Allie’s Comments

White flakes invade your hair and skin. The flakes fall on your clothes and the color pops when you wear black. If you have dark hair you notice little white flakes all over and try to brush them out. Head and Shoulders shampoo is recommended to you from all of your friends. It does not work very well though. You may feel subconscious because you just don’t understand why you have to deal with dandruff.

Hopefully, the problem is soon to be solved. Scientists have been working for five years, trying to figure out how to stop dandruff. They have now solved the puzzle to what causes it and too what will stop it. Because of this discovery shampoo companies will be able to include medicine to kill the fungus that causes dandruff.

With those of you with a dandruff problem, don’t worry for long. The problem now has a solution. The fungus can be killed.

Thousands of people die every year from a lack of physical activity.

In the high schools I attended there was only one semester of a physical education class required. Only one semester of my life was I forced to do physical activities in my high school. I remember my peers and I dreaded going to P.E. class because we had to run the mile that day or because we had to play volleyball and we were not very good at it. However, with the obesity epidemic spreading throughout the United States, I think there needs to be a change. Physical education needs to be promoted more, to both young people and adults, than ever before.

An estimated 65 percent of Americans are overweight and obese. This makes me very concerned.

A new program encourages U.S. physicians to prescribe exercise as a medicine to patients, as a way to treat and prevent illness.

Many people go to the doctor and become dependent on the prescription drugs they are prescribed too. They think that just because they are taking a medicine for diabetes that they can continue their daily habits. However, this assumption is very false. To beat the illness, you must change both your eating habits and your daily exercise routines. There are many diseases out there that a short exercise, five times a week can help cure: diabetes, high-blood pressure, cholesterol problems and hypertension.

However, exercise does not only help cure physical diseases but mental ones too. Exercise can help relieve stress, calm anxiety and raise self-esteem. Exercise can be used as a tool to make you feel better about yourself and your current situations. When you do go on a 30-minute walk, you release endorphins that make you feel happy. You just took a little time out of your day, and it already started to help. The best part of it all is that you did not have to pay out a whole bunch of money to see a doctor. Exercise is free.

Exercise is the cheapest and most convenient medicine to take. We should all start taking a dose a day.

Reflection of “Exercise is Medicine” with Kara LaRue

Many people in our country are fortunate to have minds that work well and healthy bodies. People with two arms and two legs seem normally to be ignorant and blessed individuals. They can run, swim and swiftly move on their feet. They can play basketball, football, and tennis. These are usually the jocks or popular kids in high school, because they are involved. They have endless athletic possibilities.

However, how about those who aren’t that blessed? How about the individuals who are slow or need to be in wheelchairs? What do they do?

Activist Rick Splitter, is working on getting a law passed, that would have schools include sports teams for disabled students. Not just participation types of things, but true athletic sports, where disabled individuals compete, travel and earn letters, just like other athletic teams.

When I first thought of this idea, I thought about the humility the disabled students could go through, and I did not think it was the wisest idea. However, as I continued doing research on it, I began to realize that the idea is full of brilliance. The Special Olympics was created to help create self-confidence, social skills and personal accomplishment through sports competition. If Special Olympic sports are around, why would we not provide the opportunity for students in college, high school or junior high to become high-esteemed young people?

I became excited about the law, as I thought about the students becoming involved and participating just like their peers. I think the idea of allowing disabled sports teams can do great things for disabled individuals’ self-esteem. It also could have a positive impact on their future.

In the United States it’s essential to make money in order to survive. The philosophy in this country is basically to work, work, work, spend money and work some more. It is a cycle that has not improved, but that has actually worsened the last 20 years.

We need money for school, clothes, and recreation. We even need money for gas to get to work in order to make money. Everything essential in life costs money.

Money causes pressure. Pressure causes stress. Stress can often cause depression, and sometimes depression can lead to suicide.

Money issues are one of the most strenuous time periods. How are we going to pay the mortgage? It’s alarming when people are concerned about becoming homeless because they are short on cash. It seems like these circumstances are happening more and more.

Imagine the stress and the fear that you would experience if you lost your job and thought that you might lose your house. It’s scary. I don’t know, maybe you are having money problems right now. Maybe the stress of earning money is flooding your mind with negativity and darkness. If you feel this way please seek help immediately. I want to tell you that money is not everything. Search for someone to help you. You may have to work more hours, but there is always a way out.

Often times I talk about how obesity causes low self-esteem. However, many times low self-esteem causes obesity. Many people are emotional eaters. They eat when they feel sad, depressed, stressed or angry. Perhaps the individual is young and have a little bit of baby fat on them, but someone calls them Fatty Cathy. This could cause them to eat more. The more he or she eats, the more weight he or she gains, the more people make fun of him or her and then they have lower self-esteem and continue to eat for comfort.

It is a very sad process that many people go through. It is most common to start the process as a toddler, pre-teen or teenager. It is no doubt that obesity has become an epidemic in the United States.

In England there is a device called the mandometer. The device talks and encourages one to eat slowly. Maybe they should bring this into the United States. However, the problem is if a person has low self-esteem, and the low esteem is causing him or her to eat does this device fix the problem?

There is also a new video game that is supposed to turn your frown upside down. The video game has you find smiley faces. The goal of the game is to help your mind make a habit of thinking positively. However, what if your obesity has caused your low self-esteem? Does sitting in front of a television help the problem?

Everyday, experts are trying to come up with a solution to comfort eating problems and also low self-esteem issues. Do you have any solutions, advice or ideas to fixing the problems?

I look forward to your comments on this issue.

Everyone goes through stressful times. It seems to have become a major problem in the United States. School, work, and personal lives are just too many balls to juggle with. Stress can cause major health problems. It often leads to heart attacks or mental breakdowns. In other words, it affects us both physically and mentally.

Recently, the wives of the 2008 presidential hopefuls got together and chatted about how life was going. These ladies have many duties. They are wives, many are mothers and a couple of them a struggling with health issues. The ladies are also trying to support their husband, while the election process is going on. Also they are under the spotlight of the media. The wives are so busy that sometimes they forget to take care of themselves.

I must stress on how important it is for you to take care of you. Everyone has things they need to get done, but don’t forget that your body and mind need constant care in order to work well. When stressed it is so easy to not put on makeup in the morning, or where sweatpants in public, or forget to take your vitamins. Being stressed can cause a major possibility of having low self-esteem. Please, no matter how much you have to get done in a day try your best to take 30 minutes for yourself. Your body and mind will greatly appreciate it.

My father shared a thought with me the other day.

“When one sees a mountain, he must decide to either climb it or stay in the valley and dream about it.”

-Ronald Fair

I thought about this for a whole day. There are times where I talk about doing things, but never do them. There are times where I could climb the mountain, but am too lazy. However, every mountain we have the opportunity to climb, I think we should. Keep trying and trying, if you don’t get to the top one way you will climb to the top another way. Life is way too short to stay in the valley, looking up at the mountain and wondering what it is like up there. Let’s all climb the mountain to its highest peak, and then look down at our accomplishments.

A friend of mine sent me an article yesterday on short people. He or she sent the article as a joke to make fun of my height. I personally am only 5 feet 2 inches tall, and I will admit at times I have low self-esteem about my height. I feel like everyone around me has longer legs, a longer torso and nicer hips. When I was a teenager I used to beg my parents to find a way to make me grow. I hated being shorter than everyone in my class. However, it just was not possible. My parents used to try to encourage me by saying things like, “You still have two eyes, two hands and two legs, be grateful you’re healthy.”

In the last few years I have learned to be happy with my height. There are many people who are short. But, just because you’re short it doesn’t mean you are less capable of success. Sure, you might not get to be in the NBA, but there are many other areas that you can succeed in. The best advice I can give you is to feel comfortable with your height. Shortly after you do you will stop realizing people’s heights and look into their hearts. This way us short people can prove the article wrong; just because we are short does not mean we have a chip on our shoulder. Be positive this week, think healthy and be healthy. And of course encourage others around you.

As much as I want you to be confident and believe in yourself, I don’t want you to be overly confident. Please don’t walk around nude in New York, because you may end up in the nearest hospital being evaluated.

When I say to be confident, I just want you to be comfortable and happy with yourself.

When I say the word school and education what do you think of?

Do you think of HIV/AIDS, diet, exercise, teen pregnancy and illegal drug and alcohol abuse?

I personally don’t. However, it seems schools are becoming more and more involved in educating students on these subjects.

Recently, a young girl or preteen got sent home a health notice from her school saying that she was overweight.

A school in the Virgin Islands is having students write haiku poetry about these types of subjects.

This type of education I think belongs to the parents. This is kind of like parents using the television as a babysitter. Now parents are going to let the schools parent their kids.

First of all I highly doubt that a teacher, even with a health degree, should teach a student about diet. First of all a health degree does not mean you are a guru on diet. Secondly, the teacher does not know the circumstances at home.

I also thought that Flaurette Martinez had a good point saying that her daughter reading that, or perhaps another student getting a hold of that could have consequences to her daughter’s self-esteem.

HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy and illegal drug and alcohol abuse are serious subjects.
If the school talks poorly about teens being pregnant, they could say it in front of a teen that is pregnant and then that teen might not end up telling anyone about her circumstances. This could result in major harm, to her and the baby. Or perhaps, one of the students has HIV from one of his or her parents. There are so many things that can go wrong with educating students on these subjects and not knowing their circumstances at home.

In my opinion it is the parent’s responsibility to tell their kids about these topics. It would be so nice to be able to hand over these serious subjects to the school and not have to worry about it. However, with each student having different parents and different levels of esteem I think it could be dangerous to let schools educate students on these topics.
We must handle each child, preteen and teenager with great care. What we tell them now, will affect what they do and how they feel in the future.