Youth, juvenile, the under age, these are the names used to classify young people in our country. Theyre adored at birth and feared as they grow older compounded by an epidemic of hypocrisy. For example, when a child does well, say exceeding academically or is good at a particular talent such as ballet or basketball, then this young individual is praised as those around him or her will take credit for their success weather or not they had anything to do with their achievements. Circumstances only get worse children become adolescence or teenage years. Here young people are excluded to adult decisions and behavior yet by law are excluded from adult actions and are not respected their opinions by those older than them. This crude prohibition along with certain life experiences can lead a young person to destructive patterns of addiction and illness.
One problem facing with drastic consequences today are eating disorders. Since food unlike cigarettes and alcohol isnt considered a harmful addictive but a necessary element to sustain life, its commonly overseen for abuse. In the past decade, there has been a quick raise in the population of young persons overweight and obese from 1,000,000 in 1997 to around 12,000,000 in 2007 and even more frightening is the number of young persons obese, from 20,000 in 1997 to 1,000,000 in 2007 the highest in history (that being 200,000 in the 1880s). Another great concern those young persons diagnosed as anorexic, their number has risen from 10,000 in `97 to an astounding 200,000 this year. Whats even more shocking is that deaths related to obesity are now at 400,000 and deaths from anorexia are at 20,000.
To better understand these problems, we learn the differences between being overweight, being obese and being anorexic. To be overweight is to simply have an excess body weight, for example, a bodybuilder with a height 57 and weighing 187lbs. could be classified as overweight. On the other hand a lab technician with the same measurements but of a slimmer, lighter build could be classified as normal. To figure this out doctors use a method known as the Body Mass Index or BMI for short, this works by multiplying the persons height in inches by the 2nd power then dividing the their weight in pounds and then multiplying that total by 704.5. So [187/ (65x65)] x704.5, [187/4225] x704.5, [.04] x704.5 gives us 28.18 placing both the bodybuilder and the lab technician in the normal body weight range.
Obesity on the other hand is specifically indicates high counts of adipose tissue, what we call body fat. Also since the obese have a high fat count, they are automatically overweight, for or young this only gets worse. In the U.S. 10.80% of our 13 year old female are overweight or obese with Portugal 2nd at 8.30%, Ireland with 6.6% and Lithuania with 2.6% yet while the female population of our European allies decrease in weight by 1 or 2% by age 15 (Portugal with 7%, Denmark & Ireland with just 6.5% and Lithuania with 2.6%) in the U.S. our girls overweight and obese increases by 5%, thats 15.10% with 20,000 or more getting heavier everyday. Amongst boys of 13 in the U.S. overweight and obese although serious, isnt as drastic, here the percentages at only 12.6% and rises only to 13.9% by 15. In Europe Greece is the only country with a rise in weight gain for boys (8.9%), the others have a 1.8% drop (Ireland with 1.10% and Lithuania being the lowest with .08%) making the male population less a risk.
Another group of young people facing eating disorders have their sickness based in body image and mental illness. Anorexia nervosa is when someone either refuses to eat or controlling their food intake to such an extreme that theyre starving. Although teenage and young adult females are most at risk, this sickness affects many in differing ways. Many females become anorexic as a result of low self esteem and self hatred due to abuse or family issues, not the highly publicized model complex. Men are also suffer but differently, for males are mainly clinical meaning they dont or cant eat as a result of illness and must be fed intravenously, others develop the disorder like anorexia due to bad eating habits. Whether overexserise as common in most athletes or bad eating habits found in both children and white collar workers, these problems can have drastic effects on men. Staying on the subject athletes, jockeys are the largest casualties, in order to stay competitive they workout excessively and force themselves to vomit to stay at a certain weight in order to keep racing.
Disease is also a grand consequence to eating disorders; one in particular is bone loss. Not realized by most people is that bones are living tissues that when properly nourished will maintain density. One cause of bone loss is a lack of Vitamin D, when Vitamin D is in the body, its converted into something known as 1,25 dihydrouvitamin D
a hormone that allows calcium to be absorbed from the intestines to the bones. This is done when the body is exposed to sunlight, but since many overweight children stay indoors and perform little if any physical activity, they succumb to this quickly. Anorexic suffer from bone loss from an anaerobic metabolism, simply stated as the body starves itself, it overproduces acid while consuming its own muscle tissue for nutrients. As a result, the bloodstream becomes acidic and seeps into the bones and destroying them.
Another problem facing teens is alcohol. About 80% high school students have tried alcohol with a quarter of them developing some problem with the substance. Alcohol is a depressant that when taken will relax and slow the bodys motor skills. When taken excessively, alcohol will slur speech, impair vision and upset the digestive system and in a few cases, high intakes can be poisonous to the body leading to death. Like those with eating disorders, those who abuse alcohol are prone to a variety of illnesses including diabetes, when high levels of alcohol can disrupts the functions of the pancreas to produce insulin. Auto accidents are another case of both teen and alcohol related deaths. This is extremely dangerous since teens are already inexperienced drivers, the introduction of alcohol guarantees danger. One example was in Chicago on February 19th of this year, a teen driver intoxicated crashed into a car carrying 4 sober young persons, killing them.
A growing problem affecting the teenage community is cutting. Cutting is essentially the self inflicting of wounds to a persons body with a blade or knife. Many who participate in this action are dealing with past experiences with physical or sexual abuse.
The question lies in not why our young people commit these acts, rather what leads them to this road. There was a time when it was believed that children had a right to fail, that they could learn from their mistakes and guided in the proper direction. Yet now in this post 9/11 one size fits all world, the youth arent seen as the future but as the problem. In schools, theyre taught anything at all. Basically, we need P.E., counselors and music back in the schools, we need to rid ourselves of the luxury based technologies and learn to form relationships not simply taking advantage of one another. In other words, we need another New Deal to change this country from top to bottom, for only the will it change the youth as well as the country.
One problem facing with drastic consequences today are eating disorders. Since food unlike cigarettes and alcohol isnt considered a harmful addictive but a necessary element to sustain life, its commonly overseen for abuse. In the past decade, there has been a quick raise in the population of young persons overweight and obese from 1,000,000 in 1997 to around 12,000,000 in 2007 and even more frightening is the number of young persons obese, from 20,000 in 1997 to 1,000,000 in 2007 the highest in history (that being 200,000 in the 1880s). Another great concern those young persons diagnosed as anorexic, their number has risen from 10,000 in `97 to an astounding 200,000 this year. Whats even more shocking is that deaths related to obesity are now at 400,000 and deaths from anorexia are at 20,000.
To better understand these problems, we learn the differences between being overweight, being obese and being anorexic. To be overweight is to simply have an excess body weight, for example, a bodybuilder with a height 57 and weighing 187lbs. could be classified as overweight. On the other hand a lab technician with the same measurements but of a slimmer, lighter build could be classified as normal. To figure this out doctors use a method known as the Body Mass Index or BMI for short, this works by multiplying the persons height in inches by the 2nd power then dividing the their weight in pounds and then multiplying that total by 704.5. So [187/ (65x65)] x704.5, [187/4225] x704.5, [.04] x704.5 gives us 28.18 placing both the bodybuilder and the lab technician in the normal body weight range.
Obesity on the other hand is specifically indicates high counts of adipose tissue, what we call body fat. Also since the obese have a high fat count, they are automatically overweight, for or young this only gets worse. In the U.S. 10.80% of our 13 year old female are overweight or obese with Portugal 2nd at 8.30%, Ireland with 6.6% and Lithuania with 2.6% yet while the female population of our European allies decrease in weight by 1 or 2% by age 15 (Portugal with 7%, Denmark & Ireland with just 6.5% and Lithuania with 2.6%) in the U.S. our girls overweight and obese increases by 5%, thats 15.10% with 20,000 or more getting heavier everyday. Amongst boys of 13 in the U.S. overweight and obese although serious, isnt as drastic, here the percentages at only 12.6% and rises only to 13.9% by 15. In Europe Greece is the only country with a rise in weight gain for boys (8.9%), the others have a 1.8% drop (Ireland with 1.10% and Lithuania being the lowest with .08%) making the male population less a risk.
Another group of young people facing eating disorders have their sickness based in body image and mental illness. Anorexia nervosa is when someone either refuses to eat or controlling their food intake to such an extreme that theyre starving. Although teenage and young adult females are most at risk, this sickness affects many in differing ways. Many females become anorexic as a result of low self esteem and self hatred due to abuse or family issues, not the highly publicized model complex. Men are also suffer but differently, for males are mainly clinical meaning they dont or cant eat as a result of illness and must be fed intravenously, others develop the disorder like anorexia due to bad eating habits. Whether overexserise as common in most athletes or bad eating habits found in both children and white collar workers, these problems can have drastic effects on men. Staying on the subject athletes, jockeys are the largest casualties, in order to stay competitive they workout excessively and force themselves to vomit to stay at a certain weight in order to keep racing.
Disease is also a grand consequence to eating disorders; one in particular is bone loss. Not realized by most people is that bones are living tissues that when properly nourished will maintain density. One cause of bone loss is a lack of Vitamin D, when Vitamin D is in the body, its converted into something known as 1,25 dihydrouvitamin D
a hormone that allows calcium to be absorbed from the intestines to the bones. This is done when the body is exposed to sunlight, but since many overweight children stay indoors and perform little if any physical activity, they succumb to this quickly. Anorexic suffer from bone loss from an anaerobic metabolism, simply stated as the body starves itself, it overproduces acid while consuming its own muscle tissue for nutrients. As a result, the bloodstream becomes acidic and seeps into the bones and destroying them.
Another problem facing teens is alcohol. About 80% high school students have tried alcohol with a quarter of them developing some problem with the substance. Alcohol is a depressant that when taken will relax and slow the bodys motor skills. When taken excessively, alcohol will slur speech, impair vision and upset the digestive system and in a few cases, high intakes can be poisonous to the body leading to death. Like those with eating disorders, those who abuse alcohol are prone to a variety of illnesses including diabetes, when high levels of alcohol can disrupts the functions of the pancreas to produce insulin. Auto accidents are another case of both teen and alcohol related deaths. This is extremely dangerous since teens are already inexperienced drivers, the introduction of alcohol guarantees danger. One example was in Chicago on February 19th of this year, a teen driver intoxicated crashed into a car carrying 4 sober young persons, killing them.
A growing problem affecting the teenage community is cutting. Cutting is essentially the self inflicting of wounds to a persons body with a blade or knife. Many who participate in this action are dealing with past experiences with physical or sexual abuse.
The question lies in not why our young people commit these acts, rather what leads them to this road. There was a time when it was believed that children had a right to fail, that they could learn from their mistakes and guided in the proper direction. Yet now in this post 9/11 one size fits all world, the youth arent seen as the future but as the problem. In schools, theyre taught anything at all. Basically, we need P.E., counselors and music back in the schools, we need to rid ourselves of the luxury based technologies and learn to form relationships not simply taking advantage of one another. In other words, we need another New Deal to change this country from top to bottom, for only the will it change the youth as well as the country.
chika:
You are a very cultured person. I love to have you as a friend.