THEÂ SNOWFLAKE JOURNAL English Giles Period 1
THE UNFORTUNATE ONE Today’s
It was a tense moment. My parents were sitting directly across from me at the dinner table, leaning forward with their arms folded in front of them. I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be there; I knew something was coming. Then, like a messenger of doom, my dad spoke those dreaded words: “So son, we’ve been thinking about your future...” Sound familiar? This is a phrase that I’m sure many of us are familiar with. In today’s highly competitive world, our parents have extremely high expectations for our futures and will do everything in their power to ensure a ‘successful’ outcome. While wanting the best for one’s children is both natural and commendable, extreme amounts of parental pressure can also negatively impact students bodies and minds. But it doesn’t have to be this way...
The Root of the Matter Parents, we get you. You don’t want us to fail. The world is a cruel, competitive jungle where only the strong survive. Not only that, but you have the hard-won experience and the knowledge of years of effort. According to Amy Chua; “Asian parents know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children’s own desires and preferences.” She believe that through repeated practice and strict discipline, children can be raised to a level of excellence. Chua enforces all manner of rules upon her two daughters,
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such as no sleepovers, playdates, or playing any instrument other than the piano or the violin. While Chua’s unyielding commitment and perseverance to making her daughters succeed is pretty awe-inspiring, why not channel that energy into nurturing their natural interests? After all, the world is changing rapidly, and skills that were once valued are quickly becoming obsolete. According to two Oxford University economists, “47% of total US employment is in the high risk category.” Basically, it is the robot revolution and the robots are coming and will take over the 47% of workers! Because kids have been born into this quickly-changing world, they are much more likely to be in touch with developing trends which will be useful in the future. A childhood interest in video games, for example, could one day blossom into a multi-billion dollar video game corporation! Obviously, that takes hard work, but parents are perfectly positioned to positively channel their children’s core interests.
Chua’s disciplinarian approach is not the only way. The stereotypical Asian model is to push children forcefully to excel academically in areas that the parents believe will lead to future success. Typical Western parenting, on the other hand, adopts a more empathetic approach. A typical Western parent will not be as strict on academic studies. According to Stanford child development researcher Alyssa Fu; “While European American parents give their children wings to fly on their own, Asian American parents provide a constant wind beneath their children’s wings.” A typical Asian parent will guide their children to success while western parents will nurture their child to be successful by becoming an independent human being. Arguably, forcing your kid down a path they do not want to follow can cause more harm than good.
Consider this: the wind comes and goes, but wings are always useful. Today’s
Unintended consequences Let’s face it, we’re not machines. Each of us was born a unique individual with a combination of backgrounds, capabilities, and passions. Being forced to become someone you’re not can wreak all kinds of chaos, especially when it comes to school. Motivation is a limited resource, and burnout can strike at any time. According to a therapist at Brown university, there is “a struggle between the wish to be
Have you heard of Paolo Coelo, the worldfamous Brazilian novelist? Well, when he was your age, believe it or not he was restrained from being what he always wanted to be, a writer. His parents truly believed that he would not have a good future if he chose to go down this road. If he had remained a parent-pleaser, not only would he have ended up in a personally unfulfilling job, the world would also have been deprived of an exceptional writer.
accepted for oneself and the wish to please one's’ parents.” Over time, this conflict can become more and more of a burden for teens, hurting their grades, their social and emotional lives, and even lead to depression. The mental health effects of overwhelming pressure to succeed can be quite severe, leading to increased rates of depression, selfharm, and even suicide among students. Not being able to pursue your ambitions can also limit the full development of your future potential.
-”At times I'm glad for the advice, but sometimes I wonder: How many of these people have asked me what I want do with my life?” Aastha Bhardwaj studying English Literature at St. Stephen's college, Delhi University.
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At the end of the day, it’s not about After all, being forced to do something you dislike disrespecting your parents, who obviously and have no passion for will definitely make your want the best for you and have sacrificed their life miserable, but it is also understandable that lives for your future. parents are always It’s about striking that wanting a successful “Would you want to have a delicate balance life for their
doctor who doesn’t want to be between practical life ‘immature’ youngsters. goals and becoming a doctor? Do you think it’s Parents, think of this who you really want to gonna turn out very well if one as an opportunity to become. If parents achieve what you does not enjoy his or her job?” make a conscious effort really want: successful futures for your to identify their -Mr. Ryan Haynes (ISB Counselor) children without the children’s innate drama of stressing passions and fuel those them out. It’s possible talents from a young age, then their children to engage with your child without dominating can enjoy successful futures without having to them. Kids, remember that communication is always key. If you are unhappy with the direction stress over becoming someone they don’t you are being forced to take, you must be clear want to be. about your feelings and also offer a practical alternative for your parents to consider. For both, forgiveness and understanding that setbacks are inevitable will help maintain strong relationships Thinking back to that dinner table chat with and lay the foundation of a bright future. my parents, I’m fortunate that they truly understand me and my passions in life. After talking to them and arriving at a mutually
The ‘KEY”
beneficial solution between my own interest, economics, and my parents’ hope, medicine, we arrived at a reciprocal decision that both would support me through my desire to study economics at college. From that point onwards, my parents never failed to support me in my math studies and have always helped me when I am experiencing difficulties.
Growing up can be scary and unpredictable for both parents and their offspring, but let’s move forward together from a point of mutual understanding to have a successful future!
Today’s
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SEVENTEEN
FEBRUARY 16, 2017
Mind The Gap By Mackenzie Sanford
Mind Me! Gap years, a thing that might seem like a dream. But could as well as be yours. Maybe you don’t know a lot about gap years, or even why students choose to take one. What are the benefits? How do you fund your gap year? Don’t you need to be rich for that? Not exactly. Mind The Gap could surprise you.
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February 16, 2017
Finding the Funds Having the funds to take a gap year is crucial. But their are several ways to fund them. Including getting a job to find work experience. Getting a job during your gap year may seem like a drag. But being independent on you’re own funds can teach you a lot about the real world. Funding yourself has been proven to be a more beneficial gap year than having your parents pay the lather. Colleges actually prefer when students get a job during their gap years to gather work experience and stay in tune with a daily schedule. If getting a job isn’t what you planned to do on your gap year their are other options too. Some charities will pay for your flight if you volunteer in third world countries. Working in a charity can teach you a lot about yourself, and about other cultures. You can even make some new friends along the way. A lot of students do end up volunteering for a charity during their year, better yet, colleges love it!
But Should I? But why should I take a gap year? Not only does it increase your chances of getting into a “better matched” or “selective college” colleges actually prefer students who take a gap year. 98% of students who responded to a survey about gap years taken by American Gap Association said that taking a year away from school helped them grow into an individual. “looked at a map, booked a ticket, and never looked back. Six months turned into a year, and I vagabonded everywhere from Bangkok to Budapest, and a lot of places in between,” said Colleen Cooray an author from Studentuniverse Travel who took gap year, “taking a gap year will provide you with a sense of freedom like none you’ve ever experienced.” Colleen Cooray even went on to exclaim that taking a gap year was the best decision of her life. 2
Gap years are gaining popularity among students as well as colleges. Harvard has a 33% increase in the participants in a gap year program since 2013. These numbers are only growing as the years go on. Not all students take a gap year however. But for students who opt out for year reap the unconventional benefits. One less thought of benefit of a gap year is a higher GPA. Although a very unheard of benefit, most colleges, including ivy leagues, saw an increase in GPA as students returned from their gap years. Now i’m not saying just to take a gap year to improve your GPA however. Setting a goal during your gap year is extremely important. Whether your goal is to travel the world, find yourself, explore more opportunities, or all of the above. Keep a healthy mindset and learn about yourself. Otherwise, your gap year might as well as be useless. Taking a gap year is a year you can use for many things, my favorite personal idea is to travel! Mind the gap! Pay attention to your options when applying to college, you may attain all these benefits and even find yourself as a person.
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
The animal doesn’t really need to do anything. It’s their presence that matters
By Desoraya Techapaibul Doesn’t it feel good to have someone who would always be there for you, play with you, listen to you? Well, I can’t exactly call that a ‘someone’ because it’s not a person but it’s a dog. Dogs are caring and loving animals, and unlike your parents, dogs don’t order us around, but YOU order them around. Also, unlike your boyfriend or girlfriend (if you have one), dogs never leave you. You can tease them however you want and how much you want, but dogs will still loving you. They never ask anything out of you and they love you no matter what. I have four dogs at home; one Chizu, one Poodle, and two Chihuahuas, and they’re the cutest dogs ever.I actually have a favorite one, and that’s my Chizu. My family loves dogs so much that I’ve been around dogs since I was really young. Being an only child can be lonely sometimes, because I have no one to play or to talk with (unless I start talking to my doll, and to be honest, I did that sometimes).
OUR BEST FRIEND? Dogs have evolved to become more aware to humans and our behavior and emotions, which make them really good at interpreting our voice, body language gestures. Furthermore, after interpreting us, dogs will try their best to understand how we feel or what are we thinking. If you are an owner of a dog, you would understand that having a dog around you is very relaxing and chill, unless you have a very hyper dog. Gail Melson, a developmental psychologist and researcher at Purdue University in Indiana, said, “There is a very good evidence that being with a calm and friendly dog lowers blood pressure and reduces feelings of stress”. HOUSE DOGS Having a house dog will provide you with an emotional and social support, similar to what we get from our family and friends. However, in some respect, sometimes dogs may do a better job. Having therapy dogs is mainly to help disabled children to learn and also help an elderly people that receive personal and medical resistance.
Every time I had a fight with my parents and I got really mad, I would always go and play with my dog and hug her. Whenever I hug my dog, I feel warmth, which makes me calm and relax. I mean, maybe not like, instantly, if it’s right after I had a fight with my parents, but most of the time that works. Being around my dogs always make me happy, because why wouldn’t it feel good to have an alive organism interact with me, on what I do or what I say and not just lying there, still. I don’t consider my dogs a ‘pet’ but I see them as one of my best friends.
FEBRUARY 2017 HAMPTONS PET MAGAZINE
TRAINED DOGS Having a trained dog will help a person to be more confident and to be more comfortable to speak up more about him or herself or about problem that they have. Well-behaved pets and trained therapy animals both help people to relieve stress and relax. Another thing is that, dogs are loyal, VERY VERY loyal, you never have to worry if they’re going to backstab you one day, or if they’re going to unloved you. There’s NO way that that will happen, because dogs will always love you and be loyal to you no matter what happened.
Dogs can help you reduce stress, anxiety, depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and playfulness, and improve your cardiovascular health (that’s a lot isn’t it).
STRESS? Aubrey Fine, psychologist and animal-assisted therapy expert, a professor at California Polytechnic State University, said, “when people is in a comfortable setting and having a dog give them an affection, the effect that it has on their bodies would be reduced heart rate, reduce stress,and increase in happiness”. This helps because playing with dogs will help your body to release stress-reducing hormone oxytocin and also help limit the production of the stress hormone cortisol. Therefore, this shows that dogs can help you improve you mental health. HEALTHY? Recently, there’s a study that starts to explore about the benefits of human-animal bond. The American Heart Association has done a research and found out that by having a dog, it will help you reduce risk for heart disease and also have a longer life. One way that dogs will help you to improve your physical health is that you’ll have to walk your dog everyday. Therefore, that helps provide more exercise for you. RESPONSIBILITY Dogs will also help teach you is responsibility. Dogs are alive, you have to have a responsibility to feed them I don’t let them starve, walk them so they get some exercise, clean up after them. Thus, having dogs will help you learn to be responsible because you will have to to take care of another live that is living in your house.
FEBRUARY 2017 HAMPTONS PET MAGAZINE
Having a dog benefited you in many ways; whether it be: mentally, emotionally, or physically. This would help you to get into a healthy active balanced life. Don’t you like it when you have someone waiting for you to come back home everyday? Or a friend that would always be around in your house? dogs isn’t only a pet but they will become your best-friend. So why not go get your own dog right now?
“There is a very good evidence that being with a calm and friendly dog lowers blood pressure and reduces feelings of stress” - Gail Melson -
DEHYDRATION:
A DEADLY WEAPON
“H
We can survive for over 2 weeks without food, but only up to 3 days without water. ave you ever had a bothering headache or felt a bit moody for no reason? Have you ever felt awfully dehydrated no matter how much liquid you’ve already drunk? These are symptoms of one of the most-talkedabout health related issues that most people are not paying attention to, though they are very serious. Some symptoms are so severe which can lead to difficulties in blood flow and an increased heart rate (nothing to ignore). I’m not gonna lie, these nightmarish symptoms come from you. But, don’t worry, I can tell you a clue that water can help you escape from them.
WATER IS ESSENTIAL I bet everyone might have heard that we, as humans, can survive for over 2 weeks without food, but only up to 3 days without water. So, to begin with, I must tell you that water is essential to our health. There are so many astonishing benefits from drinking water, both physically and emotionally. According to research conducted by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, hydration helps our muscle joints work more efficiently, help flush toxins out of your body through our digestive system and with blood and with oxygen flow through your body.
Health, February 2017
By Fay Wongnonthawitthaya
”
Since water is remarkably important to our health, have you ever thought about what effects will it take if there is an inadequate amount of water in your body?
WHAT IS DEHYDRATION? The cause of a racing heart and blocked blood flow symptoms is dehydration. According to David T. Derrer, a writer of WebMD medical reference, dehydration is “a condition that occurs when the loss of body fluids, mostly water, exceeds the amount that is taken in.” Or in other words, dehydration happens when the amount of fluids that your body evacuates is more than the amount you take it in. Even simple actions such as breathing and sweating cause a loss of water. Before elaborating on the symptoms of dehydration, I have a personal experience I want to share with you. Thinking back to my 8th grade P.E. class, I remember I was the kid who usually had terrible muscle
cramps when we needed to run. I remember exactly how exhausted I was, struggling to finish the 2.4 km run because the cramps wouldn’t go away. I had cramps so often that my P.E. teacher needed to talk to me about it. I remember how she suggested I drink plenty of water before running. You are not going to believe it, but it actually helped with my cramps! After following her suggestion for a few weeks, I hardly got any cramps whilst I ran!
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So, to prevent dehydration, your body should be able to obtain enough fluids to replace what is lost. However, have you ever experienced feeling terribly dehydrated although you’ve already drunk a lot of water?
W H AT C A N D E H Y D R AT E YOU?
To prevent
dehydration, your
body should be able to obtain enough fluids to replace what is lost.
So, did you notice anything? What do you think was the cause of having muscle cramps? Yes, it’s dehydration! According to Derrer, primary symptoms of dehydration are thirst, headache, muscle cramps, tiredness etc. However, it can also develop further into low blood pressure, high heart rate, loss of consciousness, etc. One of the extreme effects of dehydration researched by the University of Rochester Medical Center is that if the loss of water is “more than 10% of your body weight, [it becomes] a medical emergency. And if not reversed [it] can lead to death."
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Some of you might think that as long as you drink a lot, you will always stay hydrated. But I’ll tell you, this is certainly not true (that’s why you can be extremely dehydrated although
you’ve drunk a lot). You might not know that there are many food you eat, that actually dehydrate your body. (I didn’t know either!)
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CAFFEINE
A lot of you might have heard that coffee and tea can dehydrate your body, and you have heard it correctly, the main substance that dehydrates us is the caffeine in the drink. According to Lawrence Armstrong, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut and director of the Human Performance Laboratory, caffeine is a diuretic, which means it will cause us to lose water through urination.
February 2017, Health
However, to all coffee lovers, this will only happen when you consume over 500 or 600 g milligrams of caffeine a day, which is about 5 to 6 cups of coffee. So if you are not up to drinking 5 cups of coffee per day, you are likely to be safe from dehydration!
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HIGH PROTEIN INTAKE
Surprisingly, protein can also dehydrate you. Monica Reinagel, a professionally trained and licensed nutritionist and the editor of Nutrition Over Easy writes that dehydration is a concern for people who have high protein intake— especially athletes — because protein would create “naturally-occurring nitrogen” causing the body to need more fluids to flush it out and cells could turn “water-depleted”. Research experimenting with hydration levels of athletes conducted by the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut has proven Monica Reinagel’s statement to be correct. Results from the experiment reveal that “Although all the athletes drank about the same amount of fluids, their hydration level went down significantly as their protein intake went up.”
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SUGARY DRINKS
Although drinks that contain a high amount of sugar and artificial sweeteners, for example fizzy drinks, may be a lot of people’s favourite because they can make us feel indeed refresh, but do you know that this type of drinks also dehydrates your body as well? Not only can caffeine in sugary drinks dehydrate us, but sugar can too. “Sugary drinks create an acidic environment that can impair enzyme function and decrease your body’s water storage capacity,” says Melania Lizano, writer of The Chopra Center, a professional health-related website. According to Marygrace Taylor, writer of Rodale’s Organic Life, extreme dehydration from sugary drinks can reach a point where it causes a “hypernatremic effect”. Or in other words, the shortage of water in the body starts to cause health issues such as fever, diarrhea, vomiting, etc. Now that you know what sugary drinks do to your body, will they still be your favourite?
So athletes, if you are reading this, drink your bottle of water!
Dehydration is one of the most important and scariest problems in our lives that a lot of people don’t think about regularly. To help prevent dehydration, not only avoiding the food I told you about would help because you — including me — don’t exactly know if what you eat dehydrates our bodies or not. So, trust me, drinking plenty of water is the safest way to keep you away from dehydration! Health, February 2017
DRINKING WATER
CAN HELP YOU ESCAPE FROM
DEHYDRATION!
February 2017, Health
February 15, 2017
Seventeen
February 15, 2017
THIS IS A PROBLEM How listening to music while doing homework can either make you stay ♯ (sharp) on your studies or make you fall ♭ (flat) behind everyone else.
H ave your parents ever told you to
“turn down that noise” or “put away your headphones” while you study or do homework? I know mine have. Whether it be Ariana Grande or Lady Gaga, they’re with me while I tackle the pythagorean theorem or deal with Newton. Yet my parents insist that it’s wrong, and now I’m questioning if they’re right. Are you curious too? Do not fear, for scientific knowledge is here to back you up so you can tell your parents that it’s ok to listen to music while you do schoolwork (emphasis on the ok). It all depends on the type of music you listen to.
Seventeen
Did you know? Music establishes a positive learning state?
Schoolwork always makes us grumpy in some sort of way, so why not turn that frown upside down?
February 15, 2017
M u s i c h a s i t ’s u p s i d e s … a n d i t ’s downsides
Music is a magical thing created by mankind, and is said to help reduce anxiety and depression. But according to a study done by Wales University, when put to the test of remembering things in a certain order, the people who listened to music (music they like, music they dislike, and a changing state speech) scored lower than the people who had a quiet space. This study shows that listening to music while studying is as distracting as hearing someone talk while studying.
Here’s an interesting theory; the Mozart effect. The Mozart effect is a controversial topic amongst phycologists as it suggests that listening to Mozart’s music pieces (preferably the piano sonatas) will improve the listener’s cognitive performance.
"Because some people cannot get bread to rise, [it] does not negate the existence of a `yeast effect’ ”. -Frances Rauscher (Psychologist at the University of Wisconsin)
In another study done by Smith and Morris
(1997), they found out that “stimulative music” distracts the brain more than “sedative music” does (by stimulative they mean preferred music with lyrics and by sedative music they mean calming instrumental music). So wait, I can’t listen to to Ariana Grande while doing my math homework?! Technically, you can listen to your favorite tunes while doing your homework, but it couldn’t guarantee your best effort. Research from the University of Michigan found that if you listen to music before you do a mentally straining task (like homework), it can improve your memory, attention, and your “mental math ability”. The Mozart Effect
Seventeen
Although Mozart is a musical genius in the classical symphony music industry, little has been proven that actually listening to Mozart will help improve your academic performance significantly. A study done by JRSM (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine) discovered that music has a long term effect on the brain. They had a group of 3-4 year old children learn the piano for six months, and afterwards take a test. Their test scores showed a 30% better score than average children of the same age who took a six month computer lessons or nothing at all. Christopher Chabris, a psychologist from Harvard University, evaluated 16 studies done. He has found none of their conclusions to be correct, stating, “Exposure to 10 minutes of Mozart's music does not seem to enhance general intelligence or reasoning”. Psychologist from the University of Wisconsin Frances Rauscher compares the unreliability of this effect to baking bread, saying that "because some people cannot get bread to rise, [it] does not negate the existence of a `yeast effect’ ”.
February 15, 2017
Personal Experience Everyone is Different If I see a chance to listen to music, I take it. In my opinion it makes everyday tasks less boring. But just because it doesn’t make solving math problems as grueling as it already is, I somehow notice how distracted I get, just like the studies done proved. When I was in fifth grade, my homeroom teacher told us that listening to classical music will help us focus and stay on task (I’m talking about symphonies and sonatas, not classic rock okay so don’t take it the wrong way). So whenever we had to read or work on a project she would play songs by Beethoven or Mozart, sometimes even Bach. Being the little, impatient fifth graders we were, we always protested against it because it was “boring” and “a drag”. Yes, someone actually said it was a drag (not me though). Personally, I found it to help slightly, but maybe it was because I was told it did. Nonetheless it did help me focus on what I needed to do. Last week I conducted a novice, personal experiment of my own. Every day I listened to songs with only piano or an orchestra while I did a part of my homework. Because I was raised with music like this (I played piano and the violin for a while) I didn’t mind it that much. It felt like background music to me, so I could easily tune it out. Then, I switched to music with singing in it while I did the other parts of my homework. I found that I subconsciously focused more on the song than the work in front of me, which basically means it was distracting to me. I also tried to do my homework with my headphones tucked away and the youtube tab closed. The results showed that I worked a little more efficiently compared to if I was listening to the classical music, but I sure was bored. So I guess having a background or white noise helps me. But that may not be the case for Seventeen everyone.
A Taiwanese study done by multiple colleges similar to the Smith and Morris study found their test subject’s scores to be varied. This could mean that the results depended on who took it, or in other words, everyone has different ways of doing the best they can. But to be sure of this, more studies should be done, experimenting on different variables such as the genre, tempo, and maybe even time of day. So to conclude, listening to music while you do schoolwork has both harmful and helpful effects. If you do listen to music, many researchers (and me) recommend listening to calm music that isn’t “arousing” or “stimulating” and doesn’t have words so you can focus, much like white noise. But it all comes down to your preference, and what you find most helpful. So experiment for yourself, because after all, you’re doing it for your own good.
Drink All Day Magazine - Hyunjin Kim
It’s Better LATTE Than Never
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“Coffee can help you live a longer and healthier life.” - Walter Willet, Physician in Harvard Chan School of Public Health 4
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PICTURES HERE
TEENVOGUE.COM
FEBRUARY 2017
Detox Cleanses –
THE TRUTH
Those fancy juice pictures crowding your Instagram in the summer months aren’t just people wanting to show how healthy they are, it’s them jumping onto the detox cleanse bandwagon. While detoxing may be #trendy, is it really #healthy?
T
he screeching sound of the blender woke me up at the crack of dawn, it was still dark outside. On a Saturday morning, five am was the absolute last time I wanted to be awake, but I couldn’t do anything about it, my aunt was detoxing again.
skills, I took to Google and learned that the word cleanse means to become clean or uncontaminated. Now, a little simple addition, and we have detox cleanse: “removing harmful organisms, chemicals, and toxic metals while cleansing the colon, liver and kidneys,” as defined by Dr. Group.
This means that I would wake up to the screeching blender for the next five days. It happens every summer, and is a time I usually try to forget -- I am not a morning person.
What are the different types of detox cleanses? Drinking a lot of water has been brought to a whole new level. One type of detox cleanse is simply a water cleanse. For five whole days the only thing these detoxers are consuming is water. Just water! This cleanse is designed to help with dehydration, cure headaches and control your body temperature, all while fasting. Although these positives of a water cleanse may have opened your mind to the idea of it, I am glad my aunt chose a different way to detox because water cleanses have their downsides too.
What is a detox cleanse? Every summer since I was a little kid, I’ve always enjoyed drinking my aunt’s homemade applecarrot juice (I’ll admit, I wasn’t a normal child, I loved vegetables). Up until this past year I didn’t really question why someone would drink only juice for a whole five days. As much as I love juice, five days of juice only seems a bit excessive, so why do people do it? What exactly is a detox cleanse? According to Dr. Edward F. Group, founder of the Global Healing Center and major promoter of the detox cleanse, the word detox means “a process in which a person makes lifestyle changes to clear their body of toxins.” With my extensive research TEENVOGUE.COM
When someone partakes in a water cleanse, it means that they are also fasting, depriving their body from the needed nutrients to be energized throughout the day. “Fasting slows your metabolic rate down so your diet from before the fast is even more fattening after you fast,” exclaims Joel FEBRUARY 2017
Fuhrman MD, author of Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Plan for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss and Fasting and Eating for Health. Essentially, he is saying that although quick weight loss happens when water cleansing, weight gain is almost inevitable after the cleanse, when your previous diet is introduced again. Making water cleanses a total waste of time if what you’re trying to do is lose weight.
aunt’s case, toxic foods include anything that is processed - so no cheese, bread, cereal, pretty much anything in the pantry is off limits. Leaving more for me!
Another, and more popular way to detox is a juice cleanse. Through my aunt, as a second hand detox cleanser, I can say that I prefer this option to a water cleanse. A juice cleanse is pretty similar to a water cleanse, but with the added nutrients of the fruits and vegetables being juiced. Technically speaking, you don’t eat anything, but it isn’t considered fasting because food is still being consumed. Juicing is an easy way to get the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables, but because of the high sugar content in fruit, most people don't realize how much sugar they are consuming and fiber they are lacking while drinking juice. I am not my aunt. While juice cleanses may be her favorite thing to do every summer, I don’t know if I would be able to give up my cup of coffee every morning, but I could learn a little something about eating healthy and noticing what I put into my body from her.
The main idea for detox cleanses is to lay a foundation of healthy eating that will continue on to become a healthy lifestyle. It encourages people to eat better and healthier food while cleansing the body. While this may be the primary reason people detox, it is both popular and common that people will adopt a detox cleanse as a fast diet with the goal of losing weight. The idea that my aunt, my lifelong role model, thinks that once a year she needs to go on a crazy diet of just juice to lose weight was shocking to me. I cannot see any reason that this is necessary, not for someone like her. She goes to the gym six times a week, she eats zucchini noodles instead of regular ones, she is the healthiest and fittest person I know. Is it really healthy for her to be going on a detox cleanse every summer? What do detox cleanses do? Not only are detox cleanses believed to cleanse your body from toxins, but they help you lose weight without actually exercising. Even if this weight loss is only short term, the general idea of it is appealing to many people as weight loss is associated with a better physique and a happier life. The alleviation of headaches, healthier hair and brighter skin are all positive
“Toxins don’t build up in your liver, kidneys, or any other part of your body, and you’re not going to get rid of them with the latest detox wonder.” Why do people detox? People who detox, like my aunt, believe that it helps to clear the body from toxins that are dangerous and cause negative health effects. There is not a mass list of toxic foods, so it seems to me that each individual decides what is and isn’t toxic for themselves (I could easily argue that I don’t hate olives, I am just on an olive detox). In my TEENVOGUE.COM
effects from a detox cleanse. All these effects are short term, so I don't see what is so attractive about depriving yourself from real foods for five days. If you are still tempted to try a detox and knowing the positive effects are only short term, wait until you read the negative ones. First off, Kidshealth.org, a site specializing in children’s FEBRUARY 2017
health, states that “There's no scientific proof that these diets help rid the body of toxins faster or that the elimination of toxins will make you a healthier, more energetic person.” That statement alone already contradicts the whole purpose of a detox cleanse. So, if detox cleanses aren't even cleansing your body, what do they do? Those on juice cleanses often suffer from dehydration because when only drinking juice it is easy to forget to get the 8 glasses of water a day. All types of detox diets slow metabolism down and regularly people end up malnourished. According to Dr. Michael Smith, MD, MBA, CPT, a member of the Nutrition Wellness Educator Certification Panel, “Toxins don’t build up in your liver, kidneys, or any other part of your body, and you’re not going to get rid of them with the latest detox wonder.” With all the research against detox cleanses, it amazes me the numbers of people who still partake. If my aunt knew what she was really doing to her body, she be throwing her detoxing books in the trash, guaranteed.
The Final Verdict With the media promoting detox cleanses and celebrities detoxing right before a big event, it is easy for normal people like us to not question it and join the craze. In this day and age with social media and fake news floating all around us we have to be more careful than ever. If a couple taps on the keyboard is all it takes to educate ourselves on almost anything we want to know, let’s utilize it. Yes, detox cleanses are popular, and yes Beyoncé detoxes, but these cleanses are “all hype with no health benefits” as described by Dr. Smith. There are many different diets and exercise plans to help you adopt a healthier lifestyle. A detox cleanse isn’t one of them. -KELLY RUTHERFORD TEENVOGUE.COM
FEBRUARY 2017
The Secret To
WORKING OUT How do you just do it? Dedicate yourself fully and successfully to working out weekly without limiting yourself with excuses you don't even believe yourself.
H
How many times have you made a promise to yourself to be “good?” To go to the gym everyday after work and get that dream body you wish you’d never let go of three years after graduating uni? If you answered never… I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it. I have just heard it from my mum one too many times. Every time she tells me she’s going to get sucked into a workout out routine, I just can’t help but think back to the last time she tried to be “good.” 15 FEBRUARY 2017
A week will slowly roll past with things looking positive and then next thing you know i’m looking through the pantry for my pre-bedtime snack with no success what so ever wondering where my box of cookies has disappeared off to. So what’s she doing wrong? Why can’t she get into a consistent workout routine that she hasn’t been able to fix or change every time she’s decided to workout? I’ll let you in on a little secret… TEENVOUGE.COM
SOCIAL ANIMALS The secret to getting into a consistent workout routine… Are you ready for this? A person. A workout buddy... Someone whose company you enjoy and will look forward to spending time with throughout the day, though someone who will also work hard, be critical of your form and will help you improve. According to Wayne Andersen, MD, cofounder and medical director of Take Shape for Life, we humans are “social animals. We seek the company and positive reinforcement of others, especially when we are doing work.” It is important to have someone positive and optimistic by your side when going through a tough time or, in this case, a really tough workout. WHAT BETTER WAY TO LEARN ACCOUNTABILITY ? The hardest part about committing to exercise and taking part in daily fitness routines is simply getting through the front door of the gym. It is human nature to avoid the things we might find hard or, things that are taking up a lot of mental capacity and are troubling. It is easy to cancel on yourself, to make up an excuse of why not to go to the gym “today” saying that you will go back tomorrow but... When does that actually ever happen? Tomorrow turns into the next day which eventually turns into a week, and then into a month and then one day you just forget all about ever even wanting to workout. With having someone else, who is, waiting at the front doors of the gym, counting on you to show up and not bail out of a tough workout session makes it automatically harder to avoid your pre-planned gym session. Having to rely and put your trust into someone else, also known as accountability, can sometimes be a hard trait for many people to pick up. All of a sudden your own actions and choices don’t only affect yourself but others as well. Through having a workout buddy, not only are you building up on fitness and strength but you are also picking up many important and noticeable traits, such as accountability. You learn to put your trust and faith into another person who is expected to be there in times of need and an impact of your own success.
15 FEBRUARY 2017
TEENVOUGE.COM
IS IT WORTH THE RISK OF INJURY? A workout buddy is not only someone you can look forward to spending time with in the afternoons, but can also greatly decrease any risk of injury. When working out alone, one of the only options you have to check up on your form is to assess and correct yourself while focusing on your reflection in the huge silver mirrors. While focused on your reflection and fixing form, your attention is spilt from the exercise and not solely focused on just one thing. Multitasking is very complicated for the human mind, often even referred to as impossible, making it greatly easier and more safe to have someone by your side who can focus on picking up any form breaks or errors while you are solely focused on the workout itself. As said by April Gellatly, Professional triathlete and CNN Fit Nation Athletics Director and Head Coach, being “aware of the environment and surroundings” can be very difficult when working alone. With having your workout buddy acting as your personal trainer, picking up on surroundings and form errors, the athlete is able to focus only on the exercise being performed.
CHOOSING YOUR PERSON Now that I’ve let you in on the biggest secret, probably the hardest part of getting into a successful working out routine, the elimination games. When selecting your buddy, it is important to find someone with similar fitness and strength abilities as you. It is also important that this person is also someone who is strong willed with a very positive mindset. willing to work hard as you are. FITTING BUDDY
So what does a good workout buddy look like? This person should be someone who you aren’t embarrassed to try new things around, someone who will help you push through a tough workout, but also someone who looks forward to, enjoys workout as much as you do. As said by Michelle P. Maidenberg, PhD, MPH, clinical director of Westchester Group Works in Harrison, N. Y. this person should be able to “play the role of a teammate, co-coach and cheerleader - all while working out.” It’s particularly important to choose someone who is of similar fitness levels of you as well, someone who won’t slow or drag you down through the course of the workout. The hardest part of actually getting into an everyday workout routine is just finding a person who is right for you. 15 FEBRUARY 2017
TEENVOUGE.COM
UN-FIT BUDDY As great as it is to have a workout buddy in the end, the journey getting to that person can be rocky and slow. Sometimes it helps to know what a bad partner looks like, to really find a good one. An easy way to put your body at risk of a serious injury is to workout with someone who is already extremely fit and mentally tough. Pushing your body past its beginning limits by trying to keep up with someone who is more advanced than you can lead to extreme soreness and the overworking of muscles. Likewise, if someone is a lot weaker and less fit than yourself, your own progress and success rates can be very easily be slowed down. Wayne Andersen, MD, cofounder and medical director of Take Shape for Life says, “if he or she is too competitive, gives up too easily or is jealous of your success,” that will also bring you down. Going through the process of actually finding a buddy can be quite difficult and very extensive... Everyone has different tastes in the people they choose to surround themselves with and what qualities those people might obtain. Different people have different qualities that may help push harder and farther on the road to success. YOU’RE A BUDDY TOO! While you are in the long and extensive hunt for someone to workout and spend your time with, it’s also important to remember that someone else is looking for the same qualities in you. As well as being the person working out, you also have to fit the role of someone else’s personal trainer/advisor/cheerleader and supportive friend. It is important to focus on assessing your own behavior, attitudes and qualities as a workout buddy for someone else, while also looking for these qualities within another person. It’s very possible and achievable to reflect both of these roles as an athlete. So now that you have officially been let in on the secret to a great workout routine... Who was the person who first popped into your mind while reading this article? A close friend, a sibling, a colleague maybe? Who would fit the role of your own personal workout buddy? I dare you right now to get out your phone and call them up, make a plan for the next time you have a spare hour or two after work. Sometimes you have to be the one to take the first step in getting things started before it becomes a normal part of your everyday life. A part that you really enjoy and often look forward to throughout your busy day. Trust me, looking back in a month or two when you don’t even have to call up your buddy to know your weekly scheduled workout is tonight, you will finally be able to see a change! 15 FEBRUARY 2017
TEENVOUGE.COM
Lily Bates
Cheers to the Great Tears! Why don’t you use “crying” as a stress reliever? aaa Waaa Waaaa” Imagine that you, your W parents, your cool friends and even Donald Trump “
cried in the same way, swollen red cheeks, flaring nostrils, wrinkled nose and cavernous mouth, when
“To stay healthy and release stress, I encourage my patients to cry. For both men and women,”
they were born. Isn’t it a funny thing to imagine? Crying is what everyone in the world used to do everyday when we were an endearing baby. However, as we get old, we seldom cry. We even consider crying as an embarrassment, but we can take many advantages of crying now as a teenager who suffers from everyday’s stressful life, school work, relationships, sports and etc.
So, is it good to chop onions every day to cry? The answer is No. According to Alex Gender, there are three types of tears. Basal tears keep dirt away and hydrate eyes. Reflex tears wash away harmful substances. Emotional tears stabilize the mood and contain higher levels of stress hormones. You cry when you chop onions because a gas containing
“To stay healthy and release stress, I encourage my
harmful substances for your body is released from
patients to cry. For both men and women,” Dr.
onions. So, it tries to protect the eyes by producing
Judith Orloffa, clinical psychiatry professor at
reflex tears.
UCLA and author of the book Emotional Freedom, says.
Don’t chop onions! I bet you have experienced feeling refreshed after shedding tears. Have you wondered why? “Crying is a safe and effective way to deal with stress,” Sharon Martin who is a licensed psychotherapist in a private practice in San Jose, Calid. suggests. As well as exercising and listening to music, crying can be an activity to release stress. Type to enter text
TeensHealth!! February 16th 2017
Chopping onions is not an effective way to release stress
Emotional tears The only valuable tears that helps you release stress is emotional tears that you shed when you feel happy or sad. Emotional tears “contain stress
&
Q A The
hormones which get excreted from the body through crying” and “shed these hormones and other toxins which accumulate during stress”, Dr.
about
William Frey at the Ramsey Medical Center in Minneapolis points out.
Tears
Thus, you can get rid of an enemy of your body through crying. Therefore, you can reduce many
Q: After crying for a long time, my eyes always
harmful effects caused by stress hormones.
get red and puffy. I don’t want to make my
Furthermore, Endorphin called “feel-good
eyes look bad…
hormones” which eases pain and stress level is
A: Well, your eyes get puffy because you rub
released after crying.
your eyes hard with hands or tissues. The skin
Dr. Josh Axe, DNM, DC, CNS is a certified doctor
around eyes are so sensitive. Therefore, the best
of natural medicine, doctor of chiropractic and
way is to let tear stream down your face. Then,
clinical nutritionist says “mind-altering substances
wipe your eyes with a fluffy handkerchief
commonly cause side effects, including mood swings, fatigue, brain fog and even addiction — but
Q: I always have a headache after crying. How
tenderly!!
there’s really no downside to releasing more natural endorphins in order to feel better.” Without the help of meditation, you can lower stress level in a healthy way by releasing Endorphin through crying. In short, crying not only lessen your enemy which is stress hormones, but also build up your supporters which is Endorphin that reduces your stress level even more. That’s why you feel much refreshed and relaxed after crying.
can I avoid that? A: To be honest… the most common cause of headache is DEHYDRATION!! Due to crying, water in your body is lost. I suggest you to drink a glass of water before and after crying. Drinking a cup of your favorite tea (How about Rosehip tea?) also prevents you from having a headache.
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Tips to have a Good Cry You might think, “OK, I understand why crying can be a good stress reliever, but how can I intentionally cry?” There are some tips that make you cry comfortably, in other words having “a good cry”.
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Find a genre you can cry
you can start with finding a genre that makes you cry. Pets, family bond, friendship and love.., each person has a different inspired point to cry. For me, touching family stories always make me cry but I’m rarely moved by romance stories. There are so many videos that are titled like “ This will make you CRY!”. However, it maybe not true for you. So, it would be easier for you to cry if you know a genre that is likely to make you cry.
Cry at night
If you pick a short video, a movie, a book or whatever you use to cry comfortably, it’s also essential to set an environment that leads “a good cry”. “When you cry, your PNS (parasympathetic ner vous system) is stimulated and this in turn triggers a state of relaxation and peacefulness,” The Health Orange says. Our body spontaneously goes to the rest mode at night due to the parasympathetic nervous system. Therefore, it’s better to cry at night because our body is already in a relaxed mood. It can enhance the effect of relaxation and peacefulness of crying. Drawing the curtain and using the orange light also helps us to create the dark mood.
Turn off your phone
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TeensHealth!! February 16th 2017
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Finally, crying without interruption is the key to cry comfortably. For instance, if your friend messages you while you are about to cry, it definitely distracts you to shed tears. Therefore, it’s good to turn off your phone to shut out the distraction so that you can concentrate on crying.
Crying as a medicine As I previously said, crying (only for emotional tears!) has a huge effect on releasing stress. In my opinion, when I’m touched by the story and cry, it often gives me an opportunity to reflect myself. I recently cried by watching a heartwarming Thai commercial video about a guy who always helps other people even though he has no money. Finally, a girl whom the guy has been paying money for education is able to go to school. The video and music were so touching and I started crying. At the same time, I realized that I had been placed myself above everything these days unlike the guy in the video. Even if my mom asked me for help, I excused somehow and avoided chores. Through crying, I always identify with the protagonist. I think I can
Crying in a group?
engrave what I felt, thought and learned during crying in my heart with the tag of crying. I remember movies and books that made me cry vividly. People often say, “Laughter the best medicine”, but I would say, “Crying is the best medicine”. Shedding emotional tears not only make us release stress and feel energized, but also inspire us to reflect ourselves deeply and impress that feeling in our heart. When you feel sad next time, don’t hold back tears. Let your tears trickle down and cheer up!
When you cry, your PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) is stimulated and this in turn triggers a state of relaxation and peacefulness. Type to enter text
Although some people may think that crying in public is embarrassing, "it's very primal to cry in a group," says Dr. Judith Orloff. In Japan, there is a new approach of crying by taking advantage of “crying in a group”. Some cities in Japan have "crying clubs" where people come together and cry. According to the crying club in Japan, they listen and watch touching movie, short videos, music, reciting poems and various things that make them cry. Crying in a group is effective because it tells you that crying is something OK to do which makes crying much easier. If you want to cry to release stress but struggle to do it alone, how about grabbing some friends who often cry and have a crying session with them?
MOMENTS NOT MILES BY JESSE PERKINS
Travel lets you capture the beauty of the world and the different forms it can present itself Ever get bored of your routine? Going back and forth from work mindlessly, day in, day out with no real thought outside of your little world and problems. Going back to the same apartment, doing the same chores, at the same neighborhood, every day for months at a time. Sounds boring doesn’t it? When traveling, you receive and feel stress relief throughout the travel time period, as well as stabilizing your emotional state. You become less stressed about the things that usually make you stressed and you become more accepting about the random changes in your schedule. National Geographic
According to CBS Los Angeles and Elite Daily, “One common theme from travel experts is to disconnect from your normal routine as much as possible for stress management” and “travelers are more open and willing to accept things that deviate from their standard routine”. This shows just some of the positive effects that traveling can have on your life and mind. Everybody needs a break from work, a rush of excitement to see and learn new things in a foreign place that they have never gotten to see or learn from in their regular routine. Travel lets you see through a different lense every time you are exposed a new region of the world, which is why so many people are often obsessed with traveling.
This will make you a better, all around more calm and improved version of yourself throughout your travels. I have been lucky enough to travel to some beautiful locations throughout the world. This past summer I got to go to the Canadian Rockies; where I got to see waterfalls and lakes with clear turquoise water, as well as climbing a glacier in negative degree weather and the aftermath of a forest fire. Then I camped out in Banff National Park where we saw a group of elk, with about six or seven members around the logging area. I also traveled to Vietnam, where I got to hike the lands that surround Sappa for four hours. As I think back on that moment, I realize that the beauty and awe of nature is what makes traveling so fun.
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Different Ways to Travel Tr a v e l i n g i n C o m f o r t , I n t h e Wilderness and in the Middle Traveling in Comfort: Traveling inside your comfort zone is by going to the beach, visiting museums and staying in 5-star hotels and restaurants. That way of travel is cushy, but you get to see the city and it’s populated tourist spots. It is usually crowded, but you get to meet new people and learn about the country. By the time you have to leave, you feel full with the experience and relaxed.
“ Travel
you see through a different lense every time you are exposed to a new region of
Traveling in the Wilderness: Traveling outside of our comfort zone is by going trekking out in the woods, sleeping outside in the forest and get to experience the nature of the country with lots of memories (and photos) of beautiful the landscapes. That way of travel is muddy and difficult, but you get firsthand experience about the nature of the region you are staying in and get to tell lots of stories to tell to your friends and family.
the world” ~ Michael
Traveling in the Middle: Traveling in the middle is by doing a little bit of both of the previous travel types. You still go trekking outside in the forest and to see the beautiful landscapes, but it’s a marked trail and you return back to the hotel you are staying at. The hotel isn’t usually 5 star, since it is close to the woods (like a National Park) or a place that has multiple small cabins. You have the luxury of sleeping a bed and indoors, but you also experience the beauty of the stunning nature surrounding you and get to experience it firsthand. National Geographic
lets
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The Effects of Travel on Your Mind and Emotions The Benefits of Travel Traveling has a lot of positive effect on your mind and can help you become a better person in general. Here are just a few proven ways that traveling can help you become a better person in general. 1. You Become Better at Working This is the difference at work. People who use all of their vacation days have more time to relax and release stress from work. This makes them more relaxed and ready to work when they get back, whereas people who hardly take any vacation days can be overtaken with the work load and not be motivated to work. 2. Boosting Creativity and Being More Interesting So, the more you travel to new and interesting places does boost creativity because of the new experiences you divulge in. You get to meet different people with different backgrounds and different beliefs, which causes you to create more stories to tell and to try things you would have never of thought of doing (like eating scorpion). 3. Become More Emotionally Stable Back at home, you might have been tentative or annoyed whenever there is a break in your daily routine. Going to the dentist or going to work meetings would have been a real pain to you. But after traveling for awhile, you will get used to these breaks in routine and will learn to just flow with the movement and to make it as enjoyable as possible (since you can’t really avoid it). 4. Improving Cognitive Function Traveling and taking a vacation are very nice and relaxing things to do. But when you get back from your trip, you will notice that you are willing to try new ideas or to be more productive during the working hours of the day. This is because the happiness of trying new things on your trip will become a habit the more and more you travel. National Geographic
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JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
Eating disorder has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. What they are and why so many teens fall victim of such disease? And how the society contributes to this phenomenon? - Grace Han runch, crunch! A girl, looking thinner than a pair of chopsticks, glares herself at a mirror while munching down some chips from a big bag of potato chips. Smack! She licks her thumb painted with bunch of crumbs and starts to stare at the mirror, never stop picking up handful of chips from the bag.
C
After the final bite, she now realizes the overweight girl reflected on the mirror is none other than herself, reminding her of the obese character Ursula from The Little Mermaid. “Oh, No! I have done it again!” She screams with her shaky eyes imagining the monster within her stretched out on the mirror. As if to erase the monster from her mind, the seventeen-year-old sprints towards the toilet and shoves her little head into the toilet bowl trying to regurgitate whatever she stuffed into herself within last 30 minutes. “I was scared of the monster in the mirror, I had to get rid of it before it swallowed me.” Those are the words blurted out of a girl suffering from bulimia, Adora, whenever she loses control over eating.
Does that scene familiar to you? Did that story ring a bell in your heart? If your answer is yes, you might be a victim of eating disorder. It is easy to think eating disorder is just abnormal patterns of eating behavior. However, the study done by WebMD stated “33% of those suffering from bulimia and about 8% from anorexia had attempted suicide,” which is much more dangerous and serious than what you might imagine. It is not uncommon for a teenage girl to suffer from some sort of eating disorder, especially living in this modern society where physical appearance seems to matter above all else.
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Are you a victim of ‘Eating Disorder’?
Not understanding the scene behind eating disorder, many teenagers do not realize they are actually suffering from some form of eating disorder. The Mayo Clinic defined the eating disorder not only as combination of abnormal eating habits which has ill-effect on one’s physical health, but also as psychological disorder which negatively influences one’s mental health, especially concerning emotions. Eating disorder has many different faces, but most of us suffer either from anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, which are the most common eating disorders found in teenagers.
below the recommended level, engaging in days of abstinence from food, excessive exercising, selfinduced vomiting or misuse of laxatives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Type 2: Bulimia Nervosa
Type 1: Anorexia Nervosa If you are suffering from anorexia nervosa, most likely you will perceive yourself as overweight although you may actually be below the average weight; therefore, restricting yourself to a severe diet that could possibly even cause mismenstruation if you are female. You might be obsessed with maintaining the body weight far
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Another common type of eating disorder you might be suffering from is bulimia nervosa. Unlike someone with anorexia, a person with bulimia nervosa tends to eat large portion of food at a time due to one’s loss of self-control. However, a person suffering from bulimia, still wanting to keep the body weight below the desired level, often ends up with a forced vomiting after a binge eating. These types of eating disorders not only affect one’s physical well-being, but also negatively affect the mental state such as loss of confidence, low self-esteem and create a negative body image upon oneself. All those characteristics make it even more difficult for someone to overcome eating disorder by pushing the one into an extreme depression upon comparing oneself with the perfect ideal body the society projects.
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The Victims of Eating Disorders
So, why are teens so vulnerable to such diseases? Although many studies concluded that there is no specific cause of eating disorders, the major risk factor affecting the teens is known to be the dissatisfaction of oneself upon discovering the disparity between their bodies with what the society projects to be the norms or attractive. Living in this technologically advanced era where teens are prone to be exposed to the advertisements on TV, internet, or magazines, it is undeniable that most of dissatisfaction of oneself originates from this mass media. Even the much younger girls than the teens are no exceptions. They already start to be concerned about their body figure at an early age that “69% change their concept of the ideal body shape and 47% want to lose weight due to the influence of taking pictures (Martin, 2010),” according to the National Eating Disorders Association.
Being exposed to mass media imposing their idea of perfect body everywhere you look, it is not hard to understand the reason why the teens are so susceptible to be desperately obsessed with the number on the scale. Especially within the Millennial generation where ‘looks’ are one of the most important characteristics in one’s life, many teenagers fall into the trap of the eating disorder in order to create a perfect body the current society forces upon them. With those Barbie like skinny perfect body models splashing themselves everywhere we turn our attentions to, it makes us wonder how important it really is to look physically perfect and moreover who decides what is to be considered a perfect body. This society not only dogmatically pushes people to pursue perfectionism upon their body, but creates low self-esteem and unnecessary stress by promoting that only physical characters are important in one’s self worthiness.
“Not only a magazine cover girl or perfect-looking model in a TV advertisement influences me, but I feel like a loser if I don’t feel prettier and skinnier than my peers.” - A 16-Year-Old Korean Girl, Annie
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Road To Recovery!
Although it is not easy to cope with eating disorder as one needs to overcome oneself first, the help is out there and various treatments are available to feel better about yourself and to maintain a healthy body type. If you notice the warning signs such as wanting to skip meals, overconcerned with gaining weight, or desire to go on an extreme diet, the following steps may lead you to the road to recovery.
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Admit Your Problem
Most of people with eating disorder do not realize or admit they are suffering from eating disorder. In addition, keeping it as a secret is not the best way nor helping you with coping the problem. Although it may be difficult and uncomfortable to reveal your innermost problems with others, once you share it with your close friends and family members, you will be much better at controlling your emotions on top of invaluable support you may receive from them.
2
Seek Professional Help
If you believe your will power is not strong enough to curve your appetite or you just do not have the faintest idea what to do, there are many different professional organizations that can guide you through the ordeal. Such as individual, family, and group psychotherapy might be helpful for some people and anonymous meetings may provide emotional support that you need to overcome eating disorder. It is always a good practice to open yourself and consult honestly with your family physicians for an expert recommendation.
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3
Just Be Yourself
Most of the teens recovered from the eating disorder relapse back to the old habits for a good reason. Unless you change your perspective on life and beauty, it is almost impossible to maintain a healthy eating habits and desired body weight. Blindly accepting what society projects as beauty may lead you back to eating disorder. As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Learn how to be yourself and love yourself at the same time. It takes a lot of practice; however, without changing your perspective, it would be extremely difficult for you to escape from eating disorder.
“Beauty is about enhancing what you have. Let yourself shine through!” -Janelle Monae As we have illustrated in this article, anybody, especially teenagers, can easily become a victim of eating disorder. Unless we change our dogmatic ideas on what is considered to be beautiful, the road to recovery would be a rocky path. If you are currently suffering from eating disorder, it will be difficult for you to accept the fact that everyone possesses a beauty of their own and it is not determined solely by physical appearance alone. Although we are being bombarded by the expectation of the society in their own ways, what is more important than the standards the society imposing upon you is to realize how beautiful you actually are as a person and not everybody shares the same kind of body type. Always remember, you are amazing ‘just the way you are’!
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“Do you ever feel like all hopes are gone?” “Does it seem like there is nobody out there to help you?”
SUICIDE CAUSE AND PREVENTION
EVEN AT THIS VERY MOMENT, ANOTHER LIFE HAS JUST ENDED
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ou are not the only one. According to statistics, millions of teenagers suffer from depression and commit suicide every 5 minutes. During my Junior high school years, I once had a friend who jumped out of a 15th floor building after arguing with his parents over his school performances. Even at this very moment, by the time you finish reading this article, there might be another life ended. Although the number is staggering and the reasons may vary, there is something we can do to identify those friends in desperate situations and possibly prevent the tragedy.
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Albert Kang
Within last 10 years, suicide rate has increased more than 50% worldwide. Especially, teenage suicide rate has been skyrocketed to be one of the main cause of teenager mortality. According to latest statistics conducted by WHO (World Health Organization) among 90 membered countries, there were 132,423 suicide victims during a year period; which means in every 5 minutes a teenager commits suicide for one reason or another. This fact is not only alarming but causing a major social concern worldwide. In order to truly comprehend the causes of the teen suicide, we will take a closer look at the various aspects of teenage suicide phenomena,
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Causes of Suicide Although, suicide has always been one of the main social issues for many generations, increment at this rate is unpresented. One of the main characteristics of teenage suicide is, unlike adult suicides where male suicide rate is much higher than female’s, the teen male and female suicide rates are almost equivalent. The difference seems to be based on the reasons behind committing suicide, regardless, teen suicide rate is on the rise, especially among the millennial generations. In order to understand and help out friends who are in desperate situation, it is imperative to recognize potential victims.
Teenager suicide is caused by diverse and complex reasons making it difficult for one to understand, however, there are some common physical and mental traits which are related to suicide. During adolescence, teens go through physical, physiological, and emotional changes, creating a chaos and confusion. As the society gets more complex and the competition of academic success becomes more fierce, the teenagers are ever more pressured to excel in school experiencing overwhelming stress. Here are some of the common reasons provided by NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) why teenagers consider committing suicide.
Three Main Causes of Suicide 1. Depression is one of the main cause of teenage suicide: over 90% of the suicide victims were known to have various mental disorders including 80% of them having depression. If a teenager is suffering from depression, the risk of committing suicide is very high due to lack of willpower accompanied by low self-esteem and negative attitude towards life.
 
2. Stress, confusion, pressure, and worries about self-worthiness are common problems in many teens that can trigger suicide. Especially within the fierce academic setting where one is judged by their grades more than their trait or potential, teens are more prone to commit suicide from the stress of disappointing their parents. 3. School violence or bullying always have been a part of school life in various cultures, however, as the bullying become more violent and the age of offender gets lower everyday, the suicide caused by the reasons of bullying is alarmingly increasing. Usually, small number of offenders are consistently bullying large number of victims regardless of time, place, and manner. Large number of teen suicide victims often suffered from school bullying to a point that committing suicide is the only way to escape from that reality.
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Signs of Suicide
If your buddy is acting strangely showing signs of depression, you should pay closer attention and look for the following signs.
1. Sudden change in school performances or attitude. 2. Unusual gift or giving away valuable personal belongings. 3. Writing or drawing pictures resembling death. 4. Mentioning about running away from home. 5. Shaggy appearance with ‘I don’t care’ attitude. 6. Frequent tardiness or absence from school. 7. Constantly talking or joking about suicide. 8. Having a history of suicide attempt or treatment. How to Help Your Buddy If you sense the warning signs from someone you care about, you need to take immediate action. You may feel awkward and unnatural talking about suicide, however, you need to treat it as a serious matter. The first thing you should do is to try to have an open conversation with the person so that it offers an opportunity for that person to express his or her feelings. The questions you may ask are such as “how long have been feeling like this” or “How can I possibly help you” and assure him that he is not alone in this and you are there to help him. It is especially important to listen well, be honest about the situation, take the person seriously and offer hope on top of being sympathetic. Some of the things that you should not do are “argue with the suicidal person, act shocked, promise confidentiality, offer solution to their problems or blame yourself.” Remember friends, no matter how helpless and hopeless the situation might seem, we are here to lend the hand. Let’s go through this thing together by sharing, caring, and loving each other. FEBRUARY 2017
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BY NATCHAYA MAKJUMROEN
A PASSION FOR PASSION A passion is something that frequently are left undiscovered. Why not create your passion? One year, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes. What do you do in a year? According to the World Health Organization, a human has a lifetime expectancy of approximately 71.4, but how do you spend that 71.4 years? Imagine yourself doing a job that you hate, dreading to go to work, leaving home without a single burst of excitement, drowned in the workload and glaring at the ticks of the clock every ten seconds. This negative avalanche can indeed bring you down. Would you like to spend your life like that? What about being so excited to go to work, ready to start your next project and just hoping time will slow down. How perfect is that? But what separates these two scenario's?
IT’S PASSION
Passion, defined by MerriamWebster dictionary, is “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept” as well as “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction”. You may hear some people talking about “finding” their passion, but the truth is, passion is meant to be found, it’s created. Passion is something that’s fun, yet challenging. Relaxing, but possibly time-consuming. But most definitely, passion is something that we all have, some chosen not to be discovered, some created at an early age, but it’s something that we all need to create.
THE POWER OF PASSION People all around the world are probably lost, trying to find themselves and purpose for the world. The absence of passion could be the result of having no time, or being afraid of trying something new. But it could also be the result of being unable to create a passion that is desired for them. I remember the day my friends suggested that I should start dance; I walked into my first Jazz class in fifth grade, with my new black Jazz shoe all laced up. Fast forward to my time in eight grade, I was encouraged by my peers (again!) to audition for the Middle School Dance Troupe, also known as MSDT. Super-fast forward again to last year, where I was encouraged by an upperclassman to try out for
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Varsity dance, and my passion for dance started ever since. Dance is something that I do for fun; it makes me happy and works as a way to relieve stress and focus on nothing else but dance. But what are the main benefits of following your passions?
PASSION, PAYCHECKS AND SUCCESS A study done by Shift Index found that 80% of people surveyed hated and were dissatisfied with their jobs. This could be because of the lack of passion that they have for the job. A job is a job, but a job with passion is a career. Do you want to spend your adulthood time wasting on a job that you hated? Why not create a passion and follow that path, or find time to do that passion? If it’s about passion or paycheck, follow your passion and success and money will follow.
PASSION’S HAPPINESS Robert J. Vallerand, a professor and director of the Research Laboratory of Social behavior from the University of Quebec, concluded that working on a passion can generate a minimum 8 hours of happiness in a week. After five draining days of work, 8 hours of happiness inspired by passion can help incredibly with your mood, and make an actual impact on the overall happiness in your life. Dancing is a passion that makes me happy. It relieves me from the stress surrounding me, and it’s the time where I can just dance and think about choreographies and worry less about school.
PASSION TEACHES RESPONSIBILITY A passion fuels confidence, excitement, and success. It correlates with your happiness level, and without it, your life will just be gray. But when you do your passion, you will need to be able to balance your work, hence it teaches you responsibility. As dance practice times can go up to almost 15 hours a week, these rehearsal times taught me how to manage my time, and become more responsible. Without dance, I would not be able to learn how to handle my responsibilities and fit in time with my friends and maintain my grades. FEBRUARY 2017
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PASSION FAUX PAS Robert J. Vallerand claims that there are two main types of passions. The first type is the more positive, encouraging type, called Harmonious Passion. Harmonious passion is the passion where a person freely chooses and enjoys that passion. They’re doing it not because they're forced to, but because they want to and not doing it to please their parents or other people. The second type of passion is discouraged and unhealthy, called, Obsessive Passion. Obsessive passion is a passion where a person is only doing it to maintain their social status or self-esteem. This type would make doing the passion unmanageable, and can cause anxiety and loss of A passion can be anything; take dancing, traveling, or photography for example. self-esteem. This passion is often caused by controlled reasons and pressured by parents or others. my peers, and followed that A human with a passion as people believed in me, passion will most likely I f y o u r p a s s i o n i s a and it was a passion that made me work on that passion until harmonious passion, push yourself happy. mastery. towards that level of mastery. This thing-turned-toYou’ll become an If it’s an obsessive passion, passion have changed me for the e x p e r t a n d w i l l b e try to find another passion that better in so many ways; It lead me excellent with that topic, will be grouped in the harmonious to be active and fit, it taught me whether it’s football, category. responsibility and how to stay dance, the saxophone, b a l a n c e d ( l i t e r a l l y ) w i t h cooking, anything! schoolwork and practice, works as Creating a passion CREATION OF A PASSION a stress reliever, and lead me to is hard. Which passion I discovered my passion of meet and make many friends along will be the right one for dance through encouragement the way. you when there are so from many options? FEBRUARY 2017
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Before you follow your passion, you’re going to have to find it.
SMALL STEPS TOWARDS CREATING YOUR
PASSION 1. What is something you already love?
2. What matters most to you?
3. Take a break.
4. Take risks.
5. Why is that important to you?
PASSION’S IMPACT During MSDT, I started to take dance seriously when my coach put me in the captain position. With that push of having a coach believing in me for my leader position resulted in me pushing myself. I became a better dancer as my dance teacher and coach helped me lift myself up to my full potential. Yo u c a n t r u l y i m p a c t someone. Helping someone find a passion if one of the best gifts you can give them. Passion is so important because once someone finds it, you can impact their lives. If you see someone doing something well, tell them, give them a compliment, say it’s good. That will let them know that what they’re doing is amazing.
A POKE AT PASSION If you do find your passion, push it. Work towards that high level of mastery. Whether you pursue your passion in college or university or not, it’s a way to relieve stress and enjoy yourself. You are the one who can control your life. A passion will push your life and your full potential forewords. Passion will fuel your excitement as well as calm you down. So why not create your passion now? Start before the minutes, hours, days, weeks and years run out! Why waste that time stressing when you can be happy and find that passion that will help you relieve stress! As told in the movie, A Bronx Tale;
“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent,
6. Be brave.
and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.”
7. Embrace failure.
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To Longevity
Even at a low intensity, biking had shown to increase
brain connectivity and improve depressed mood‌
The Grand Q&A lasts from February to March!! Send us questions now if you have any! Send mails to the following address please: WeAreCyceline@gmail.com Q1 : Hi! My name is Hong Wang. I am from China. I am a normal white collar who works in Beijing, China. Actually, I am very familiar with cycling, for my friend Lei had been “harassing” me and asking me to try cycling in the past 2 months. Faithfully, he told me that I can ride a bicycle to my workplace if I bother riding it in my free time. Lei is so committed that I eventually compromised and agreed to try cycling, three days ago. However, living in Beijing an awfully impure living environment it is I am very afraid that the health risks are going to outweigh the health benefits due to air pollution. Should I continue the sport? What are your opinions? A: Hello Wang! We would like to first express our compassion over your situation. In regard to your question, we suggest you to continue the sport. The result of a study conducted by The University of Cambridge proved that health benefits provoked by cycling can overwhelm the health risks, regardless of the cities you are cycling in - whether it is highly polluted or not. How about the “turning point”? You may ask. The tipping point - when the risks begin to overwhelm the benefits - of cycling in highly polluted, for example Beijing, only starts after an enormous seven hours of non-stop cycling, which is, according to the researchers who conducted the experiment, “an exercise level that is inaccessible to most people.”
Q2: Hi, this is Sophie. Not long ago, cycling piqued my interest. Then, I was unfortunate enough to injure my knee - I was so careless that I tripped myself while running down a flight of stairs. The doctor proposed a weeklong recovery period, but I simply can’t wait, I want to ride a bicycle now, yet I worry that my knee can’t withstand the intensity. What should I do? A: Hello Sophie! Our suggestion is give yourself a few days of rest, then start cycling. In fact, even our cycling coach David Heatley offered a similar suggestion. In addition, he also said that you don’t need to fully recover your knees before you start cycling, because “cycling is a low-impact and non-load bearing sports; the risk of getting joint injuries from even overuse in cycling is much lower than other sports.”
“According to helmets.org, it is estimated that 75 percent of cycling-related casualties among children could had been prevented with a bicycle helmet.” Q3: Howdy Cycleline! My son is turning 13 in two days!! No words seemed adequate to describe my inner joy. Now, I want to surprise my son with a birthday present, which took me a few days to eventually find out: a bicycle! But I am a rookie in the bicycle area of expertise. This letter was intended to consult with you fellow professionals about what I should know in order to to prepare an awesome gift for my son, in terms of gears. Also, teach me something about safety concerns please! A: Hello! We felt very honoured that we were trusted by you in giving advices for your lovely son. First of all, bicycle is a mean of transportation. It is not a toy therefore the bicycle requires an owner with strong responsibility to keep it in awesome shape. Second of all, we don’t suggest you to purchase cheap bikes nor from online shops, because it is not wise to do so; rather we recommend local, reputable bicycle shop. Please don’t misunderstand us - we are not saying that you have zero possibility of purchasing choice bicycles from an online shop. It is because, from our experience, reputable bicycle shops are more likely to spend their time in searching for an appropriate bike for you, and the shop is much less likely to put up decrepit and obsolete bikes for sales. Reality rarely deceives you, but there is always an uncertainty with the Internet. Described vividly in an anecdote written by the South Coast Bikes website, there was a bicycle repairer once fixed a guy’s “new bike” which was bought from an online shop. The man recalled his remarks upon seeing the bicycle: “It was stunningly bad, a brand new cheap suspension bike. It was possibly the heaviest clunkiest, badly built bike I'd ever seen. The components were cheap and nasty, the frame made from huge heavy lumps of metal poorly welded together. It was a tank.” In response to your learning desire, we strongly recommend you to purchase a helmet for your son because the helmet is almost like an insurance of your son’s safety. Unlike drivers who are well-protected by their four-wheels vehicle (needless to talk about the seat belts and the trustworthy airbag, huh?) cyclists are much more vulnerable in general and are fatally more susceptible to crashes, considering the scarce protection that the bicycle offers to its user. Cyclists must, therefore, at least equip a helmet and are recommended to equip additional armors of such (like a knee/elbow pad) to safeguard themselves. According to helmets.org, “it is estimated that 75 percent of cycling-related casualties among children could had been prevented with a bicycle helmet.” In addition, wearing helmets can provide a 66% to 88% of reduction in risks of moderate head, brain and serious brain injuries in cyclists across all ages. Helmets also provide an equal degree of physical protection for crashes involving motorcycles (69%), and crashes due to the other causes (68%). Lastly, risks of injuries at the upper and middle facial areas are reduced by 65%. Note that the importance of staying hydrated during a ride is as important as in other sports. As for how and when to hydrate during a ride, some experts suggested that for best absorption, before riding, a person should drink a total of 12 to 16 ounces of water 4 hours before the ride, and sip 12 more ounces around 2 hours before the ride. When a person is riding, he should take the intensity of cycling as well as weather temperature into consideration when he decides on how much water to drink. A 150-pound cyclist proposed a person should drink about 16 ounces of water in every hour, in a cold day, and as much as 64 ounces of water should he ride in an extremely hot day. All in all, water consumption is dependent on the cyclist’s body conditions.
Q4: Hi Cycleline. My question is straightforward: what health benefits do I gain from cycling and what muscles are worked out during a ride? Please be specific. Much appreciation. A: Hello! Cycling can strengthen a number of muscles. The primary muscles that are trained are leg muscles, especially the quadriceps, then the hamstrings and the gluteus muscles. Cycling also fosters a person to develop a strong and nicelooking abdominus to counteract the reaction force generated through pedaling, according to David Heatley, our cycling coach. In addition to the abdominus muscles, secondary muscles in the back and the arms are strengthened, too, because they are constantly being used to stabilize the bike. Recently, a 20-year study led by the Copenhagen’s Bispebjerg University Hospital offered an encouraging suggestion: women who cycled every day at a strenuous pace lived, on average, 3.9 years longer than those who biked at a slower pace and those that are too lazy to move. Lastly, cycling can greatly transform a person’s poor appetite. Steady cycling, which is between 17 and 19 kilometers an hour, can enhance the functioning state of metabolism as well as building energy-craving lean muscles. Cycling Enthusiast David Giles Smiles About His New Discovery In The Wild
Cycling is a healthy and relaxing sport, and its flexibility allows it to be easily fit into a person’s busy routine without causing too much conflict. This popular sport doesn’t require a fit body and a lot of technical skills to master. The learning process is extremely simple: hop on it, grab the handle grips and pedal your way forward. Cycling is then, without a doubt, something that one can participate from childhood to an older age. Bury in mind that in order to obtain the maximum health benefits, a person must cycle regularly over a course of long period.
What’s the Matter?
Drink WATER! By Chairin Oh
“W
e never learned this!” I blurted inside my head, sitting in the middle of a math test. Through my tangled and damaged memories, I tried to recall how to solve some questions. I engined my brain until the moment my teacher snatched my test paper away, full of blank answer boxes. “Gosh, that was easy,” someone shouted, cheerfully. I rushed and checked through my notes, and realized that it was a question that I definitely knew how to solve. OMG and RIP myself… but why couldn’t I remember it during the test?
MILLENNIAL-THING To start off, millennials are known to struggle with high levels of anxiety, depression and stress, more than any generations. There are a lot of problems that we care- grades, friends, relationships, physical appearances, etc. For those of you who wishes to “have a life” or “have a better life”, drum roll- and get ready for the TOP SECRET of how to live a better quality life *wink wink*. We, teenagers, all want to excel in high school. It might look as if it’s Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise at a sandstorm chase needs an oasis that would help him to cross the desert as well, just like you need a bottle of water in order to survive the desert of high school.
WATER MAKES YOU SMARTER “I keep forgetting things these days,” says Erik Crawford, a sophomore at Hong Kong International School. “Even if I study something hard, my memories of what I studied fade away just in few days.” I believe you have heard or spoken something similar to Erik’s story, at least once in your life. If we’re definitely not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s (which I hope not), then what is our problem? What would be a good solution to raise your ability to memorize or think?
“Brain cells require a delicate balance between water and various elements to operate, and when you lose too much water, that balance is disrupted,” says Joshua Gowin Ph.D. from Psychology Today, “your brain cells lose efficiency.” Your brain is extremely important because it conducts all thoughts and movements you make. Imbalanced brain causes a decrease in brain functions, which might cause you to make bad choices and fail in school. Let water help you with balancing your brain. Even mild dehydration can cause loss of brain electrical energy that signals all the brain functions. In other words, the amount of water you drink can determine your ability to think, recall or memorize. Dr. Caroline Edmonds, a research Psychologist lead a study: including thirty- four subjects be tested on a computer based assessment that measures a variety of mental abilities, including verbal skills, visual acuity, and learning. The subjects were asked to abstain food and water for a night. Dr. Edmonds’s study concludes, “Reaction times ran 14 percent shorter after drinking water. People with the greater cravings experienced a bigger mental lift after being rehydrated.” Drinking water will allow you to think and react faster. Cognitive brain functions can be raised just by drinking water, including your short and long term memories (Isn’t this a great tip for you? Especially if you’re about to take a biology unit test like me!)
Drinking water will allow you to think and react faster TIME
February 14, 2017
DRINK WATER, BE GOOD LOOKING All teens have one thing in common- we want to look nice in front of our crush, or as a selfcontentment. We comb our hair regularly, exercise to make a good physical or put on makeup. Now, consider drinking water as another way to be pretty or handsome. Dr. Jodi D Stookey, a member of Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, conducted an experiment to study the relationship between drinking water and weight loss. Their experiment was of 173 overweight women being measured on their body weight 2, 6, and 12 months after they started drinking a liter more of water (than usual) in a day. The results were surprising. “Over 12 months, the average weight loss associated with drinking over 1L per day was 2.3 kg (all diet groups combined),” says Dr. Stookey. Drinking water not only increases the number of calories you burn but also it helps you to have a clear skin. An anonymous writer from Realself is a lady who had been struggling with acnes for 10 years. She came across with a true story, about a woman who transformed her skin by drinking 6 to 8 glasses of water each day. “My skin did a complete turnaround,” she says amazedly after trying the same method. Still pleased by the miracle, she is grateful of the astonishing effects of water.
WATER GIVES YOU ENERGY An organization founded by Lady Gaga, Born This Way Foundation, suggests that among 22,000 high school students across the USA 39%
stated that they were “tired” at school, 29% “stressed” and 26% “bored”. Solution to this? You may have guessed…that’s right, drink water! My average bedtime is 5 hours. Why? Homework and tests are the main causes (only if I don’t include Facebook). Whenever I wake up the next morning, I would hate myself from sleeping late last night because my body would start aching and I would have trouble focusing on my work. Would caffeine be a good solution for me? NO!! Water?? YESSS. Amy Howard, a student of International School in Bangkok, “I drink water when I am exhausted, for example in soccer practices. This really gives me the energy to recover.” Amy is an athlete who participates in a soccer team, practicing 3 days a week. “I was always dizzy,” she says, “my coach had to send me down to the nurse on every single practice day because I couldn’t stand still on my feet.” She was about to quit soccer. Day by day, she lost interest staring at the white ceiling in the nurse’s office instead of playing soccer with her teammates.“But then, someone recommended me to drink more water.” Drinking water before and after exercising is important because it fills up the fluid inside your body that you wasted while you were sweating. The more the water Amy drank, the more the hours she
could participate in practicing soccer. Although I keep saying water gives you energy, it’s not true. You need water to convert food or body fat into energy. Don’t mix up because water has no calories (which also means you don’t get fat from drinking water, yay!).
DRINK, DRINK, DRINK, WATER! To prevent loss of cognitive functions, good appearance, and energy, you should drink 8 glasses of water a day. If it’s really just hard to drink 8 cups a day, (for those of you who think drinking water is just boring) try eating fruits that contain plenty of water such as watermelon, coconut, strawberry, or grapefruit. Even Beyoncé is a huge fan of drinking water. She said, “I try to take care of myself, drinking at least a gallon of water with lemon a day.” Teens, you should realize the TOP SECRET surviving high school is DRINKING WATER. No matter where you go, what you do, always have a bottle of water next to you and DRINK. Water should be an oasis for your dry high school life, indeed.
February 14, 2017
TIME
Sleeping Through School High school... makes you cry, why? Because you will get less than 8 hours of sleep per night, and you will slowly die in piles upon piles of homework. And after you overcome that, guess what, you will have 20 gazillion other reasons why you can’t sleep, ok maybe like 3 or 4, BUT STILL! One day you will be sitting in your math class and feel like there is an overly muscular man trying to pull your eyelids down. No scratch that, two overly muscular men, like I’m talking Arnold Schwarzenegger level of muscles, that's how bad it is. And if you're thinking to yourself, “Oh whatever, I'm a good student, I'll just sleep early.” Well, enjoy MSH, because no teacher would ever let you do that. (Just kidding, we love you! <3)
Homework, tests and hell: Students have a tendency of blaming teachers for everything related to their sleep habits, but honestly, it's not all their fault, it's just 99.99% their fault (don’t let your teachers read this, they will kill us all). So why do we blame them for the failures of my life? Because of the amount of homework and tests they give. The average kid spends 3.5 hours doing homework every day, and if you combine the extra 3 hours of procrastination and the hour of crying they do because of the homework, you get 7.5 hours. That's the whole DAY. Ok, to be fair I might be exaggerating, but a wise teachers paper handout once told me that a good article requires exaggeration.
“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” - Thomas Dekker I love you Electronics: Sleeping habits of Losers: There are two types of students in this world, one goes home and does all his/her homework right away, and then they will enjoy the rest of their lives. The second type is the student that will go home, look at his math homework, cry a little and then watch youtube videos or Facebook or maybe go on myspace (no offense, if you go on myspace you need a life). The first student will probably end up getting more than eight hours of sleep, but the second will probably get under eight, and let's be honest here every single person who is reading this is probably the second type of students. The average student only gets between 7 to 7 and a half hours of sleep per night, according to scientists students should be sleeping between 9 and 9 and a half hours per night to learn effectively. And trust me, you want to learn, if you don’t, enjoy the F! Also you may get sick… scientist at Harvard University claim that a lack of sleep leave you more vulnerable to a number of diseases.
Ah, electronics, the light at the end of the tunnel (literally). I don’t know whether to hate on them first or to write a love note to them. I mean they are great, how else would you talk to people, in person? HAH funny, why would you do that when you have SKYPE. How else would you enjoy a heartfelt conversation about Donald Trump, you couldn’t possibly explain all your feelings without those amazing emoji. But on a serious note, although they are the best thing ever invented by the human race, they will also be the downfall of every single student on earth. Studies show that using electronics before bed can keep you awake. The artificial light from electronics sends a signal to our brain that disrupts the circadian rhythms, which is centered in a region of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Basically, we got screwed by our ancestors, to put it simply, when you see light, your brain thinks it’s daytime. When you are in the dark, your brain says, time for sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
February 6, 2017
TAMING TIME Taking Control of Sour Schedule for a More Healthy, Active, Balanced Lifestyle WORDS: STONE MANNIKKO
In a world that seemed distant, and a time that wasn’t too far away, one man decided to challenge the holds of time, and came out triumphant. This man was me, and I want to share my story so you can begin to tame your time schedule and truly live the healthy, active, and balanced lifestyle you deserve. Before I had reworked my schedule and cleaned out the bad habits of my life I was living my days one stress-induced-step at a time. I never really used a schedule, rather I always tried to do what I wanted to do now and never think about what I needed to do in the future.
before I nearly pass out from exhaustion, and then have to wake up early into the morning to start it all over again. From this I couldn’t concentrate properly and always needed to be told twice what was going on. I had clubs I joined that went everyday after school, taking most of the time I believed I had to only leave very little left. I always was stressed, because I felt like my projects kept jumping me and I could never finish them on time. Trying to alleviate this stress, I hang out with my friends only to find that I have less time to work on it and so I work until it’s 1 or 2 in the morning. That was how my day usually went.
I would always try to hang out with my friends when I can, I had joined three different clubs and had worked long into the night
Sleep
Focus
of your time doing anything other than what you’re meant to do until you have to drag yourself into the long hours of the night. This causes me and many of my friends (I’m sure that can be the case for many of you) a lot more tired and even more stressed. Sleep was always a big issue for me and so I decided to research how I could improve it. According to Jerome Williams, a well respected scientist and researcher of sleep,
We all know how it goes, you accidentally spend too much Stone Mannikko
Feb 2017
“Tribes with no alarm clocks sleep for about 7 hours on average this must be the aimed average for all wishing for a proper amount of sleep.” He states in his interview with Caroline Williams. “The most important thing for teenagers, or anyone really, is the proper amount of sleep, where the lack of can lead to depression, fatigue and other mental and physical problems.” Students nowadays see sleep as something that should be a reward for good work and finishing homework, but if there is one thing you should learn from this article is that sleep should never be a reward. Exercise Who else forgets (or avoids) exercise, go on raise your hands. Now put your hands down, I can’t actually see. I only ever exercised when I had sport, or my parents had me leave the house. I didn’t feel like I really needed to, until I saw the informational video 23 and ½ hours by Nick De Pencier, a medical doctor, about the necessity of exercise and how it can improve your overall health. He says in his video, “Doing only 30 minutes of light workout, like walking, everyday, you can improve your overall health and prevent illnesses
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both mental and physical. In fact, you could be something like walking your dog or just walking
February 6, 2017
“SLEEP IS NOT A REWARD” to work.” I took his advice and started walking my dog every day for 30 minutes. I even double checked how much walking my dog should get from the petmd.com. Meditation I, like many of you I bet, wondered a lot about my level of stress, despite the many claims of my research to get rid of it, and wondered how I could lower it further. As it turns out according to Dan Merkur, a Psychoanalyst, “Continued practice of meditation can be very relaxing and help reduce the amount of daily stress one has.” I couldn’t find a specific time for meditation, but I have experimented a little myself and found that I can last about 30 minutes before accidentally falling asleep (you should try your own experiments since everyone’s different, if nothing else it was a great nap). From a different article by Traditional Chinese Medicine, (TCM), mentions that “Meditation isn’t specifically sitting crossed legged, but something that helps you control your breathing and limits movement. Meditation could be anything from fishing to reading or even just sitting on a park bench, as long as it helps you focus on your breathing.” So I’ve been working on meditation by Stone Mannikko
reading for 30 minutes in a comfortable position. My New Schedule In my new schedule I tried to implement everything I learned from the researchers into a plan for my own schedule. For the first few days it was tough, I had to rewrite and rethink my schedule constantly. until one day, I felt I finally had it, but I didn’t. Honestly my schedule changes constantly with the day, but only four things remain; I always go to school (for obvious reasons), I always walk my dog for 30 minutes, I always try to meditate (by at least reading) for 30 minutes and always try to sleep for 7 hours (that one, sadly, still fluctuates with current tiredness). From this ‘consistency’ I could already feel my mood and energy increase, I laugh harder and are more excited to do things I always wanted to do. So I did lie a little about how I tamed time, it’s more like I have coffee with it. Try your own schedules and find different ways for you to spend some time with, uh… time.
Feb 2017