Health & Exercise

Vaping, E-Cigarettes, and Health: What Parents and Teens Should Know

E-Cigarettes and Vaping: Harmful or Harmless? We’re writing this article in reaction to an increase in the number of news stories cropping up in the media recently about E-Cigarettes. They range from shocking, vehemently anti-e-cigarette articles, such as Pennsylvania teen develops lung problems after only three weeks of vaping (May 17th, 2018),  to more measured efforts such as Concerns over health effects of vaping – and rising use among teens

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Understanding Adolescent Development
Health & Exercise

Understanding Adolescent Development: Key Characteristics and Growth Phases

The Time of Change Anyone involved in the life of a child knows that there’s only one constant: change. Children come to us as infants, move through toddlerhood, the preschool years, middle childhood and pre-adolescence. All the transitions from one developmental stage to the next involves major change, but there’s one thing that’s common to all of them: despite how big the changes are, they’re still children. It’s unmistakable—for the

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Martial Arts for Kids and Teens Boost Confidence

It’s a well-known fact that young people need exercise and plenty of it. Research shows that a consistent routine of regular exercise for forty-five minutes to an hour every day helps kids in a wide variety of ways. Generally speaking, parents are aware of the basic benefits of exercise, such as increased fitness, weight control, and aerobic conditioning. Most parents also know that exercise and/or participation in group sports boosts

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Exercise and Recovery: The Foundation of Total Health

The comprehensive health benefits of a regular exercise routine are well-documented. The importance of staying active, keeping fit, and participating in some type of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity several times a week has been repeated so often by health professionals and media figures over the past twenty years it’s almost become white noise. We’ve heard it so much that by now it’s basic common sense. Everyone knows you’re supposed to work

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Life-Long Sports in Schools and Homes

The Importance of an Active Life Over the past decade, the fact that young people need to stay active has been well documented in scores of books, scientific journals, health and wellness websites and parenting blogs. It’s now common knowledge that regular exercise helps in the fight against obesity, which can stave off a number of serious health conditions later in life, such as hypertension, cardiac disease, liver problems, kidney

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Health & Exercise

I Think My Athlete Son is Using Steroids: Is it Really That Bad?

Yes, it’s really that bad. For the sake of clarity, we’ll define exactly what we’re talking about when we say using steroids. In this context, what we mean is teenage boys using anabolic steroids to improve athletic performance. Anabolic steroids are synthetic, laboratory-made versions of the naturally occurring hormone testosterone, which is produced and secreted by the gonads and adrenal glands in men, and the adrenal glands in women. Doctors

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Body Image and the Adolescent Male

Body Image and the Media It’s widely recognized in the U.S. and around the world that young women are susceptible to developing body image issues. This phenomenon is a direct result of film, media, and advertising: for decades, images of thin women wearing bikini bathing suits have been used to sell everything from deodorant to automobiles to alcohol. Photographs in print and online media regularly make use of airbrush and/or

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What Parents Should Know About Teenagers Brains

The Mind of a Teenager What’s going on in the mind of a teenager? That’s a million-dollar question. If parents, teachers or doctors could figure that out, a great deal of the stress of parenting teenagers would be relieved. Teenagers sometimes do things that, to quote the famous song by Will Smith, “Parents just don’t understand.” Though some teenagers rarely step out of line, most parents of teenagers find that

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Healthy Foods for Kids With ADHD

ADHD: A Very Brief History Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) first became an officially recognized diagnosis by the medical community in the late 1980s. Before then, it was referred to by various names—Attention Deficit Disorder With and Without Hyperactivity (early 1980s), Hyperactivity (1970s), and Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood (1950s-1960s). Pediatricians and children’s health care specialists have known of the condition for over 200 years. However, the definition of ADHD currently

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Complementary Health Approaches for Children

Modern Medicine and Complementary Medicine Modern medicine is truly amazing. In 2014, people are able to survive accidents and live with diseases that even as recently as 50 years ago would have been debilitating or even fatal. X-ray and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technologies allow us to peer inside our bodies without the damage caused by invasive, exploratory surgeries. Blood testing allows us to identify and pursue the treatment of

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