The Importance of Adolescent Health for the Nation's Progress

THE IMPORTANCE OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH FOR THE PROGRESS OF THE NATION

              Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood, and this phase largely determines the quality needed to support adulthood and the quality of future generations. Adolescence is often regarded as the physically healthiest period of life. It is no wonder that adolescents rarely visit health facilities. In fact, however, it is adolescents who are psychologically and socially very “likely”  to be affected by illness. Health greatly influences adolescent growth and development, and nutrition is one of the important matters because if nutrition is fulfilled the adolescent brain will function well, which is one of the keys to adolescents becoming high-achieving students.

           In fact, adolescents today easily contract diseases that are usually suffered by the elderly. Yet adolescents in the past were physically very strong, so they rarely fell ill. What factors make today's adolescents prone to disease? There are many factors that make adolescents today vulnerable to illness. The first is the food they eat: people in the past ate healthy and fresh food because access to fast food was not widespread at that time, whereas nowadays most people consume instant or fast food. The second is that people in the past did many activities that required movement, whereas nowadays people prefer to lie around all day and be lazy. The third is that nature and the living environment also influence a person's physical resilience: people in the past lived in an environment with little pollution, whereas now pollution is very high.

           The main cause in this matter is the ever-developing technology. In general, adolescents today are very good at using technology. They can create the optimal ease and comfort that technology provides for the purpose of survival. However, this ease makes adolescents lazy about exercising. As a result, the body becomes accustomed to being idle and tires easily when it has to carry out certain activities. In addition, laziness can cause the body to slow down, blood pressure to rise, body weight to increase uncontrollably, and blood circulation to decline.

         Given this, will the younger generation be able to realise the nation's hopes? This phenomenon will make it hard for adolescents to concentrate, to work effectively, and to become adolescents who think critically, are open-minded and are able to work. Meanwhile, Indonesia is currently improving quality and using human resources for further development. If the quality of today's younger generation is still in question, then what is their role in the progress of the Indonesian nation and state? Therefore, adolescents need to increase their productivity and begin to develop themselves.

       The first step needed to increase productivity and self-development is to live a healthy life. A healthy life begins with a diet. A good diet is one of the best things we should make a habit. If we combine a good diet with regular physical activity, we can maintain a healthy weight, thereby reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Here are some proper ways to become healthy.

        First, to have good health, we need to plan and follow  a salt and sugar diet. This diet should contain all the essential minerals and vitamins the body needs. Eat only healthy food and avoid instant food, as well as food  high in carbohydrates and fat. Then wake up earlier because this is a healthy habit.

       Second, waking up early, a small thing like this, means we can get ready to work earlier and spend quality time with family. In addition, we should decide when to go to sleep and sleep early, which helps the body reduce stress.

      Third, regular exercise makes our bodies more active and also releases the tension stored up in our muscles.

     Fourth, avoid mobile phones. The biggest weakness of adolescents is that they are obsessed with mobile phones. Besides that, mobile phones also cause many physical and mental problems. Therefore, to avoid the negative effects of mobile phones, the amount of phone use must be reduced. By changing bad habits gradually, it will be easy to adopt positive habits.

     From what has been presented, it can be concluded that for the nation to progress, adolescent health must receive more attention, because adolescents are the greatest asset for the nation's progress. This step can be taken through adolescents' own awareness of their health by following government health programmes such as taking iron supplement tablets every week for girls and doing healthy exercise every week. The government can then participate by adding a policy programme to provide healthy food from the school, because this can help adolescents meet balanced nutrition. In this way cases of stunting will decrease, which will affect optimal brain function, with the aim that becoming a golden generation to advance the nation will be achieved.