Teen Problems Causing Adult Health Problems

     If you're a teen facing peer problems, you may want to search for a way to take care of it now, because your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type two diabetes later in life may increase because of those peer issues.
    
     I found that teens with peer problems that are worse than usual may affect their health later in life. This website, http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20120628/teens-peer-problems-may-affect-health-later, suggests that peer problems around the age of 16 may trigger something called metabolic syndrome around the age of 43. Metabolic syndrome raises the risk of those problems I mentioned earlier. Heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
 
     Swedish researchers found a link that peer problems at a young age are correlated to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome during middle age. This new research is related to other findings about the effects if "toxic stress" in childhood and later health.
    
     Urban Janlert, a professor of public health at the Umea University and her team asked the teachers of more than 1,000 teens to assess each student's isolation. Their popularity and how well they get along with others was also told by the teachers. The teens were around the age of 16. At the ages of 16 and 43, the people completed a questionnaire about their social circumstances, behaviors, and health.

     When the men and woman reached the age of 43, they had health exams. The following were measured.

• Blood pressure
• Blood glucose
• Waist circumference

     To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, three of the five following factors must be present.

• Elevated blood pressure
• Elevated blood sugar
• Waist above 35 inches for woman, and 40 for men
• Low level of HDL cholesterol
• Elevated level of triglycerides

     The main point of this study is to show that the greater the teen peer problems, the higher the risk of developing metabolic syndrome by the age of 43. Janlert found the 19% of woman and 34.5% of the men of the group had had metabolic syndrome. Janlert says that the researches cannot prove cause and effect, but only a link.
     In my opinion, it's better to be safe than sorry. If you are a teen with major peer problems, my advice to you would be to look for ways to improve the issues. Maybe try counseling, talking to a teacher or principle, or find ways to get along with those creating the problems.
                                                                                                                                                      By, Cali
    

How Sleeping Affects Teens

For teenagers, sleep is a big deal. You have to balance school and homework. Some teenagers even have a part-time job to add to the balancing act. Sleep is very healthy, especially for young people. Studies have shown that the more teenagers stay up at night and don’t sleep often, the more they are tired and sleep in school. With that, they did another study on how teenagers are on the computer or on their phones before they go to bed, that light on the screens will affect the way they sleep. About 23.2% can't sleep because they're concentrating on different things. 18.2% say that they're remembering things that happened from that day, or the past day. 13.3% worked or are working on hobbies, 8.6& are either working or volunteering.

So, why aren't they getting enough sleep? Teenagers like to socialize ,and they act like sleep isn’t important to them. They’re either up all night talking, texting or on the computer. Some even stay up just to play video games. Maybe the reason is also that they drank to many caffeinated drinks, how stressed they are, their level depression, or even the amount of school work. Adolescent work schedules are also a concern. Teens who work more than 15 hours a week at a job have less time for sleep. About half the teens around are juggling school work, and some are even teenage mothers. With that, sleep is not at the top of their worries list.

Lack of sleep affects them at school. Studies show that sleep deprivation can affect a child’s mood, performance, learning, attention and behavior. Are you having these issues? If so, try getting on a schedule where you go to bed at a good hour at the same time every night. Stay off the computer/cell phone about one hour before you go to bed. If you need to be on your phone, try turning the brightness down for the screen so the light won’t affect you.

 Here are some tips to help you get better sleep at night:

1.      Take a 30 min nap, with an alarm set.

2.      Have a regular sleeping schedule.

3.      Get up every school day at the same time.

4.      Open curtains or window blinds in the morning to let light in.

5.      Sleep in on the weekends, but no more than two or three hours after their regular time.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/teens_sleep.html
http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssleep/                                                                              
                                                                                                                                      By, Ladelle

Having a Job

It’s hard to juggle going to school, completing homework, working to get that little bit of extra money, and having a life. Not to mention the time you have to put into a sport or activity. Some teens wonder whether that extra throw-around money is actually worth it.  Others have no choice but to work; they have to pay for their car, gas, cell phone, or whatever bills they are responsible for.  Ladelle and I sometimes have issues working friends, family, and outside hobbies into our schedules.

In looking ahead to my adult life, knowing it will be filled with work, I often think I’m wasting my time working now when I should be out being a kid while I still can. Some adults in my family tell that, too. I don’t quit though because I like the challenge of having to handle more than one activity in my life. It will also look good on a college application.

Some of the more important issues I face at work are my boss wanting me to work on a holiday or at inconvenient hours and having to stay up late to finish my homework after getting home from work.

School comes first, but with having a job comes related responsibilities, so you have to balance the responsibilities of both work and school.

Your boss counts on you to be able to do your job when he needs you. If you are thinking about applying somewhere, be sure to tell the boss up front the hours and the days you can work so they know before hiring you when you're available.

If you think your schedule might change, and your hours will become more flexible, tell them that as well. Most employers will understand that a teenager has a tough schedule to follow and will often work around that schedule.  They usually accept that school and extracurricular activities come first. If they don’t, then maybe the place that you’re applying to isn’t a good fit for you.

If you do have a job and you find yourself in a situation in which your schoolwork and your work responsibilities conflict, ask yourself:  is the assignment for school too important to sacrifice for work? If it is, you may have to call off work. I wouldn’t want my grades to fall because I’m working too much at a part-time job at a fast food restaurant because my chances of getting into a good college would drop along with my grades.

Ask yourself whether you have enough room to fit a part-time job into your life. What do you want your future to be like? That will help you decide.

B

                                                                                                                                          By, Cali