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Is Technology Robbing our Kids of Good Health?
By: Larry M. Glicken
Is Technology Robbing our Kids of Good Health?
Today's kids are technologically smarter than we were at their
age, but in some homes technology seems to have taken control of
our children's lives. Many parents don't realize the underlying
effect it's having on their children's health.
Hardly a day goes by that we don't hear a news report on
childhood obesity. With our children coming home from school,
sitting in front of the computer or spending time playing
video games it's no wonder obesity is on the rise. This being
said, there is another problem that many parents may be
overlooking.
Each year, reports pertaining to the number of bone fractures in
children are made public. Each year, those numbers rise. Some
reports attribute the increase in broken bones to an overload of
sugar from too much soda. This may indeed be a contributing
factor, but I believe improper calcium balance may be the real
cause.
Calcium balance is particularly important in our childhood years
when we are growing. Over 98% of the calcium is found in our
bones and teeth. Our bodies rely on vitamin D and weight bearing
exercise to help keep calcium levels intact. Weight bearing exercise
includes any activity in which your feet and legs carry your own
weight. Some good examples include:
* Walking
* Running
* Jumping Rope
* Dancing
* Climbing Stairs
* Jogging
* Aerobic Dancing
* Hiking
* Inline Skating/ice skating
* Racquet sports
* Team Sports such as soccer, Basketball,
field hockey, volleyball and softball or baseball.
These are a few of the exercises that can help to build strong bones.
Staying in the house and playing video baseball, instead of
hitting a real Little League home run, is robbing our children of sunlight.
Remember that vitamin D is manufactured in the body as a result
of sunlight on the skin. It is the messenger molecule that is
responsible for getting calcium to the parts of the body where it
is most needed. Without proper weight bearing exercise and
Vitamin D, the calcium balance is seriously disrupted. You may
think that your children get plenty of vitamin D and calcium from
the milk they drink, but did you know that the human body absorbs
only 20-30% of the calcium in cow's milk. The American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition found that the body absorbs calcium from kale
easier than the calcium in cow's milk.
In addition, many studies have linked the consumption of cow's
milk to multiple health problems, but that's a story for a later
time.
Should you feed your child kale instead of milk? Maybe, but it's
time for us as parents to insist that our kids get outside and
play again. There simply is no better way to get the proper
amount of vitamin D than to be in sunlight.
If you are afraid to pull the video game plug and are considering
giving Junior a vitamin D supplement instead, you should know
that of all vitamins, vitamin D has the highest level of
potential toxicity. Some of the better D supplement choices would
be Cholecalciferol (Animal origin) and Ergocalciferol (yeast
origin.)
I'm not saying the kids should never be on the computer, but I am
strongly suggesting you consider limiting their time.
When children spend time outside, they get the chance to soak up
the sunlight thus enabling the skin to produce vitamin D -
naturally. More than likely, their outdoor activities will
include some good weight bearing exercise, which will allow even
more vitamin D to be produced. The increased activity may also
lead to weight loss and better overall health.
Vitamin-D:
Helpers- Sufficient exposure to sunlight
Robbers- Lack of sunshine and Fried foods.
Larry M. Glicken
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Larry Glicken is a Nutritional Consultant and owner of
Complete Life Nutrition.com. Dedicated to helping
people stay healthy. Visit www.completelifenutrition.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the Author
Larry M. Glicken is a nutritional consultant and owner of complete life nutrition .com.
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The Power of Stretching - Dave Snape
Your
muscles ache from a good stretch. This is quite
normal and is part of the process. Stretching has
seemingly been with us and particularly with athletes
since the beginning of time.
A very key point to good stretching is to hold the
stretch for at least seventeen seconds. This is a
pearl of wisdom gleaned from a ballet teacher a few
years back. She said that any stretch under 17
seconds was just not effective.
The 17 second rule is exceeded in the high intensity
Bikram's yoga where stretches are held for about 30
seconds. Don't forget the high level of heat that is
used in Bikram's to extract that last little bit of
stretch out of your muscles. An interesting twist
that
is not necessary to gain benefits from stretching.
But,
it can't hurt, right?
So what kind of benefits can you expect from
stretching? That's an easy one. Have you ever seen
the
movie, Blood Sport? Did you know that Frank Dux could
truly stretch his body to the extreme. The actor that
played him was quite elastic as well.
Great elasticity is also something you might see in
well trained Spetsnaz (Russian) agents. They often
work
out with Russian kettlebells too. They are for
superior
strength gains and the ability to withstand ballistic
shocks.
Why are stretching and flexibility considered
important
to these people? Stretching gives one the ability to
have explosive power available at one's fingertips
without the need to warm up. Of course most of us are
not martial artists or agents. But, you'll be happy
to
know there are plenty of other benefits.
Let me give you an example. After learning to sit in
the full lotus position for long periods of time, my
ankles became very flexible. One day I was walking
along and my left foot fell into a pothole. This
mishap
pushed my ankle sideways to about 90 degrees from
it's
normal position.
Amazingly, this didn't even hurt, not one bit. If my
ankle hadn't been so flexible, I may have suffered a
sprained ankle. At the very least, it would have hurt
for days.
Key point: stretching helps you to avoid injuries.
Not only that but if you do have a muscle, tendon or
ligament injury it should heal faster, theoretically
speaking.
Stretching actually grows the ligaments, tendons and
muscles being stretched. They really grow longer over
time.
Check with your physician before undertaking any type
of exercise, including stretching.
Here is some good
instructional material on stretching:
http://tinyurl.com/6c6kq
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Dave Snape
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