One of the most challenging chapters in the life of a human being is adolescence. Ask a parent when they required the most wisdom and patience while raising a child, and they will admit it was during adolescence. One parent said that, looking back, she realized the beginning of puberty was the season when her
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One of the most challenging chapters in the life of a human being is adolescence. Ask a parent when they required the most wisdom and patience while raising a child, and they will admit it was during adolescence.
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One parent said that, looking back, she realized the beginning of puberty was the season when her daughter started to slam bedroom doors. It may be humorous in retrospect, but it is no laughing matter that over the last 20 years, puberty now occurs at earlier ages than ever before.
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Puberty now has its onset on average at nine years as opposed to the previous norm of 11 years. The duration of puberty has also become longer, and it has major psychosocial implications for teens, parents, schools and the medical community.
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Noon News Roundup
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Dr. Cara Natterson, a pediatrician and author of the New York Times bestselling series for girls called The Care and Keeping of You, explained the issue of earlier puberty well on a recent CNN podcast hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
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Both doctors agreed that their memories of puberty and what was taught in medical schools a few decades ago are quite different from today’s reality.
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Various definitions of puberty can be summarized as the time in life when a boy or girl becomes sexually mature; when a child develops secondary sexual characteristics and becomes able to have children.
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During times of famine, puberty had its onset at a later age. Nature decided that during a time of less, it was in society’s best interest to limit the population and protect those still in the process of maturing from having to go through the physiological demands of a pregnancy.
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But why are both boys and girls now entering puberty at an earlier age?
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Experts speculate that with the rise of obesity, puberty now starts earlier than ever. The theory is that in peripheral fat stores, a hormone known as DHEA gets stored and then converted to the more gender specific hormones (estrogen and testosterone), which then induces pubertal changes.
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The role of social media appears to be significant. Stress appears to be a major contributing factor. Race also plays a role, and, again, there is no certainty as to why and how that is. Some blame a lower socio-economic status, where the disadvantaged are more often exposed to unhealthy foods and dangerous chemicals. Some refer to these chemicals in shampoos and toiletries as “chemical disruptors”. These did not exist in the past.
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