Can I lower my blood pressure without taking medication?

Posted June 28, 2013, 2:00 am

My blood pressure medication has side effects that are difficult to tolerate. What else can I do to lower my BP?

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ve heard me say more than once that diet and exercise sometimes can eliminate the need for medications for a variety of conditions. That’s true — and it surely is true for high blood pressure.

However, sometimes diet, exercise and stress management lower blood pressure only part of the way. Medications may still be necessary. Every medicine ever invented can cause side effects in some people. But the other side of that coin is that medicines often do not cause side effects. And just because one medicine causes side effects does not mean that another will.

Fortunately, there are many different medicines to treat high blood pressure. In my experience, you can usually find a blood pressure medication that is both effective and free of side effects. But even when that’s true, it’s still important to get back to basics: a healthy lifestyle.

A healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone for preventing and treating hypertension. It may allow you to lower your medication dose or stop taking medication altogether. At the very least, you’ll feel better:

First and foremost, if you smoke, quit. Your blood pressure will start to decrease within hours after your last cigarette. Your doctor can recommend resources to help you quit.Another important step is to reach and maintain a healthy body weight. Being overweight or obese itself raises your blood pressure.Even if you don’t need to lose weight, eating the right foods can make a difference. The key features of a blood-pressure-friendly diet include plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains; several servings daily of low-fat dairy products; some fish, poultry, dried beans, nuts and seeds; and minimal red meat, sweets and sugar-laden beverages. Also try to limit your sodium intake to less than 1.5 grams of sodium per day. You can find the sodium content of prepared foods on the Nutrition Facts label.Limiting alcohol can help. Have no more than two drinks per day if you’re male, or one drink per day if you’re female. That’s drinking in moderation. Drinking in moderation may even help lower blood pressure, while drinking more can definitely raise blood pressure.Regular exercise lowers high blood pressure. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise on all or most days of the week. Examples include walking or riding a stationary bike. Regular exercise is a potent tonic for lowering your blood pressure — even if you don’t lose weight.Finally, relax. Ongoing stress raises your blood pressure. Learn relaxation techniques, such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing or yoga. I have a patient who took up tai chi several years ago and does it daily. I can’t prove there’s a connection, but I can tell you that her blood pressure has never been so low, and she says she feels great. window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "199616670120169", status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true});}; (function() { var e = document.createElement("script"); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; document.getElementById("fb-root").appendChild(e);}());

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Want Tots Without Allergies? Try Sucking on Their Pacifiers

Study suggests transferring adult bacteria to infants' mouths through saliva may train immune system to ignore allergens

By Barbara Bronson Gray

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- A new Swedish study suggests that parents who want to protect their infants from developing allergies should try a simple approach to introducing their children to the wide world of microbes: Just pop their pacifiers into their own mouths before giving them back to their babies.

Although that may sound disgusting or even risky to some, researchers found that the transfer of oral bacteria from adults to infants seems to help train the immune system to ignore germs that don't pose a threat.

"The immune system's purpose is to differentiate between harmless and harmful," said Dr. Ron Ferdman, a pediatric allergist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "If your immune system is not presented with enough microbes, it just defaults to doing harmful attacks against things that are not harmful, like food, cat dander or dust mites."

A report released last week from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics showed that the number of American children with allergies has increased dramatically in recent years: about 13 percent have skin allergies and 17 percent have respiratory allergies.

The Swedish researchers set out to learn whether very early microbial exposure during the first months of life affects allergy development. They found that children whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them were less likely to have asthma, eczema and sensitivity to allergens than children whose parents did not clean the pacifiers this way.

The authors concluded that parental sucking of their baby's pacifiers may help decrease the risk of allergy caused by transfer of microbes through the parent's saliva.

For the study, published online May 6 in the journal Pediatrics, 206 pregnant women in Sweden were initially recruited as participants, and 187 of their infants were included in the research. The scientists sought families with at least one allergic parent to see if they could identify a different immune response in the children.

The researchers studied the transfer of microbes in the parents' saliva by fingerprinting bacterial DNA in 33 infants' saliva, of which 21 had parents who sucked on their pacifiers.

A total of 187 babies were followed until the child was 18 months old, and 174 were followed until they were 36 months old. The researchers chose to evaluate the children at those specific points in time because some diseases, such as eczema, develop early in life, said Dr. Bill Hesselmar, an associate professor at Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, in Gothenberg, Sweden.

Introducing solid foods into an infant's diet did not seem to affect the study results, Hesselmar said. "We found differences in the oral microbial flora already at 4 months of age, at an age when most children are still on breast milk."

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Mediterranean Diet Benefits Heart, Even Without Weight Loss: Study

Healthy eating helped men lower bad cholesterol

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Men at high risk for heart disease might reduce their "bad" cholesterol by eating a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, even if they don't lose weight, a small new study suggests.

The study included 19 men, aged 24 to 62, with metabolic syndrome, which means they had three or more major risk factors for heart disease and stroke. The risk factors among men in this study included large waist size, high blood pressure, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride and fasting glucose levels.

For the first five weeks of the study, the men ate a standard North American diet, which is high in fats, carbohydrates, refined sugar and red meat. For the second five weeks, they ate a Mediterranean diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains; low in red meat; and includes olive oil and moderate amounts of wine.

This was followed by a five-month weight-loss program, then another five weeks of a Mediterranean diet.

Regardless of whether they lost weight, the men had a 9 percent decrease in levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol when they ate a Mediterranean diet, according to the study, scheduled for presentation Wednesday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The Mediterranean diet "may be recommended for effective management of the metabolic syndrome and its related risk of cardiovascular disease," said lead study author Caroline Richard, a registered dietitian and doctoral candidate in nutrition at Laval University in Quebec, Canada. The study, however, showed only an association between a Mediterranean diet and lowered cholesterol, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings typically are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

View the original article here

FDA OKs Sale of 'Morning-After' Pill Without Age Limit

Girls of all ages will now have easier access to the emergency contraceptive

By EJ Mundell

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- The so-called morning-after pill is about to go over-the-counter, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcing Thursday that it has approved unrestricted sales of Plan B One-Step.

The move follows a decision earlier this month by the Obama administration to drop its effort to fight a court order that would make the emergency contraceptive pill available over-the-counter to all women and girls, regardless of age.

After fighting for an age threshold on the nonprescription use of the Plan B One-Step pill for months, the FDA said June 10 that it would heed the ruling of Judge Edward Korman, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The drug prevents conception if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse.

Korman first issued his order April 5, igniting a battle over whether young girls could gain access to emergency contraception without a prescription. Soon after, on April 30, the FDA lowered to 15 the age at which people could purchase the Plan B One-Step pill over-the-counter -- two years younger than the prior age limit of 17.

A day later, on May 1, the Obama administration stepped in to appeal the Korman decision.

At the time of the FDA's move to lower the age limit, agency Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said that "research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States.

"The data reviewed by the agency demonstrated that women 15 years of age and older were able to understand how Plan B One-Step works, how to use it properly and that it does not prevent the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease," she said.

Plan B prevents implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's uterus through the use of levonorgestrel, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone used for decades in birth control pills. Plan B contains 1.5 milligrams of levonorgestrel, more than the pill contains. It is considered a form of birth control, not abortion.

The Associated Press reported that the FDA's announcement Thursday only applied to Plan B One-Step. Other brands of emergency contraception include Next Choice and Ella.

Planned Parenthood has long pushed for wider access to emergency contraception. But conservative groups have objected to such a move.

View the original article here

New Procedure May Shrink Enlarged Prostate Without Surgery

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Men who need treatment for an enlarged prostate may soon have a new nonsurgical option, a small, early study suggests.

Called prostatic artery embolization (PAE), the technique uses a catheter threaded into an artery in the leg. The catheter is guided to the artery that supplies blood to the prostate. Then, tiny beads are injected into the artery, which temporarily block the blood supply to the prostate.

The temporary loss of blood supply causes the prostate to shrink, relieving symptoms, according to study lead author Dr. Sandeep Bagla. What's more, the new treatment doesn't appear to have the same risk of serious complications, such as incontinence and impotence, that often accompany enlarged prostate treatment.

"This is fantastic news for the average man with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Many men decline current treatments because of the risks. But, for the average man, PAE is a no-brainer," said Bagla, an interventional radiologist at Inova Alexandria Hospital, in Virginia.

The procedure has only been available as part of Bagla's trial until recently, but he said some interventional radiologists have started doing prostatic artery embolization, and he expects the procedure will become more widely available by the end of the year.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the medical term for an enlarged prostate. An enlarged prostate is very common as men get older. As many as half of all men in their 60s will have an enlarged prostate, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). By the time men are in their 70s and 80s, up to 90 percent have benign prostatic hyperplasia, according to the NIDDK.

Some men experience no symptoms, while others may feel the need to urinate frequently, but they have a weak urinary stream, the NIDDK says. There are a number of treatments available for benign prostatic hyperplasia, including medications and surgery.

Bagla said that interventional radiologists in Europe and South America have been using prostatic artery embolization, and that the current study is the first in the United States to test the procedure.

He and his colleagues hope to treat a total of 30 patients, but they're reporting on the results from the first 18 patients on Monday at the annual meeting of Society of Interventional Radiology, in New Orleans. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For the study, the average age of the patients who underwent prostatic artery embolization was 67 years. None of the men had to be admitted to the hospital after the procedure.

Ninety-four percent of the men (17 of 18) had a significant decrease in their symptoms one month after surgery. And, none reported any major complications following the surgery.

Bagla said the exact cost of the new procedure is difficult to estimate right now, but prostatic artery embolization will be cheaper than most of the currently used procedures, he said, because there's no need for an operating room and overnight hospital stays. In addition, he said, because the new procedure doesn't appear to cause complications, that will save health care dollars as well.

"This may become part of the armamentarium of treatments that can be offered for [benign prostatic hyperplasia]," said Dr. Art Rastinehad, director of interventional urologic oncology at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He was not involved with the new study.

"This was a small series and a limited study to draw significant conclusions from. But, it's very exciting to see it evaluated and moving forward," he said.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Sandeep Bagla, M.D., interventional radiologist, Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria, Va.; Art Rastinehad, D.O., director of interventional urologic oncology, North Shore-LIJ Health System, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; April 15, 2013, presentation, Society of Interventional Radiology annual meeting, New Orleans

View the original article here

Toms: One Day Without Shoes

We know we're always going on about finding the perfect shoes, but on 16 April we're going barefoot (yep, you read that right) for a good cause. 

One Day Without Shoes is Toms' global initiative to bring awareness to children's health, education and self-esteem. Health issues such as hookworm, which can prevent a child from attending school, as well as school uniforms (a requirement), and poverty can impact childen's confidence, leadership ability and even future earnings.

So, how can you help? Just tweet a picture of yourself barefoot - with your best pedi - with the hashtag #withoutshoes to @TOMS. 

Londoners can pop into Toms' swish party tonight at 15 Monmouth Street (featuring MTV DJs) to get involved ahead of the nationwide event on Tuesday.

The only thing left to ponder is what colour to paint your toes?

« Back to more Fashion News

View the original article here

Laser Liposuction May Zap Fat Without Skin Sag: Study

Laser Liposuction May Zap Fat Without Skin SagPreliminary research suggests procedure could have advantages over traditional method of fat removalhttp://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/article_thumbnails/news/healthday/2013/04/surgery_18067.jpgWebMD News from HealthDay

By Carina Storrs

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Laser-assisted liposuction might provide an option for people who want stubborn pockets of fat removed but fear they'll be left with loose skin.

Traditional liposuction, a fat-removing cosmetic surgery procedure, is generally reserved for people with firm skin to reduce the risk of sagging afterward. But the addition of lasers could spur tightening of the skin, researchers say.

The researchers looked at the extent of skin tightening in nearly 2,200 women and men who received laser liposuction in various body regions, including the belly, thighs and arms. The relatively new procedure was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006.

Three months after laser liposuction, the researchers found that patients had between 20 percent and 80 percent skin tightening, meaning their skin contracted to within 20 percent and 80 percent of what would be expected for the volume of fat removed. The amount that the skin "bounced back" depended on the elasticity of the skin to start with and the body area treated.

The amount of skin tightening with laser liposuction is probably about 50 percent better than what would have been achieved with traditional liposuction, said Dr. Abbas Chamsuddin, study lead author and an interventional radiologist at the Center for Laser and Interventional Surgery in Atlanta.

The researchers did not, however, include a group that received traditional liposuction for comparison. To see how laser liposuction stacks up, Chamsuddin would like to conduct another study in which a second group of patients receives traditional liposuction.

The study is scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology in New Orleans.

The newer form of liposuction also has the potential to remove more fat than traditional liposuction and lead to less blood loss because the laser dries the blood vessels, Chamsuddin said.

The procedures for laser and traditional liposuction have similarities. Both involve injecting a solution into the fat to numb the area and shrink blood vessels in the region (to reduce blood loss), and making a cut of about one-tenth of an inch, Chamsuddin said.

Whereas traditional liposuction involves sucking the fat out in solid form using a hollow pen-like device, laser liposuction melts the fat with a laser before vacuuming it out with a similar pen-like device.

After the fat removal, doctors use a laser of a different wavelength that is absorbed by skin cells to create an "artificial burn" that tells the body to release collagen in the area, which causes the skin to tighten, Chamsuddin said.

A third type of liposuction, which is more common than laser liposuction, uses ultrasound to achieve a similar effect of melting the fat. Chamsuddin said, however, that fat cells absorb the laser energy better than ultrasonic energy.

// init webmdArticle pluginrequirejs(['article/1/article'],function(){$('#dyn-art').webmdArticle({pageData: {title: "Laser Liposuction May Zap Fat Without Skin Sag", imgPath: "http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/article_thumbnails/news/healthday/2013/04/surgery_18067.jpg", caption: "", description: "Preliminary research suggests procedure could have advantages over traditional method of fat removal", type: "article"}});});Are you happy with your skin?

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New Procedure May Shrink Enlarged Prostate Without Surgery

'Prostatic artery embolization' didn't cause troublesome side effects in study

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Men who need treatment for an enlarged prostate may soon have a new nonsurgical option, a small, early study suggests.

Called prostatic artery embolization (PAE), the technique uses a catheter threaded into an artery in the leg. The catheter is guided to the artery that supplies blood to the prostate. Then, tiny beads are injected into the artery, which temporarily block the blood supply to the prostate.

The temporary loss of blood supply causes the prostate to shrink, relieving symptoms, according to study lead author Dr. Sandeep Bagla. What's more, the new treatment doesn't appear to have the same risk of serious complications, such as incontinence and impotence, that often accompany enlarged prostate treatment.

"This is fantastic news for the average man with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Many men decline current treatments because of the risks. But, for the average man, PAE is a no-brainer," said Bagla, an interventional radiologist at Inova Alexandria Hospital, in Virginia.

The procedure has only been available as part of Bagla's trial until recently, but he said some interventional radiologists have started doing prostatic artery embolization, and he expects the procedure will become more widely available by the end of the year.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the medical term for an enlarged prostate. An enlarged prostate is very common as men get older. As many as half of all men in their 60s will have an enlarged prostate, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). By the time men are in their 70s and 80s, up to 90 percent have benign prostatic hyperplasia, according to the NIDDK.

Some men experience no symptoms, while others may feel the need to urinate frequently, but they have a weak urinary stream, the NIDDK says. There are a number of treatments available for benign prostatic hyperplasia, including medications and surgery.

Bagla said that interventional radiologists in Europe and South America have been using prostatic artery embolization, and that the current study is the first in the United States to test the procedure.

He and his colleagues hope to treat a total of 30 patients, but they're reporting on the results from the first 18 patients on Monday at the annual meeting of Society of Interventional Radiology, in New Orleans. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For the study, the average age of the patients who underwent prostatic artery embolization was 67 years. None of the men had to be admitted to the hospital after the procedure.

Ninety-four percent of the men (17 of 18) had a significant decrease in their symptoms one month after surgery. And, none reported any major complications following the surgery.

Bagla said the exact cost of the new procedure is difficult to estimate right now, but prostatic artery embolization will be cheaper than most of the currently used procedures, he said, because there's no need for an operating room and overnight hospital stays. In addition, he said, because the new procedure doesn't appear to cause complications, that will save health care dollars as well.

"This may become part of the armamentarium of treatments that can be offered for [benign prostatic hyperplasia]," said Dr. Art Rastinehad, director of interventional urologic oncology at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He was not involved with the new study.

"This was a small series and a limited study to draw significant conclusions from. But, it's very exciting to see it evaluated and moving forward," he said.

View the original article here

can you recover fully on 2000 cals? 2500 cals? or do you REALLY need more?? how can I exercise without it being triggering??

I AM DOING IT!! THE UNTHINKABLE!!! F*** MY ED!!!

for the past month, I have eaten 2000 cals a day, and for 2 days now I ate 2500-3000!!! I AM HORRIFIED but I also know that this is probably the only way out of REDS and having disordered thoughts, and a f***ed up metabolism for the rest of my life. 

I am only 20 and I don't want to be 30 and still struggling with relapses and restrictive eating.

anyway, I am 5'2, 20, and currently 120+ lbs I would guess? which puts me around BMI 22??

I have had an ED of some sort since I was 16 - ate 1000 cals for 9 months, dropped from 140 to 105 lbs

but I semi recovered on 1600-2000 cals when I was 17, gained to 130 lbs

then mildly relapsed at age 18 - 1600-2200 cal + intense workouts for a year, lost to 110 lbs

then ACTUALLY relapsed - 1200-1400 cal +  less-intense workouts for a year, yo-yo'd from 110-115-110 and then hurt my knee and couldn't work out for another 2 months...

I gained from 110 to 116-7 in 2 months eating 1400-1600,

then I gained to where I am now, eating 2000 a day.

anyway I JUST started eating the youreatopia.com amounts because I am afraid that if I dont, I wont be able to maintain on a normal amount when I finally recover fully. 

My ED therapist who I talked with when I was 17 for my first "recovery" told me today that 2500-3000 is enough for me, and that I can do 30 minutes of weight training 3-4x a week to help create muscle mass, which will speed my metabolism? she also said i can take a 30 min, brisk daily walk... 

does ANYONE have experience of fully recovering and having a normal metabolism, on less than 3000? why is 3000 such a magic number, and am I causing myself unnecessary stress by forcing myself to eat and eat?

will I REALLY slide back down to set point weight, naturally?? I would say that 115 is my set point, and when I weigh anything lower, I get ED symptoms like obsessiveness, fogginess, and i generally spaz out.

DO you think I will recover sooner, seeing as I had already almost recovered fully once before, ( for 2 months I was eating a LOT and running, but eating a LOT and maintaining 115)...and this time around I didnt restrict as badly, and I am willing to eat more than 2000?? I KNOW I am going to overshoot... I already am in the process of overshooting... but I don't want to overshoot FOREVER and end up like, 130-140 lbs?? and then stay there for a year!! D: THAT IS HORRIFYINGGG

View the original article here

Healthy Cheese? What will I do without cheese?!

Oh my goodness.  I always knew cheese was kinda "bad for you" but I didn't realize that it would earn an F on the health report card!! 

I love cheese. As opposed to completely giving it up (gasp!) can anyone suggest some cheeses that are a little healthier? Not that I would indulge in them, but just a little treat on fish tacos and omeletes here and there!! :)

Thanks friends! 

Edited Jun 09 2013 18:46 by coach_k
Reason: Moved to the Foods Forum as more appropriate

View the original article here

This Is Your Kid’s Brain Without Sleep

This Is Your Kid’s Brain Without Sleep: How Much Sleep Kids Need webmd.ads.adSeedCall = function() { var self = this; var defer = new jQuery.Deferred(); // need a set a 1 second timeout here to resolve it if the ad call hangs // if we get to 1 seconds, resolve the deferred object self.adSeedCallTimeout = setTimeout(function(){ defer.resolve(); webmd.debug('timeout happened'); },1000); // grabs pageview id out of global scope and makes sure it exists as we need to pass it to ads in that case var pageviewId = window.s_pageview_id || ''; // save out the PB iFrame URL as we need to clean it up var iframeURLOutOfPB = '//as.webmd.com/html.ng/transactionID=1157456451&tile=13267071&tug=&pug=__&site=2&affiliate=20&hcent=11958&scent=1190&pos=5200&xpg=3609&sec=&au1=&au2=&uri=%2fparenting%2fraising-fit-kids%2frecharge%2fbrain-without-sleep&artid=091e9c5e80cb0954&inst=0&leaf=&cc=10&tmg=&bc=_age1_fit_&mcent=12008µ=¶ms.styles=json01&pvid=' + pageviewId; // remove the ampersands. This regex is cleaner than trying to drop it into an element and all that, as all we want it to replace the &'s var cleanIframeURL = iframeURLOutOfPB.replace(/&/g, '&'); // using require instead of webmd.load as we will eventually depracate webmd.load require([cleanIframeURL], function(){ // if you get here before the timeout, kill it clearTimeout(self.adSeedCallTimeout); // go ahead and resolve the deferred object // if the ad call took forever and the deferred object was already resolved with the timeout, that is ok // because of deferred functionality, it will not be resolved again. Thanks jQuery defer.resolve(); webmd.debug('actual seed call came back'); } ); return defer.promise(); } webmd.ads.adSeedCallPromise = webmd.ads.adSeedCall(); // self executing function for scope (function(){ // grabs pageview id out of global scope and makes sure it exists as we need to pass it to ads in that case var pageviewId = window.s_pageview_id || ''; var iframeURLOutOfPB = '//as.webmd.com/html.ng/transactionID=1157456451&tile=13267071&tug=&pug=__&site=2&affiliate=20&hcent=11958&scent=1190&pos=101&xpg=3609&sec=&au1=&au2=&uri=%2fparenting%2fraising-fit-kids%2frecharge%2fbrain-without-sleep&artid=091e9c5e80cb0954&inst=0&leaf=&segm=0&cc=10&tmg=&bc=_age1_fit_&mcent=12008µ=&pvid=' + pageviewId; var cleanIframeURL = iframeURLOutOfPB.replace(/&/g, '&'); var ad = { adLocation:'banner', adURL:cleanIframeURL, trans:'1157456451', tile:'13267071', pos:'101' }; // check to make sure this seed call functionality exists, if it does, dooo it if(webmd.object.exists('webmd.ads.handleAdSeedCall')) { webmd.ads.handleAdSeedCall(ad); } })(); Skip to content Enter Search Keywords. Use the arrow keys to navigate suggestions. Health A-Z

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By R. Morgan Griffin

Reviewed By Hansa D. Bhargava, MD

You know your child needs sleep. But do you know why?  

It's not just that overtired kids are cranky. Not getting enough sleep can hurt their health and ability to make good choices.

How much sleep should your kids get?

You may be surprised by how much they need.

Toddlers: 12-14 hours Preschoolers: 11-13 hours School-age kids: 10-11 hours Tweens and teens: 8.5-9.25 hours How Poor Sleep Affects Your Child

Your body uses sleep as a time to repair itself. Even half an hour less each night can derail that process. The effects of not getting enough sleep include:

Weight gain. Lack of sleep can make kids hungrier and drawn to high-calorie foods. When you’re tired, your body makes more of the hormone that makes you hungry, increasing your appetite. And when you're tired, it makes less of the hormone that tells you you’re full. So not only do you feel hungrier but you may eat more than usual before you realize that you’re full. Plus, lack of sleep also affects your metabolism. Not getting enough sleep raises the risk of diabetes and unhealthy weight gain in kids and adults.

Bad moods. "Kids who don't get enough sleep have trouble regulating their emotions," says Jodi A. Mindell, PhD, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleeping Through the Night. Some of the surliness we associate with teenagers just being teens may actually be because they aren’t getting enough sleep, she says. Overtime, not getting enough sleep can increase risk of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in teens.

Trouble in school. Sleep is essential for building memory. Without enough, your kids may not recall what they've learned, Mindell says.

Accidents. Tired kids are prone to accidents, including sports injuries. More than half of all teen drivers drove drowsy in the past year -- and drowsy-driving accidents are most common in people under age 25, Mindell says.

Bad judgment. "Kids who are overtired make worse decisions," Mindell says. That's not just a problem during SATs. They may be more likely to post an inappropriate picture on Facebook or get in a car with a kid who's been drinking.

How to Help Kids Get Enough Sleep

Take bedtime seriously. Set a firm bedtime and stick to it. Don't let your kids get jobs or take part in after-school activities that keep them out too late. Build your weekly schedules around having enough time for sleep.

Keep gadgets out of the bedroom. That means no TV -- and no laptops, phones, or tablets either.

"Have a rule that all gadgets stay plugged in on the kitchen counter at night," Mindell says. "That goes for the parents too, not just the kids."

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