3 Steps To More Active & Healthier Kids.

The Most Important Principles For Staying Young: 

3 Steps To More Active & Healthier Kids

Dr. Michael F. Roizen

Co-Author of 4 #1 NY Times Bestsellers including: YOU Staying Young.

The Owner’s Manual For Extending Your Warranty (Free Press)

Our basic premise is that your body is amazing:  You get a do over: it doesn’t take that long, and it isn’t that hard if you know what to do.  In these notes, we give you a short course in what to do so it becomes easy for you, and for you to teach others. We want you to know how much control you have over your quality and length of life.

Believe it or not, in the United States only 6% of middle and high schools provide daily physical education (PE) for everyone, and 20% of elementary schools have abolished PE altogether.

We want everyone to realize physical education reduces stress and calms kids, making them happier and more attentive in the classroom. Physically fit kids are more likely to skip risky behaviors. PE is also the best way to battle obesity (30% of all teens) and type 2 diabetes (21% more kids have type 2 now than in 2001), which threaten children’s heart health even while they’re young.

Now, the summer is a great time to start a year-round plan for getting your kids active. You’ll establish habits for life-long good health.

Step One: Get yourself off the sofa and away from the computer! Active parents have kids who are 5 to 6 times more physical than children of couch-potatoes.

Step Two: Plan all-season family activities: Walk for 45 minutes after dinner; take kids to a swim club twice a week; go on weekend hikes; garden or do tasks around the yard!

Step Three: Make it a community effort. Call teachers, neighbors, and the parents of your kids’ friends. Even if your kids go to a private school, the health of your community may depend on it.  Plan activities together, and lobby that school board to get PE back into your school!

Thanks for reading,

Young Dr Mike

NOTE: You should NOT take this as medical advice. 

This article is of the opinion of its author.

Before you do anything, please consult with your doctor.

You can follow Dr Roizen  (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories  of the week) on twitter @YoungDrMike. 

Feel free to continue to send questions to youdocs@gmail.com. You can follow Dr Roizen on twitter @YoungDrMike (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories of the week).  The YOU docs have a new web site: YOUBeauty.com  and its companion BeautySage.com the only site we know of where you can find skin products proven to meet the claims (opened for business on June 1st, 2012), and a new book: YOU: The Owner’s Manual for Teens.

Michael F. Roizen, M.D., is chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. His radio show streams live on http://www.healthradio.net  Saturdays from 5-7 p.m . E-mail him questions at YouDocs@gmail.com.   He is the co-author of 4 #1 NY Times Best Sellers including : YOU Staying Young and YOU: The Owner’s Manual. He is Chief Medical Consultant to the two year running Emmy award winning Dr Oz show– The Dr Oz show is #2 nationally in daytime TV.  See what all the fun is about, and what he, The Enforcer, is up to. Check local listings or log onto DoctorOz.com for channel and time. And for more health info, log onto youbeauty.com anytime.