Prevention trumps cure

CHILDREN: CORRECTIVE MEASURES FROM AN EARLY AGE WILL BE REWARDED HANDSOMELY

Let’s face it; many schools don’t offer physical training and if they do, more than likely the PT teacher sees the lesson as a chance to relax or for kids to run aimlessly for the hour. I am not picking on all schools because there are some genuine physical co-coordinators who want to make an impact in the lives of their pupils.

In an ever-changing landscape, never have children spent an inordinate time in front of a cellphone, television or portable game station, which may seem to be more interesting things to do than exercising.

The first problem is the cellphone dominating children, according to Dr David Greenfield, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Children and adults develop an attachment to their phones and show similarities to any other addiction that involves a dysregulation of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and is responsible for the brain’s rewards centre. Basically, it motivates people to take action because they believe they will be rewarded for it. For example, getting a dog to roll over as a trick because he knows he is going to be rewarded with a treat.

Each time your phone receives a message, your dopamine levels increase because your brain thinks it could be something important. When it is not important, your brain will keep thinking the next message might be important and so the cycle of addiction continues.

When you do receive that text from your potential new girlfriend, your body and brain light up like a Christmas cracker on drugs and then your body is on standby, waiting for the next “most important” message to arrive.

Cellphones that dominate some adolescent lives could be setting them up for future medical problems according to a research paper published in the February 2018 edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The study took 295 schoolchildren aged eight to 10 and examined their bone density and muscle health. Researchers Peter Krustrup and assistant Professor Malte Nejst Larsen from University of Copenhagen compared the effects of normal PE classes with children who had intense exercise on the timetable for two hours a week in ball games, or circuit training consisting of gymnastics and strength exercises using their body weight.

The 10-month long research found that children who played in a small sided ball game or did three 40-minute circuit training sessions a week increased their muscular strength by 10%, balance by 15% and astonishingly their bone density increased by 45% more than the control group who just did normal PE classes.

This research is important because by starting the right type of training for young athletes helps to increase their bone density, balance and stability which can limit the onset of osteoarthrosis in later years according to the same study.

Science is moving towards preventative medicine.

This means that they are finding real ways to combat the onset of illnesses that occur frequently, and this can include placing corrective measures from a young age. These are just two examples of what parents and schools can do to put their future shining stars on the right path for future mental and physical health.