Health Blog

Stress will contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and other similar illnesses in many people but ask any parent and they will tell you that surely they are most at risk from stress and you know what, once you become a parent its pretty easy to agree with them because stress and parenting go hand in hand!

Few things in life can lead to chronic stress as readily as parenting. But it need not be so. While raising children definitely requires more patience than any other activity, over a wider range of circumstances and for longer periods of time, it need not be a source of chronic stress. Challenges, yes. Stress, no.

Stress is a mental and physical condition that occurs when there is an unresolvable conflict between “I can’t” and “I must”. Neither of these two components is inevitable in parenting. There are many circumstances in which a parent will want very much to achieve a particular outcome. That’s the “I must” part. And, there are certainly many situations in which you throw up your hands and say “I can’t”.

But very few goals are so fundamental and so long-term that they should be regarded as overwhelmingly important. If they’re not overwhelmingly important, it isn’t necessary to be overwhelmed when striving for them.

Neither do the two components have to occur together. Sometimes, in fact, it will be true that you can’t achieve a particular goal. Realism is essential in parenting, just as it is in every other aspect of life. It’s also true that there are truly very few ‘musts’ in parenting. A great many goals are desirable, even worthy. Some are even noble. But very few are mandatory.

Educating children, for example, is difficult and hugely important. But no single school, at any age, is essential to a successful life. There are always options. Sometimes those require making difficult and unpleasant choices. It may require relocating, looking for alternative schools or even homeschooling.

But those choices need not lead to stress. Taking choices seriously doesn’t have to lead to chronic worry, insomnia, feelings of helplessness or continual irritability - all common signs of stress. It’s possible to regard a goal as important without concluding that one doesn’t have the resources needed to achieve it. Even when you don’t, you can often acquire or develop them.

Using education as an example again, many parents worry over how to pay for a good college for their son or daughter. But there are more ways to finance that now than there are methods for financing a house. Though, admittedly, the two are becoming about equal in cost!

Few parenting dilemmas are as potentially stress-inducing as a child who simply will not listen, particularly when their behavior is unruly or even violent. Here, too, there are rarely any quick fixes. But, as with any thorny problem, an attitude of confidence in one’s ability to find answers, and a view to the long-term, will go a long way toward minimizing stress.

When the resources for solving that issue aren’t immediately at hand, a confident parent will look for them wherever they can be found - friends, grandparents, counselors, Internet sites. You’ll find others have tackled the same problem.

Stress need only come into the equation when you come to believe that there is simply ‘no way’ to solve a problem you ‘must’ solve. Tossing away both those false alternatives leaves you still with a problem, but not that which only adds to the burden - stress.

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When a person is under the age of 20 they have naturally much more flexible muscles and have higher metabolic rates and a lot more energy than someone who is older. But even under 20’s need to excercise if they are to avoid sports injuries and build up endurance and strength levels and to avoid obesity which is fast becoming the plague of the 21st century.

Particularly today, when there are so many electronic alternatives, young people may exercise less than they should. It’s during the formative years that individuals lay the groundwork for what later become healthy or poor habits.Kids will usually become quickly bored with routines designed for adults. But the activity doesn’t have to involve organized group sports, either. A gentle jog with an adult, a tennis game, swimming, golf, martial arts, bicycling, dancing, gymnastics and many other sports are enjoyable for the younger crowd.

Kids are usually sensitive to anything that appears inconsistent or hypocritical from adults. Be prepared to follow your own advice and exercise with them. That also helps parents share quality time with their kids outside the house and during activities that benefit both. Parents get the added benefit of monitoring to ensure that the kids are exercising in a safe and proper way.

Like any routine, if it produces pain - even the day after - the individual is less likely to continue. Keep it simple and build up the difficulty and length gradually. Kids are more flexible, but they too need to warm-up and gently stretch before engaging in vigorous exercise. A few minutes of static and dynamic stretching will help avoid injury.

Exercise routines should take into account the age group of the individual child.

Children from about 4-7 should focus primarily on developing basic physical skills, such as coordination and balance. These are the years when motor skills, eye-hand coordination and other things adults take for granted are still fluid. Children take to these activities naturally, as well. Jumping rope, hopscotch and other simple activities help guide the development of these skills.

From the age of 8 or so, exercises can become more vigorous in order to keep that active metabolism from turning food into fat. Here again, though, adults need to guide kids in order to build good habits and avoid injury. Weight machines are almost always a bad idea for pre-teens, for example. They’re risky and unnecessary.

Gymnastics, by contrast, helps build on those basic motor skills learned earlier while developing strength, balance and keeping the endocrine system active and healthy.

For teens, the field is wide open. They have the basic bone and muscle structure that gives them the potential for high performance activity in a wide variety of activities. But here, too, the possibility of injury remains for those who don’t get the proper guidance.

Teens are inclined to roughhousing and rebelliousness. Give them an outlet that directs all that energy and independence to the achievement of positive goals - fitness, endurance, high scores.

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Gyms offer their membership several benefits, in both a practical and psychological way but there are a few caveats to consider before signing on the dotted line and here we go through the advantages and disadvantages ofjoining your local professional gym.

Few could afford to buy the variety of equipment that gyms typically offer. Multi-station weight machines are just the beginning. Most gyms have treadmills, stationary rowing equipment, stretching bars, etc.

Many have tennis and racquetball courts, occasionally even squash and Jai Lai courts. Jai Lai is that fast-paced Spanish-origin game played in a racquetball-like court with a curved racket, only much faster. In addition, some gyms offer swimming pools, saunas and even rock-climbing practice walls.

Unless you’re a multi-millionaire you couldn’t begin to duplicate the space or the gear.

Then there’s the expertise you’ll find at a gym - both from the trainers and the other members. Gyms frequently have professional trainers on staff that can answer just about any question you have. They provide weight-training guidance, health tips and even dietary advice.

Gym members are sometimes more knowledgeable than the professionals. People dedicated to optimal fitness often take the time and effort to study the field. You’ll find fitness fanatics, aerobics instructors and medical doctors among the clientele.

Apart from the equipment and assistance, gyms offer an opportunity to socialize during activities that can be pretty boring. Few people think a treadmill is the height of excitement and watching TV while walking can deaden your mind as you tone your body.

You’ll make social contacts, get encouragement and have the chance to psych up into a regular routine in a way that is hard to duplicate at home.

But gyms sometimes have a common set of drawbacks.

Gym membership can be expensive. Most offer different payment plans - per visit, per month, per year or lifetime. Per visit is usually pricey, though it might be a good option if you’re just visiting a city. Per month is often the best value, but prices can still be between $30 and $300 per month. Many will offer a trial membership, either free or at a reduced rate for the first month.

Of course, no price is a good deal if you don’t go. And going to the gym can begin to seem like just one more duty among more pressing obligations. Many people in contemporary society lead extremely busy lives and finding time to go to the gym may well end up near the bottom of a long list.

Gyms can be messy. Most gym members are conscientious about wiping down the equipment, but it only takes a small number to spoil a gym for the majority. Alert staff can help keep those occasions few and far between, so look for a gym with staff that care.

Gyms can be unhealthy. Mingling with lots of people in a hot, humid atmosphere can encourage the spread of colds and other air-borne or contact-spread diseases. Showers are particularly prone to this since you usually have to touch the controls.

It is up to you to weigh up the pros and cons and reach a final decision about which are most important. You may be lucky and find your perfect gym first time but don’t expect it. Most people have a try a few before finally finding a gym they are happy and comfortable with so take out a trial membership before commiting long term. All the quality gyms will offer a one month or at most three month trial period where you can join without commiting to try out their facilities.

Does stress lead to alcoholism or does alcohol bring stress? As we discover here, both statements are true but hard to monitor because both drinking behavior and an individual’s response to stress are determined by many genetic and environmental factors.

‘The missus drove me to drink’ used to be a very popular phrase. Its essential meaning is that stress induces people to consume alcohol. While it’s true that stress can be an incentive to drink, it’s equally true that heavy alcohol consumption causes stress.

Moderate alcohol intake, to be sure, can have beneficial effects. Research suggests that small amounts can even improve mental functioning and increase performance in problem solving while stressed. But, there are also studies that demonstrate that large quantities, particularly when consumed for long periods, actually worsens stress.

Large alcohol consumption stimulates the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands. One result is an increase in the amount of cortisol produced within the body. Another is an increase in adrenaline. Both those, while they don’t alone cause stress, play a large role in the symptoms.

Extreme stress makes it more difficult to concentrate. One of the obvious effects of high alcohol intake is to produce that exact effect. Thus, heavy drinkers get a double whammy just at the moment they need mental clarity most.

Other studies suggest that chronic drinkers have symptoms similar to those seen in children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Children of those drinkers, this research concludes, have a higher incidence of actual ADHD.

So, it may also be true that as much as the stress of parenting may lead to drinking, adult drinking may encourage the circumstances that incent the parent to drink. It may be a factor in producing children’s symptoms that lead to adult stress.

Exercise is known to help relieve the symptoms of stress. Unfortunately, one of the additional results of excessive alcohol consumption is decreased exercise. Few inebriated people want to go a few rounds on the weight machine.

Similarly, high alcohol intake suppresses appetite. Thus, at the same time alcoholic drinks pour in the calories, they decrease the incentive to maintain a healthy diet. Once again the drinker experiences a doubly negative reinforcing effect.

Those who drink excessively to escape stress motivated by money concerns find it more difficult to cope with the problem that caused the stress in the first place. Even simple tasks like balancing a checkbook are clearly more difficult when drunk. But beyond such minor details, the cognitive functions needed to develop long term strategies are impaired. Drinkers literally can’t think their way out of the problems causing the stress.

In all these cases there is a vicious cycle established. Stress encourages heavy drinking, which makes it more difficult to deal with the internal and external factors that led to stress in the first place. Though the specific numbers will vary from person to person, when the average individual drinks more than the equivalent of two or three shots of whiskey per day, the results are inevitably bad.

The key to breaking this vicious cycle is to seek alternative methods for dealing with stress. Both the symptoms and the underlying motivators are subject to change in almost all cases. Proper exercise and diet is a good beginning. A realistic attitude about life’s inherent challenges can go a long way, as well. But, as with any psychological problem, admitting it exists is the first necessary step.

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Being flexible and having well lubricated joints and stretched muscles is one of the best ways to reduce the chances of injury and give you the basis for a much wider variety of workout routines.

Your overall goal is to attain good range of motion, while gradually extending that range to a degree appropriate to your fitness level and body type. There are several different ways to accomplish that goal, and you should use at least a few of them before every workout.

Warm-ups are fundamental. Cold muscles are much more likely to tear and lead to stretched or torn cartilage and other harmful results. Warm-ups and stretches help produce the fluid that lubricates the joints, and it helps the muscles become more elastic. Those both lead to safer, higher performance workouts.

Ten to fifteen minutes is the minimum for most people. This can be done by low-impact jogging in place, simple stretches and other techniques.

Static stretching, for example, is the old-fashioned stretch and hold for 30 seconds. This should be done with the arms, trunk, legs and neck. Dynamic stretching and ballistic stretching involve more active, bouncing-style or weight-assisted stretching, sometimes with extra force applied. Both types are helpful.

Some dynamic stretches involve holding the arms out to the side, then swinging them back and forth across front of the body, repeating for 30 seconds. Another technique involves using a short bar across the neck, lying on the shoulders. Place your hands on the bar, then bend slowly left, then right, moving the head toward the outer edge of the foot.

Abdominal muscles can be prepared by lying backwards on a large rubber ball. Push back slowly and raise the arms above your head. Repeat 10 times. Loosen your hamstrings by lying on your back, and raising one outstretched leg using a large towel wrapped around the foot. Grab the ends and pull up slowly. Switch legs, then repeat for 10 reps.

A full back stretch is accomplished by lying on your back and bringing both knees to the chest, hands clasped behind the knees. Roll forward until your feet hit the floor, then roll back until the head touches. Do 10 rolls.

Groin stretches can be done safely by using a large rubber ball. Place one knee on the ball and slowly rotate the ball a few inches away from your body. Move the ball back toward your body, then switch legs. Do 10 movements.

Both the legs and back muscles can get a good warm-up stretch by doing toe taps. Stand up straight, feet apart about shoulder width. Lean forward, touching the big toe on one foot with the opposite hand - left hand to right foot, and vice-versa. Those with lower back problems should consult a trainer or physician before attempting these.

For maximum flexibility, stretching routines should be carried out at least a few times per week. This will help maximize the range of motion and decrease the potential for injury.

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