Cherish Life, Love Life (By: Carys)

Have you ever heard songs like “Love Yourself” by American top-notched singer, Justin Bieber?  If you are youngsters, mononymously known as teenagers, you will be fancy of it. This song is advantageous as they bring useful meaning to raise awareness of self-care. In this fabulous world that “undergoes” globalization and industrialization, we often see youngsters conducting some “peculiar” activities like being lazy instead of exercising, taking innutritious delicacies, addicting to online game, smoking, drugging and drinking alcohol. Due to the advancement of technology, youngsters nowadays are hectic on working or doing some computer works. Some of them do not keep a healthy posture. Cleanliness and hygiene are also keys to take care of our own selves. Notwithstanding, some who do not listen and are precarious will apply some items that “benefit” to their body to beautify it, like dyeing their hair to make their hair more colorful and attractive, applying tattoo and to their body parts and cosmetics to their faces. They do not understand that these items are vicious to the body parts. Some of them are lazy until they do not wash their body part. Some even make their own places to become filthy. Looking them doing like these is an eye sore, why? 

To answer the above question, these activities are said to be “malicious”, as they are harmful to our health. For instance, a person who is a couch potato, which he or she lazy until forbidding to exercise, or taking unbalanced diet can be pruned to obesity. Like a person who smokes cigarette which has harmful tar

, drugging and drinking alcohol, they can lead to crucial illnesses. For instance, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. Prolonged time on online game and computing cause eye strain. Like busy schedule of a job, if he or she uses for long time with no exercise, stroke may happen on him or her. Nevertheless, when an individual does not keep a healthy posture, like slouching, he or she is exerting pressure to the vertebral column, until he or she hunched back, or diseases like scoliosis may occur.  Additionally, mental health will be affected if he or she continues to do so.  

     Furthermore, hair dyes and tattoos comprise of spiteful ingredients. For hair dyes, they consist of chemicals that will be absorbed in minuscule amount through skin or fumes in the air.  According to research, hair dyes rise the risk of blood cancers like leukemia and lymphomas, bladder cancer and breast cancer. While for tattoos, they contain of bacteria that are contagious which cause allergic reactions, skin infection, granuloma, scarring, aseptic inflammation and skin cancer. In addition, for cosmetics, most of them have harmful chemicals that are illegally added. For example, mercury that causes skin irritation, kidney failure and damaged nervous system if they are absorbed into the bloodstream.

Hydroquinone in cosmetics lead to hypersensitive on skin and exposure to harmful UV rays from the sun as they are required to mitigate pigmentation. Betamethasone valerate, like mercury and hydroquinone, also cause skin irritation and changes in skin pigmentation. Cosmetics also include tretinoin that leads to redness and peeling of skin.  Apart from that, filthy locales contain viruses and bacteria that are infectious till causing hurtful sicknesses, like dengue fever caused by aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads dengue virus, malaria by female Anopheles mosquito that spreads out protozoa from the genus named Plasmodium bacteria, leptospirosis from rats affected by spirochete bacterium Leptospira bacteria and cholera affected by cockroaches which spreads salmonella bacteria.  

The above-mentioned are known as bad health routines, since these lifestyles give bane to the body, so why don’t teens make some effort to quit them? It’s beneficial. First and foremost, teenagers should maintain a balanced diet in our everyday meals. We should eat according to the food pyramid to consume the right amount of food and obtain sufficient nutrients for our body. Exercising instead of sitting playing online games and doing computer work for prolonged periods is essential to maintain a teen’s ideal body weight, letting a person’s hair down and keeping him or her to become zestful. To conclude, both exercise and nutritious meal aid for a teenager to build a robust body, and combat against diseases. Refrain from smoking, consuming drugs and drinking alcohol. Keep a good body posture by sitting and standing straight.  Do not apply chemicals that are harmful to the body parts. Instead, bath and wash the body parts regularly. Brush teeth every day after waking up, meal, and before sleep. Cut the nails frequently. These procedures say so to keep good hygiene. Make sure the surrounding milieu is clean by cleaning up the houses and housing areas.  What’s more, for governments, they can promote health and hygiene by organizing campaign to raise public awareness about it. They can make brochures, adorn advertisement board and put publicly. They can even put them on social media or radio stations as teenagers like to watch them. Governments can also organize clean-up programme at parks and beaches for them to join them briskly. 

   All in all, as the saying goes, teenagers are future leaders for a better and futuristic world. A teenager should have the awareness of self-care, because health is wealth. With a healthy body, a teenager can carry out a lot of activities efficiently; With a healthy body, a better future for the world is present. Here is the last quote to end the essay: Cherish Life, Love Life.