Health and Wellness

 

Health and wellness—whether physical or mental—rest on four pillars: sufficient sleep, healthy diet, regular exercise, and social interaction. Developing good habits in these four areas works synergistically. For example, exercise typically improves sleeping, while feeling rested and healthy can improve social interactions. Everyone, not just young people, can benefit from improving their behaviors in these four areas. Let’s look at each of them a little more closely.

 

Sleep

Sleep may be one of the most undervalued activities in busy lives, but it is critically important for good health. During sleep, the body carries out important repair functions for mind and body. Without rest, people eat more than they need to; get moody and bad-tempered; can break out more; get sick more often; do worse in school; and, in severe cases of sleep deprivation, can experience hallucinations.

 

Because so much physical and psychological change takes place during teen years, teens require more sleep than adults (between 8.5 and 9.5 hours). However, they often don’t get enough sleep because their internal clocks are not synced up with their school and activity schedules. To improve sleep hygiene, consider these tips from the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

 

  • Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
  • Keep your bedroom cool and dark.
  • Avoid caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime. Avoid nicotine altogether.
  • Although exercise is helpful for sleep, it isn’t when it occurs too close to bedtime. For best effects of exercise on sleep, exercise in the morning.
  • Avoid eating a large meal before bed.

To learn more about sleep and its effects, see the page on sleep deprivation. In addition, the National Sleep Foundation provides lots of information about the importance of sleep, how to develop good sleeping habits, and information about sleep deprivation.

 

Healthy Diet

Search the term “healthy diet” on Google, and you will get more than 41 million results, which says a great deal about the importance of the topic and the amount of advice and information (often conflicting) that’s out there.

 

That poor diets cause obesity, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases is common knowledge. Poor eating habits start and are established in childhood and adolescence, which makes creating healthy eating habits an important task for parents from the get-go (although it is never too late for improvement). Furthermore, a healthy diet is the foundation for healthy physical development and has profound effects on mental health also.

 

One way to establish healthy eating habits is to use the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s My Plate model, which advocates for eating smaller portions, more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and less salt and refined sugars. To learn more about healthy eating, see the Choose My Plate website, which has lots of information about food groups, resources for getting personalized eating plans, healthy menu plans, daily tips, and more.

 

For more information about healthy diets and young people, check out these resources:

 

  • WebMD provides a guide for parents to learn more about the nutritional needs of their growing teenagers.
  • Michael Pollan’s book Food Rules provides simple, no-nonsense rules for purchasing and eating foods that will sustain good health.
  • KidsHealth.org  has a nutrition and wellness center with lots of informative articles.

Exercise

Exercise is crucial to physical health both in the present and for the long term, but it also has a big impact on mental health. These are some of the benefits of exercise:

 

  • Stronger, more toned muscles, resulting in better physical appearance
  • Better skin
  • Better sleep (as long as you don’t exercise within a couple of hours of bedtime)
  • Reduced heart rate
  • Greater stamina
  • Stronger bones (especially important later in life)
  • Weight loss or maintenance
  • Better mood
  • Greater self-esteem.

The USDA recommends that teenagers get about 60 minutes of exercise per day. KidsHealth.org describes three components of a well-balanced exercise routine: aerobic, strength, and flexibility training. Aerobic training refers to any exercise that gets your heart rate up and gets you to breathe hard. This is good for strengthening your heart, which improves the oxygen flow in your body. Strength training refers to exercises that build up other muscles in your body, which has many benefits including protecting your joints from injury, burning more calories (and thus helping you to maintain a healthy weight), and keeping you from wearing out too quickly. Finally, flexibility training refers to exercises like stretching that will keep you flexible. Flexibility is important for avoiding injury.

 

To learn more about the benefits of exercise and to get some suggestions for making exercise a regular part of your life, check out these links:

 

  • Because making sure that exercise is fun makes it more likely you will stick with it, KidsHealth.org provides some tips for finding the right sport to engage in based on your preferences and interests.
  • ToneTeen.com describes and illustrates some exercises that will help strengthen all parts of your body. The website also provides information about diet and tools for calculating body mass index (BMI), calories burned, and more.

Social Interaction

Health and wellness go beyond the physical to mental wellness, and one of the ways that young people can stay healthy is by engaging in positive social interaction both with their families and with their peers. For parents who want to ensure their interactions with their children have positive outcomes, the Cleveland Clinic suggests:

 

  • Providing generous encouragement and praise for the things he or she does right
  • Pointing out what the teen does right, not just mistakes
  • Providing constructive, not hurtful or demeaning, criticism
  • Focusing on the teen’s strengths
  • Avoiding overprotecting the teen and allowing him or her to make mistakes; mistakes are a way to learn
  • Teaching good decision-making skills and praising the teen when he or she uses them.

Strong family interactions are also at the root of young people’s ability to manage peer pressure. Not all peer pressure is bad. In some cases, it can encourage a teen to do excel in school or in sports. In other cases, it can encourage a teen to engage in risky behaviors, such as a drugs or alcohol. Close, trusting interactions with parents can help young people learn what peer pressure is and provide avenues for coping with it.

 

The opposite of healthy social interaction is isolation, and it can be a sign of underlying issues or lead to problems such as teen depression. Troubled Teens Help provides advice for helping an isolated teen come out of his or her room and interact more with family and peers.

 

Here are some helpful links to learn more about health and wellness in general:

 

  • Teen Health & Wellness is a paid, online magazine with articles about a wide variety of health-related issues. The website provides a 30-day free trial.
  • KidsHealth.org provides a comprehensive collection of articles directed to a teen audience about total well-being, including healthy eating, sleeping, exercise, and relationships.
  • Child.net provides dozens of articles geared to parents and young people about a wide variety of general health and wellness topics.
  • WebMD provides a fitness tool  with challenges to improve fitness IQ in the areas of rest, food, exercise, and mood.

 

These resources are provided for information purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical, health, or legal advice.   Please consult your doctor, mental health professional or lawyer for advice that is specific to your needs.  SCC, its officers, directors, staff and attorneys hereby disclaim any responsibility for, or any liability resulting from, the use of these resources.