etc] lean meats, dairy, fats) you should get all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrition you need.

Does healthy eating mean that certain foods are off-limits?

No. A healthy diet doesn't mean depriving yourself of higher-calorie foods, like rich ice cream, toffee popcorn, cheeseburgers and stuff. You can enjoy these and other similar foods, but in moderation or as occasional treats.

Two healthy eating habits

Here are a couple of small suggestions to improve your daily diet and help maintain a healthy weight.

	Snack on fruits to satisfy your sweet tooth. Take a snack of fresh chopped fruit with you to school. Add some walnuts or Brazil nuts for extra crunch.
	Apply the dinner plate test to your meals.A good way to eat a healthy meal is to make sure that half the plate contains vegetables, with the remaining half divided equally between protein (meat, eggs, beans) and carbohydrates (rice, pasta, potatoes, noodles). If eating pizza, go easy on the cheese and pepperoni and load up on vegetables and fruit.

Here are some ideas to help you get into the 5-a-day (or more!) habit:

• Start with the first meal of the day. Plan to eat a serving or two of fruit with breakfast every day. Mix it up so you don't get bored. Half a grapefruit, an apple or a handful of berries on your cereal are all good choices. Fruit juice counts too — but only if you drink one small glass of 100% juice. Continue this pattern by eating vegetables at lunch and at dinner.
• Get extra energy from fruit or vegetable snacks. The carbohydrates in fruit and vegetables are great sources of energy. Combine them with a serving of protein — such as a piece of cheese, a yogurt, or a tablespoon of peanut butter.
• Double up on fruit and vegetable servings. Recommended servings of fruit and veg can be small. Unlike other foods, it's OK to double the serving size of fruit or vegetables.
• Use fruit and vegetables as ingredients. Enjoy bread? Bake up a batch of courgette or olive bread and get your veg along with your grains! Chop up vegetables (peppers, carrots, celery) and add them to a chille con carne. If you don't like vegetables much, sneak them into foods you do enjoy (like grating carrots into tomato ketchup!).
• Try a new fruit, vegetable, or recipe each week. Our bodies like variety. So set a goal to try something different each week. You may find a new favourite. One good way to get variety is to eat the fruit and vegetables that are in season in your area. They usually taste better than the bland fruit salad or shrivelled apples you're used to seeing in the canteen!

Heart Health

Childhood obesity seems to be hot topic at the moment with statistics showing that obesity in children between the ages of 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 25 years, from 6.5 percent in 1980, to 17 percent in 2006. The obesity rate among adolescents ages 12 to 19 has more than tripled, increasing from 5 percent to 17.6 percent.

Here are some suggestions to help your kids improve their heart health and avoid the perils of high cholesterol:

Exercise as a family. Kids need motivation to exercise start an activity the family can do together such as riding a bike, tennis, kicking a ball around or just taking the dog for a brisk walk or run.

Shop and cook healthily. Avoid buying junk food and high sugar content drinks instead incorporate more fruits and vegetables into the family diet, along with whole grains and lean sources of protein, such as chicken and fish.

Reduce TV time. The average child watches television six hours a day. That's six hours doing nothing except staring at the screen. Television and video games should be a reward for eating well and exercising.

Check Blood pressure. Get the whole family's blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels tested periodically. Often these problems go undiagnosed for long periods of time, it’s better to catch them early on as it is easier to deal with.

Get organised. If your child is already overweight or obese, consider getting them into a formal weight-management programme. Nutritional counselling and supervised exercise sessions can give a child the support and motivation they need to lose weight.

Exercise

Finding it hard to fit in fitness? Just getting through a day of school and after-school commitments can leave most of us wondering where to find time. All the running around does counts as exercise, but if it's the only exercise we get, it's usually not enough.

What more should we do?

• Try to make sure aerobic activity adds up to more than 60 minutes a day. Aerobic activity is anything that gets your heart going — like biking, dancing or running.
• Take a few minutes for some strength training to boost the metabolism and keep joints working well.
• Flexibility is the third component of well-rounded exercise. Check out yoga as one way to stay flexible.

Straighten Up UK is a simple three minute exercise programme designed to improve posture.

By incorporating just a few simple exercises into your daily routine, it can help to strengthen the spine and improve your posture. Click on the link below for the podcast:

Backs

Your spine is made of 33 bones called vertebrae and between the vertebrae are discs that act as natural shock absorbers. When you incorrectly place a heavy weight on your shoulders, such as a schoolbag filled with books, the weight's force can pull you in one direction. To compensate, you may bend forward at the hips or arch your back and this can cause the spine to twist and compress unnaturally.

Backpacks can't be beaten for helping you to stay organized. Multiple compartments keep all your supplies and notes close at hand. Backpacks also have health benefits. Compared with shoulder bags, backpacks are better for carrying all those books and supplies because the weight of the pack is evenly distributed across your body and is supported by the strongest muscles in the body: the back and the abdominal muscles. But backpacks that are overloaded or not used properly can make for some heavy health problems.

Can Backpacks Cause Problems?

Teens who carry heavy backpacks sometimes also compensate for the extra weight by leaning forward; over time this can cause the shoulders to become rounded and the upper back to become curved. Because of the heavy weight, there's a chance they may develop shoulder, neck and back pain.

If the backpack is worn over just one shoulder, or books are carried in a shoulder bag, it makes you lean to one side to offset the extra weight. You might develop lower and upper back pain and strain your shoulders and neck. Improper backpack use can lead to poor posture.

Warning signs

Tight, narrow straps that dig into your shoulders can pinch nerves and interfere with circulation and could cause tingling, numbness and weakness in the arms and hands.

If you have to struggle to get your backpack on or off, if you have to lean forward to carry your pack or if you have back pain, then the way you are using your backpack (either its overall weight or the method you use to carry it) may need to be adjusted.

If you continue to have back pain or have numbness or weakness in your arms or legs, talk to your Chiropractor.

Here are a few tips that will help make your backpack work for you, not against you:

• Consider the construction. Before you buy a new bag, make sure it has two padded straps that go over your shoulders; the wider the straps, the better. A backpack with a metal frame (like the ones hikers use) may give you more support. Look for a backpack with a waist belt, which helps to distribute the weight more evenly across the body. Backpacks with multiple compartments can also help distribute the weight more evenly.
• Use your locker. Try not to load up on the textbooks for a full day's classes. Make frequent locker trips to drop off heavy textbooks or the extras like gym clothes. Work out which are the nonessentials; if you don't need an item until the afternoon, why carry it around all morning?
• Plan your homework. Plan ahead and spread your home work out over the course of the week so you won't have to carry all your books home on the weekend.
• Limit your backpack load. It is recommended that people carry no more than 10% to 15% of their body weight in their packs. This means that if you weigh 50 Kg (8 stone), your backpack should weigh no more than 5 Kg (12 pounds). Use your bathroom scales to weigh your backpack and get an idea of what the proper weight for you feels like.
• Pick it up properly. As with any heavy weight, you should bend at the knees when lifting a backpack to your shoulders.
• Strengthen your core. A great way to prevent back injury is to strengthen the stabilizing muscles of your torso, including your lower back and abdominal muscles. Weight training, Pilates and yoga are all activities that can be effective in strengthening these core muscles.

So what's the best way to carry a backpack? Learn from the hiking pros and wear both straps over your shoulders. Keep your load light enough so that you can easily walk or stand upright and pack your backpack with the heaviest items closest to your back.

Sleepy Teens

Most teens need between 8½ to 9 hours of sleep each night. The right amount of sleep is essential for anyone who wants to do well on a test or play sports without tripping over their feet. Unfortunately many teens don't get enough sleep.

A recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation found only 20 percent of teens got the recommended nine hours of sleep a night. Furthermore, more than a quarter of the teens surveyed (28 percent) reported falling asleep in lessons. Lack of sleep also affected academic performance: teens who didn't get enough sleep were more likely than their peers to get lower grades, while 80 percent of those who got an optimal amount of sleep reported achieving A's and B's in school.

Lack of sleep has also been linked to emotional troubles, such as feelings of sadness and depression. Sleep helps keep us physically healthy too by slowing our body's systems enough to re-energize us after everyday activities.

Some of the signs that would indicate your teenager may need more sleep include difficulty waking up in the morning, inability to concentrate, falling asleep during classes, feelings of moodiness and even depression.

Tips that may help your teenager sleep better:

• Set a regular bedtime. Going to bed at the same time each night signals to your body that it's time to sleep. Waking up at the same time every day can also help establish sleep patterns. So try to stick to your sleep schedule even on weekends. Don't go to sleep more than an hour later or wake up more than 2 to 3 hours later than you do during the week.
• Exercise regularly. Try not to exercise right before bed, though, as it can rev you up and make it harder to fall asleep. Many sleep experts believe that exercising 5 or 6 hours before bedtime (in late afternoon) may actually help a person sleep.
• Avoid stimulants. Don't drink beverages with caffeine, such as fizzy drinks and coffee, after 4 PM. Nicotine is also a stimulant, so smoking before bed may stop you sleeping well.
• Relax your mind. Avoid violent, scary or action movies or television shows right before bed — anything that might set your mind and heart racing. Reading books with involved or active plots may also keep you from falling or staying asleep.
• Unwind by keeping the lights low. Light signals the brain that it's time to wake up. Staying away from bright lights (including computer screens!) as well as meditating or listening to soothing music can help your body relax.
• Don't nap too much. Naps of more than 20 minutes during the day may keep you from falling asleep later.
• Avoid all-nighters. Don't wait until the night before a big test to study. Cutting back on sleep the night before a test may mean you perform worse than you would if you'd studied less but got more sleep.
• Create the right sleeping environment. Studies show that people sleep best in a dark room that is slightly on the cool side. Close your blinds or curtains (and make sure they're heavy enough to block out light) and turn down the thermostat in your room (pile on extra blankets or wear pyjamas if you're cold). Lots of noise can affect sleep too.
• Wake up with bright light. Bright light in the morning signals to your body that it's time to get going.

Stress

Stress is a feeling that's created when we react to particular events. It's the body's way of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with focus, strength, stamina and heightened alertness. Everyone experiences stress at times – adults, teens and even kids. But there are things you can do to minimize stress and manage the stress that's unavoidable.

The events that provoke stress are called stressors and they cover a whole range of situations - everything from outright physical danger to making a class presentation or taking a term’s worth of your toughest subject.

Good Stress and Bad Stress

The stress response (also called the fight or flight response) is critical during emergency situations, such as when a driver has to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. It can also be activated in a milder form at a time when the pressure's on but there's no actual danger - like taking a penalty shot, getting ready to go to a big dance or sitting down for a final exam. A little of this stress can help keep you on your toes, ready to rise to a challenge. The nervous system quickly returns to its normal state, standing by to respond again when needed.

Stress doesn't always happen in response to things that are immediate or that are over quickly. Ongoing or long-term events can cause stress too: coping with parents divorcing or moving to a new house or school. Long-term stressful situations can produce a lasting, low-level stress that's hard on everyone. The nervous system senses continued pressure and may remain slightly activated and continue to pump out extra stress hormones over an extended period. This can wear out the body's reserves, leave a person feeling depleted or overwhelmed, weaken the body's immune system and cause other problems.

Pressures that are too intense or last too long or troubles that are shouldered alone, can cause people to feel stress overload. Some of the things that can overwhelm the body's ability to cope if they continue for a long time include being bullied or exposed to violence or injury, relationship stress, family conflicts or the heavy emotions that can accompany a broken heart or the death of a loved one.

Some people have anxiety problems that can cause them to overreact to stress, making even small difficulties seem like crises. If a person frequently feels tense, upset, worried or stressed it may be a sign of anxiety. Anxiety problems usually need attention and many people turn to professional counsellors for help in overcoming them.

Questions and Answers
Do you have a question or concern?
Call, write in or email us:
contact@wickfordchiro.co.uk

Booking enquiries email:
reception@wickfordchiro.co.uk

29 Ethelred Gardens
Wickford
SS11 7EX
01268 561825
wickfordchiro.co.uk