HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
Do you have any brothers and sisters in school age? Would you agree that for you as well as for your younger brothers and sisters schooling is a really difficult issue to deal with?
Anyone can realize that it is increasingly difficult for children to stand school pressure and at the same time, to satisfy their parents’ expectations. Exam pressures and anxiety for college admission and academic stress can become a daily struggle. According to an Associated Press/MTV survey, school was the most frequently-mentioned source of stress for 13 to 17-year-olds. And, as reported by Germany’s Südwest Presse, more and more children are taking pills to cope with pressure in school. One in 5 elementary school children is said to take tranquilizers or performance-enhancing drugs. Nevertheless, some voices have been raised claiming a positive relationship between a healthy lifestyle and school performance. Even though there is a lot of conflicting research on the effect students' lifestyle plays on their academic performance, two studies published in 2011 found that physical activity and a healthy diet play a large role in helping our students. I definitely agree on the positive effect these two factors can have on school performance. So, in this talk, I am going to discuss how physical activity and a healthy diet impact school performance.
We all know that academic success is a multifactorial issue. However, there is increased recognition that lifestyle components —physical activity, diet, drinking, smoking— have a major influence on the physical and psychological well being and that they can influence, positively or negatively, attention, class attendance, vigilance, and learning.
What can we say about physical activity? A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that just as exercise makes bones, muscles, heart and lungs stronger, it also strengthens important parts of the brain. Researchers discovered that aerobic exercise sends more blood to the brain and that it also feeds the brain with substances that help develop new nerve connections. If the exercise has complicated movements, like dance steps or basketball moves, the brain produces even more nerve connections, so the more nerve connections - the better the brain can process all kinds of information. Thus, even though scientists do not fully understand the relationship between exercise and brain power, we can trust that exercise helps people learn new things and remember old information better. So, what are you going to answer next time someone invites you to go for a run or go bicycling around?
Let’s see now how the diet can help. Researchers from the University of Illinois, on a research published in the journal Psycho-neuro-endocrinology, found that a high-fat diet may be linked to the hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities. The effect is so profound that eating lots of fatty food for even a week can cause behavioural changes. It's thought that too much fat may alter how the body metabolises dopamine, a chemical with a key role in regulating mood. The study suggests that a high-fat diet could trigger anxiety and memory disorders in a child who is genetically or environmentally susceptible to them.
Amazing, isn’t it?

Consequently, what is the best we can do in order to help our children’s school performance? Well, whether we are parents or teachers, we should be convinced that a balanced diet and regular exercise can protect the brain and ward off mental disorders. UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science, Fernando Gómez Pinilla, states that "Diet, exercise and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. He adds "This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage, and counteracting the effects of aging."
We should always keep in mind the wide variety of effects a healthy diet conveys: It helps to improve students’ concentration, learning and behavior; It promotes proper physical growth and development; it builds up children strength; it promotes resistance to infection; It gives plenty of energy and minimises future health risks like iron‑deficiency, anaemia, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and dental decay.
In conclusion, even though there are a number of factors that impact the learning abilities of students and that a lot of research is still conflicting when trying to establish a direct relationship between a healthy lifestyle and school performance, I have no doubt that physical activity and a balanced diet do improve students attitude to face their school responsibilities which in the end results in better school performance.