US Fitness Guide

Front line nurses dealing with intoxicated patients say the situation is worsening, with teenagers as young as 13 being admitted regularly.

“We’re having drunk children in the Kids’ Emergency Department,” says Helen Roundtree of Waikato Hospital.

And it’s girls who are the surprising regular customers.

“We didn’t often see as many young girls as we are now and they’re getting younger&13,14 years,” she says.

Roundtree says it’s frustrating that the threat of being hospitalised due to excessive drinking doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to young people any longer.

“They almost expect it as part of their night now that if you’re gonna go out and get drunk, that you could end up in hospital.”

Emergency Department nurses tell TV 2′s 20/20 programme they are vomited on, abused, pushed, shoved, and urinated on, on a daily basis.

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UB researchers report in the August 2010 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise that children who took a simulated walk to school later experienced smaller elevations in systolic blood pressure, heart rate and perceived stress while taking a short exam than children who had gotten a simulated ride to school.

Cardiovascular reactivity — including changes in heart rate and blood pressure due to stress — is associated with the beginnings of cardiovascular disease in children, and atherosclerosis — the dangerous build-up of cholesterol, calcium, fat and other substances in artery walls — in adults.

“The cardiovascular disease process begins in childhood, so if we can find some way of stopping or slowing that process, that would provide an important health benefit,” says James Roemmich, UB associate professor of pediatrics and exercise and nutrition science and senior investigator on the study, which he completed with graduate students Maya Lambiase and Heather Barry.

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