The heart of the matter

This is an article from the NY Times that's about 2 years old.  Despite that lag in posting, it's an important starting point for my blog:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/health/25brod.html

I am a physician whose specialty is pediatric sports medicine.  I love seeing young kids active.  Sports played a huge role in my childhood, and was one of the most important influences in my development.  I wouldn't have traded my years of playing comeptitively for anythng.

That said, there have been trends in the last few decades that have changed dramatically the activities of kids in the USA, and I hope to explore those trends among other topics in this blog.

One trend has been toward a level of intensity and commitment to organized sports at younger and younger ages.  I had a discussion today with a young mother from the East Coast; she seriously told me that one reason she and her husband wouldn't move back to their home towns was that their 7 year old daughter had been playing soccer for about 4 years.  In their home towns, children didn't begin soccer until 8, and the mother didn't want to see her daughter set back in her skills if they were to move from Columbus.  A story like that would have been unthinkable in my childhood.

Another trend has been on the other level of the (in)activity spectrum:  higher and higher rates of video, tv, and computer use by kids; lower and lower rates of physical activity; and, consequently, larger and larger kids.  I am still trying to wrap my mind around what the barriers might be to kids' returning to previous levels of activity.  It informs my profession, actually, because in truth many of the injuries I see in young athletes arise from unconditioned bodies attempting to do too much, too soon when starting a sport.

So join me as I share my thoughts, share articles and stories I come across, about the health and fitness of Americans, and especially our kids.