Let's Help Our Kids De-Stress

It is constantly amazing to me the incredible relationship the body and the mind have on overall well-being.  I look at my children and reflect on my childhood and recognize the incredible role that parents have, with regard to influencing, the future mental health of their children.  A recent study has now concluded that “early abuse may be more damaging to developing emotion and stress systems because it happens as the brain is rapidly developing and when children are more dependent on caregivers’ protection”.  Basically, what this means is that the manner in which cortisol, the stress hormone, is released as a young child can affect stress levels in latter life. 

Additionally, exposure to high levels of stress early in life can cause health problems in adulthood.  Studies have noted a correlation between cardiac disease and early childhood stress and future studies are looking to understand the long term affect of early exposure to stress. Children whom have survived pediatric cancers also seem to be at greater risk for high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of which predispose them to heart disease in adulthood.

Many of these examples of stress in children may be beyond our control, but it leads me to think that we need to introduce stress management techniques and cognitive behavioral therapies to our young people sooner rather than later.