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6A Daily News – Tuesday, August 28, 2012 Vitalityfitness health By Nancy Churnin The Dallas Morning News (MCT) To what extent does the competition and pressure heaped on today's kids help or hurt them? asked again and again of late — and not just by par- ents preparing their children to go back to school. In 2007, an attorney and The question has been first-time filmmaker, Vicki Abeles, based in San Fran- cisco, crafted a documen- tary, "Race to Nowhere," in response to concern at see- ing her 12-year-old daugh- ter suffer panic attacks and a stress-induced illness in the face of nonstop academic pressure. MCT photo Dana Bedden, from left, with his daughter's friend Olivia Boyd, 7, Dana's daughter Diana Bedden, 7, and Diana's mother Ava Bedden, as the family prays with their daughter Diana and her friend during a sleep over. In a 2010 article for Psy- chology Today, Dr. Peter Gray, professor emeritus at Boston College and author of the widely used "Psy- chology" textbook, suggest- ed a connection between the dramatic rise of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with the decline in play and rise in school- ing. Last year, Dr. Deborah Stipek, dean of the school of education at Stanford, wrote an editorial in Science describing the cheating and lack of joy in learning she sees in high school students, a problem she blames on the pressures they face. In an effort to help navi- gate these challenges, The Dallas Morning News con- vened a panel of five local experts who work with chil- dren and young adults for its 360 Series. The panel, "Competition at a Young Age: Are Our Children Under Too Much Pres- sure?," took place Aug. 8 at the Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas. These experts empha- sized the role that parents can play in helping their children become more resilient. er, a family and parenting coach and self-published author of "Simple But NOT Easy: Regaining Balance in Our Family Life," found the timing particularly apt amid the Olympic broadcasts, with their reverential pre- sentations of winners on podiums, gold medals glis- tening around their necks. The key question for a child to answer, she says, is: "Is it for others' sake or because it satisfies some- thing in me?" If children measure their worth in how much they please others, when they fail to please — by flunking a test, by losing a game, by a rejection for a coveted program or school — they may feel worthless, Fischer said. Too often, kids have trouble distinguishing their ambitions from those their parents set for them, said panelist Dr. Sarah Feuer- bacher, who serves as clinic director of the family coun- seling center at Southern Methodist University. Par- ents may think they are being supportive by cheer- ing their kids at every game, but that's not always what their child wants. Panelist Kathleen Fisch- "I had a teenager coming 1010 Jefferson St., Red Bluff 527-7800 Complete Dental Care • Cosmetic Dentistry • Adults And Children • New Patients Warmly Welcomed! www.MooreandPascarella.com Childbirth Class Community Basic Life Support 6:00pm-10:00pm 9/11 Columba 529-8026 Waterbirth Class Diabetic Education Grief Support Group Books Are Fun Cardiac Support Group 6:30pm-8:30pm 9/6 Columba 529-8026 6:00pm-8:30pm 9/10 Columba 527-5077 6:30pm-8:30pm 9/12 Columba 529-8026 5:30pm-9:30pm 9/19 Columba 529-8026 3:00pm-5:00pm Thursdays Coyne Center 528-4207 10:00am-5:00pm 9/20 7:00am-2:00pm 9/21 Main hallway of the hospital www.redbluff.mercy.org 736-1326 in, and every week he talked about how he had to go to another football tryout even though he didn't know if that's what he wanted to do," she said. "He said, 'My mom doesn't see who I am.' I ended up seeing the mom, too." There will always be some issues parents and kids can't fix. Ava Greene Bedden, & Are children under too much pressure? 6 steps to finding the best health info online By Kristen Gerencher MarketWatch (MCT) SAN FRANCISCO — Use the Internet to find health information? You're far from alone, and there are several rules of the road to help make the most of what you find. Disease Control hhttp://www.cdc.gov/ and the National Library of Medicine htttp://www.nlm.nih.gov /, which also hosts Clin- icalTrials.gov. Nearly 60 percent of U.S. adults look for health information online, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project in Washing- ton. And one-quarter of U.S. adults have Communication is vital, and parents need to encour- age kids to speak up. "We need to teach our children to say, 'I love you, but I don't love this sport.' It's very important for me to allow my children to have their own voice, to be safe and to be loved no matter what," Feuerbacher said. They also need to be attorney and wife of panelist and Irving schools Superin- tendent Dr. Dana Bedden, said that her son, Daniel Davenport, now 17, was frustrated because he could- n't wrest the first-chair seat away from an even better saxophone player at his school. The Beddens invest- ed in a better instrument and private instruction from a top teacher at Daniel's request, but nothing bridged the gap. shown respect when they struggle, said panelist Beth Van Duyne, mayor of Irv- ing. One of the worst things a parent can say to a child who struggles with a partic- ular subject in school or an activity is "try harder," because that suggests that they are not already trying their best, she said. Consequently, when her someone else's writing about their medical issues in a blog or on a website. read daughter, Katie, 13, usually an A student, struggled with algebra, Van Duyne tried to figure out why she was hav- ing difficulty. Ultimately, the problem was solved by a tutor who was able to explain the concepts in a way that her daughter could understand. Daniel eventually learned to accept this with- out losing his love of music, in which he will minor at the University of North Car- olina at Chapel Hill this fall. Dr. Thomas Sanders, who has a doctorate in childhood education, is a program director in Christ- ian education at Dallas Bap- tist University. He talked about how communication cannot occur in a vacuum. That's why he set aside every Thursday morning for a one-on-one breakfast with his son when he was grow- ing up. It wasn't important what they talked about or even if they talked at all; they both looked forward to that time together, he said. redbluff.mercy.org www.redbluff.mercy.org More than 95 million Americans visited web- sites related to health, fitness and nutrition in June, according to Nielsen. That's more than two out of five peo- ple who were active online that month. WebMD Health Network led the way with 24.6 million unique U.S. users, followed by Everyday Health, Yahoo! Health sites, Livestrong.com and About.com Health, Nielsen found. Smith suggests start- ing with commercial sites and broadening from there. "It doesn't mean it's a bad website. It just means the buyer needs to beware. The information on those sites can be extraordi- narily good information. But don't stop there." Check the date on the information listed to make sure it's current and whether it's peer- reviewed by physicians or other experts. Here are six questions to ask yourself when searching for online health information: 1. Are you going to multiple sites and not just stopping at one commercial site, such as the drug manufacturer's website, for your infor- mation? Compare multi- ple sources, suggests Joanna Smith, president of Healthcare Liaison, a health-care advocacy outfit in Berkeley, Calif. A mix of government- funded and advertising- supported sites may help you get a more balanced picture. Government sites such as the Nation- al Institutes of Health http://www.nih.gov/ can offer you information about traditional West- ern medical approaches as well as complemen- tary and alternative med- icine. Other publicly funded sites include those of the Centers for 2. Do you winnow your printed material down to a manageable load before you present it to your doctor? Try to arrive with a synopsis of your research and a few targeted questions. 3. Are you working with a doctor or clinical team that's open to dis- cussing what you find online? Some health- care providers aren't receptive to patients who do their own research, Smith says. If the stylis- tic match between doc- tor and patient isn't a good fit, it may be time to find a new physician. "You can do great research, but if you don't have a provider who wants to do that kind of participatory medicine you're not go to get very far with it," she says. 4. Have you browsed the websites of national nonprofit organizations dedicated to your condi- tion? Groups such as the American Heart Associ- ation, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, Arthritis Foundation and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society offer many patient guides and sup- port tools. Local chap- ters may offer peer sup- port groups as well. ACOR.org, short for Association of Cancer Online Resources, is a free collection of 127 different online cancer communities. 5. Have you over- looked patients' experi- ence close to home in favor of online groups? Standards of medical treatment vary widely across the country, so if you're considering hav- ing an invasive dure or surgery, ask your doctor to connect you with patients in his or her practice who have chosen that option. Once your doctor obtains their permission to be con- tacted, patients are often forthcoming about the outcomes they had and how they weighed the decision based on their particular health histo- ries. proce- buddy system? No mat- ter how much online information you've mined, it's a good idea to bring a trusted family member of friend with you to your medical appointments to help you ask the right ques- tions and take notes. It's easy to be overwhelmed when you're not feeling well and a large amount of information exchange is compressed into a short office visit. 6. Are you using the