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Health and The Teenage Years
The Health subjects on this page
The Growth Cycle Physical and mental wellbeing during the teenage years – especially during puberty – typically from the age of 12-13 until the age of 17-18 can be very difficult to maintain. These difficulties affect both teenagers themselves and their parents! Many parents wonder what happened to their well-behaved children as they reach the teenage years - which is often a time accompanied by rebellion, seemingly bad behaviour and pushing the boundaries.
Teenagers for their part often feel misunderstood, lonely, confused, and angry, with erratic feelings and moods. Why is this the case? Well, a lot can be explained by the rapid changes in growth and hormone production that starts around this time. The teenage years need not be fraught with difficulties, though, especially to their health - if it is understood what happens during this time.
The Growth CycleIn their teens, children put on an amazing growth spurt to reach their final adult height. At their fastest, boys can grow taller by as much as 9cm (around 3 inches) a year and girls at a rate of 8cm a year. Its no wonder teenagers are clumsy. Their body is shooting upwards at a speed their brain simply can’t keep up with.
As their height increases, their centre of gravity lifts. This happens so quickly that the brain does not get a chance to calculate the new rules for balancing. Clumsiness is often unavoidable for them.
This phenomenal growth starts at the outside of the body and works inwards. Hands and feet are the first to expand and needing new shoes is the first sign. Next, arms and legs grow longer, and even here the 'outside-in' rule applies. The shinbones lengthen before the thigh, and the forearm before the upper arm.
Finally the spine grows. The very last expansion is a broadening of the chest and shoulders in boys, and a widening of the hips and pelvis in girls.
Rapidly increasing height is a sign that a teenager is experiencing puberty. Growth is triggered in both boys and girls by increased levels of the sex hormone testosterone. This chemical also triggers the sexual organs to develop. Timing is everything. No teenager wants to be developing too quickly, or seem to be lagging behind. In reality, many of them grow up much earlier or later than the average and this is perfectly healthy and normal.
The average boy is growing fastest between 14 and 15. Girls start earlier, growing fastest when 12 and 13. Girls also end their growth spurt earlier at 18, while boys need another two years before they finish growing to the age of around 20.
Teenage RebellionThere is a good reason why most teenagers rebel. Scientists have used advanced scanning methods to study the changes that occur in the adolescent brain. Much to their surprise, they have discovered that the brain continues to develop and grow well into the teenage years.
This might explain a teenager's risk-taking behaviour. It has emerged that the emotional region of the brain develops to maturity ahead of the part of the brain that controls rational thought. In other words, teenagers have well-developed emotions and feelings but have still not acquired the ability to think things through.
When they act impulsively, and do the kind of dangerous things an adult would avoid, their brain's late development might be to blame. Teenagers' well-developed emotions could also be the cause of another characteristic they are often accused of - moodiness.
Why are Teens so Moody?Teenagers can feel on top of the world in the morning, depressed over lunchtime and angry in the evening - and have a well deserved reputation for mood swings!
This fluctuation in hormones is normal and healthy - but is usually accompanied by irritability, recklessness, aggression and depression. In early puberty, teenagers are experiencing very rapid rises in the level of sex hormones. So mood swings at this early stage could be caused by hormones, although there is very little evidence to prove this.
Girls will continue to experience fluctuations in oestrogen and progesterone levels with their periods. Pre-Menstrual Syndrome or PMS is an acknowledged cause of irritability and mild depression in adult women. It also affects teenage girls and they might struggle to accept or control this emotional change because they are experiencing it for the first time.
Other changes in teenagers' lives are thought to contribute to their moodiness. Their rapidly changing physical appearance can cause them to become much more self-conscious. Teenagers often start to hide themselves away, locking their bedroom doors or spending hours holed-up in the bathroom working on their appearance.
Stuck in the middle of being a child and an adult, many teenagers get frustrated. Their bodies have developed adult capabilities, but the adult world is not ready to welcome them yet. Moodiness in the vast majority of teenagers might be difficult to live with at the time, but it passes with increasing age and confidence.
However low moods persist in some teenagers and they can be diagnosed with depression. Whereas it is highly unusual for a child to become depressed, in teenage years the frequency of depression does begin to rise. The causes of teenage depression could be anything from a genetic trigger, to stress and difficulties in family relationships.
Family Relationship DifficultiesIt would be a very rare for a person to sail through their teenage years without arguing with or having a row with their parents. In fact teenagers can argue as much as couples whose relationship is breaking down. Luckily, it is extremely unlikely that rows during teenage years will cause family relationships to break down permanently.
The conflict, although frequent, is generally less serious than people think. Some health researchers see rows as a positive event. When young people argue with their parents, they are learning the art of negotiation, an essential social skill for later life. Teenagers certainly seem to know how far they can push their parents.
Children need to make boundaries between themselves and their parents if they are to become adults. They want to be free of their parents' control and take charge of their own life.
One of the first signs of change many parents notice is that their children start to withhold information from them. This can be hard for them to cope with after years of being fully responsible for everything that happens in their child's life. They can be reassured that research indicates most teenagers still value their parents opinion and will turn to them for help when they are in trouble.
Teenagers often see things quite differently to their parents, and this can cause arguments. Adults would see an issue such as the clothes their children should wear, for example, as a matter of convention.
They understand that there are certain rules people follow. For a teenager, this is a straightforward matter of personal freedom. To them, wearing what they want to, without reference to anybody else, is a sign of their independence and maturity.
The Sign of a Healthy Personality?There are very few perfectly behaved teenagers! Many of them take part in some kind of dangerous, unhealthy or anti-social pursuits. Activities like drinking, smoking, watching adult videos or having under-age sex are common, some get up to more serious things like stealing or taking recreational drugs like cannabis.
It's alarming for parents, but the good news is - it doesn't last. Statistics for boys show that teenage criminal behaviour tends to begin around the age of 13, peak at 17 and then disappear almost completely in early adulthood.
Rebelling in teenagers is often symbolic. They want to look grown up and mature mainly to impress their friends. If parents disapprove, it often makes teenage behaviour worse and arguments are common. They defy adult restrictions deliberately as a way of asserting their independence.
Teenagers have reason to be confused because they are part of the adult world in a biological sense, but are still not permitted to do many of the things that adults can.
Experimentation is a way for teenagers to learn to take responsibility for their own actions. It is a step towards becoming more mature and adult-like and in learning to make choices and decisions. This is normal and healthy.
Risky behaviour is seen by adults as being a 'bad' thing, but for the teenagers there are many rewards. By pushing boundaries they are developing their identity as well as showing off in front of friends. There are suggestions from recent research that some bad teenage behaviour could be a sign of a healthy personality.
Late Nights and LazinessSleep patterns can go crazy during teenage years. Many teens have the energy to play computer games until late at night but can't find the energy to get out of bed in time for school. This may be more than just laziness and bad behaviour.
New research suggests that the hormonal upheaval of puberty could be causing adolescents to love a lie-in, but loathe an early night. One thing is for certain - sleep is crucial for teenagers' health because it is while they are snoozing that they release a hormone that is essential for their growth spurt. They need more sleep than both children and adults, but they get less than either.
Minds and bodies of all ages do not operate in the same way throughout the day. A timing mechanism in the brain regulates bodily functions over a 24-hour period. At night, the heart rate falls, blood pressure is lowered and urine ceases to be produced. When the sun rises, the body begins to wake up.
One important change that occurs at night time is increased levels of the 'darkness hormone' melatonin, which helps us to fall asleep. Most adults start to produce melatonin at about 10pm. When teenagers were studied in a sleep laboratory, researchers discovered that they only began to produce the hormone at 1am.
This delay in melatonin production might be caused by the behaviour of teenagers. When they stay up late, they often play computer games or watch television. This stimulates the brain and exposes the teenagers to bright lights which could cause the later release of melatonin.
On the other hand, the hormonal upheaval of puberty could be pushing the melatonin release back, in which case teenagers are being kept awake by their bodies - they simply can't help their peculiar sleeping behaviour.
Whether late nights are caused by biology or behaviour makes no difference - many teenagers are sleep deprived. Lack of sleep can lead to moodiness, impulsivity and depression.
In America some schools have delayed the start of their classes to give their teenagers some extra time in bed. One school noticed a significant improvement in the educational performance of its students after this was put into effect.
A vital part of teenage development is the need for good healthy nutrition, yet at a time when they need it the most, quite a few teenagers do not get the nutrition they need for their good health and to maintain energy.
Nutritional ConsiderationsYoung people's diets should sustain growth, promote health and be enjoyable. During this time, a number of physiological changes occur that affect nutritional needs, including rapid growth and rapid gains in bone and muscle.
In July 2000, the long-awaited Government report into the eating and physical activity habits of children was published. The National Diet and Nutritional Survey: Young People Aged 4-18 Years provided detailed information on the nutritional intakes and physical activity levels of young people in the UK. Alarmingly, during the seven-day recording period, more than half the young people questioned in the survey hadn't eaten any healthy foods like citrus fruits, leafy green vegetables, such as cabbage, greens or broccoli, eggs or raw tomatoes.
Iron deficiency is one of the most common health and nutritional deficiencies in the UK, and adolescents are at special risk - up to 13 per cent of teenage boys and girls were found to have low iron stores.
Rapid growth, coupled with a fast lifestyle and poor dietary choices, can result in unhealthy iron-deficiency or anaemia. Teenage girls need to pay particular attention to iron because their iron stores are depleted each month following menstruation.
The main source of iron in the diet is red meat, but there are lots of non-meat sources too, including fortified whole breakfast cereals, dried fruit, bread and green leafy vegetables. The body doesn't absorb iron quite as easily from non-meat sources, but you can combine them with a food rich in vitamin C (found in citrus fruits, blackcurrants, green leafy vegetables)to make absorption easier.
In contrast, tannins found in tea reduce the absorption of iron. Therefore, it's better and healthier to have a glass of orange juice with breakfast cereal than a cup of tea.
The report also highlighted that 25 per cent of teens had calcium intakes below recommended levels. This has serious implications for the future, with respect to bone health.
Osteoporosis is a bone disease that causes bones to become brittle and break very easily. Bones continue to grow and get stronger until the age of 30 - with the teenage years being the most important for their development.
Vitamin D, calcium and phosphorous are vital for this process. Calcium needs for the teenage years range from 800mg to 1,000mg a day. Calcium-rich healthy foods should be in the diet on a daily basis. The richest source of calcium in most people's diet is milk and dairy products. Alternatively, try fortified soya milk.
The Best Foods to ChooseAdolescence is a time for rapid growth, and the main dietary need is for energy - often reflected in a voracious appetite! Ideally, foods for energy should be with healthy eating in mind.
In practice, this often isn't the case; teens tend to eat high levels of fat and sugars, while starchy carbohydrates and fibre is low. In the short term this won't do much harm. But it becomes a potential problem when this type of unhealthy diet persists. Teenagers should choose a variety of foods from the basic food groups:
· Plenty of starchy carbohydrates - bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, chapattis, couscous and potatoes.
Other important healthy diet habits to follow include:
· Drinking at least eight glasses of fluid a day.
Were WE any Different?If you are a parent of a teenager – think back to when you were young. What was it like for you? Honestly assess yourself as you were then – were YOU the perfect teenager? Everyone has growing up difficulties around this time along with the particular pressures of the age you were growing up in.
I was a teenager in the sixties and seventies and can remember gang fights, drug taking, over-indulgence in alcohol, the temptations of drugs at pop concerts and often doing things without my parents knowing exactly what I was up to! The media always tends to report on bad news about young people, but often they are no worse than we were at their age.
Don't forget that In many other ages and times, the older generation has bemoaned the fact that young people had a lack of respect, were scruffy, rude, disobedient, rebellious and so forth, so really nothing much has changed except the era that we grew up in!
It is therefore important to remember your own era, and not to be too judgmental, which can lead to the risk of alienating your children when they need you to be their anchor in a rapidly changing, uncertain time in their lives.
Above all, remember that although teenagers can be difficult, most of the symptoms they have is a normal and healthy part of growing up.
The danger of too many junk foods in your diet
Advice for Sensible drinking here
Womens health problems explained here
Teenagers can suffer eating disorders from emotional problems and difficulties Find out more here about what causes this and advice on how to overcome it.
What are the effects on wellbeing by Smoking and ingesting cannabis?
Mens wellbeing and unique problems here
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