do what I say

Going to step away from complaining about the problems I see with the pseudo science of some aspects of modern medicine. I could point out the article in this month's issue of the AMA discussing how the two most common back surgical procedures are a joke and unproven. I could point out how the black label, or off label prescribing of drugs has malpracted a generation of women.

But no, its the high road today for me.

Today and my next few posts I want to talk about kids. I wrote a presentation detailing what I feel are the 7 most important habits we can help them develop. I have a bit of experience observing and being involved in pediatric care. To date, we have over 45,000 pediatric adjustments at the office.

45000.

We have had a chance to partake in a lot of life changing therapies and strategies. I'm going to include some of those discussions here.

Sadly, today's children are among the most under exercised and overweight youths in the nation's history. One in five American youths ages 12 to 17 is overweight, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. NHANES is the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is a part of our friends, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Furthermore, two thirds of our children can't pass a basic physical fitness test. Forty percent of boys and 70 percent of girls ages 6 to 17 can't do more than one pull-up. Half the girls and 30 percent of boys can't run a mile in under 10 minutes. In addition, 40 percent show early signs of heart and circulation problems, according to a recent report by the President’s Council on Fitness and Sports.

Habit #1

Move. Just move. Teach your kids to jump, run, play, throw, anything to get them out and moving. This habit alone dominates the rest of the list. Sedentary lifestyle is murdering our kids, slowly but surely.

The human body is made to move. It is through motion, and only through motion, that the brain gains information it needs to make critical decisions about staying healthy. I’m not going to go into details because you don’t care about them. What you need to know is this, if you don’t teach your children to play hard, often, then you aren’t giving them the tools they need to succeed. If they see motion as an option, and not as a basic health sustaining activity, then you didn’t do your job. In every review I did, obesity and sedentary lifestyle played a factor in the lives of sick kids.

How do you teach your kids to move? You move. Get out there and do something. Don’t like sports? Hike. Don’t like to hike? Cycle. Don’t like to cycle? Plant a garden or pick up trash. Hate trees, cycling, biking, sports, and hiking? Get a rope, get a flashlight and go mediate in a cave on what you can do. Bottom line is this, suck it up and take your kids out to do something. Repeat this several times per week.

Habit 2 soon.