puberty

During puberty, there are serious physical changes in the human body and frequent conflicts between the adolescent and their surrounding adult environment. This article highlights the physical processes, background and possible complaints during puberty and accompanying remedies from natural medicine.

Contents:
puberty
Synonyms
Backgrounds of puberty
Hormones during puberty
Tanner stadiums
Brain and puberty
Puberty, symptoms and diseases
Naturopathy and puberty
Home remedies for puberty complaints

Synonyms

Puberty, puberty gynecomastia, boys puberty, adolescent puberty, adolescence, teens, adolescence, backfish years, maturity.

Backgrounds of puberty

The life phase, which is called puberty, is considered to be a fairly recent phenomenon that has been established in industrialized countries for about a century. People who live in countries that are usually referred to as Third World, the phase of puberty usually not. Among other things, this is due to the fact that the lifestyle in the regions there differs greatly from that of the western industrialized countries. With most Westerners living longer today than they did a century or so ago, the period of childhood, which we now call puberty, is artificially prolonged. In the life span of 13-14 years, a human is already considered adult and often mature in many countries. In western countries, however, adolescents are not counted as adults, but instead isolated from them and treated as children. This manifests itself in everyday life in such a way that they are often not given any self-responsibility by adults and the adults want to decide further about the life of the teenager.

What people lack in this period of life in the Western industrialized world is the chance to take on responsibility themselves and to be able to prove and integrate themselves early in this society. As a logical consequence, this must lead to conflicts between the generations.

Hormones during puberty

It comes next to the externally visible growth in size, to internal processes of hormonal change, which are visible from the outside, and for relatives and friends and especially the puberty itself, felt. Especially the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone are the ones that increase sexually dependent in the pubescent organism. The testosterone is produced in the testicles and the estrogen in the ovaries. Their production was stimulated by hormones of the pituitary gland (Epiphyse) - namely the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and the luteinizing hormone (LH). The epiphysis is connected to the pituitary via the hypophysis style (infundibulum). It is originally from the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), which promotes the two epiphyseal hormones LH and FSH, but which in turn is based on a protein of the pituitary gland (kisspeptin). This binds to the activation of GnRH previously to so-called GPR54 receptors.

Again, the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone initially mentioned here act on the hypothalamus, influencing the sex drive and helping to maintain a balance of LH and FSH appropriate for the organism. These internal switching and transformation mechanisms have an outward manifestation of secondary sexual characteristics and, with them, sexual maturation. Boys can be particularly distressing during puberty, when breasts are formed by too many estrogens - this is called puberty gynaecomastia.

The hormonal processes are extremely complex and can not be completely overlooked. The messenger compound leptin, which is produced in adipose tissue, also appears to favor the physical transformation with recent findings.

Tanner stadiums at puberty

The external physical development of the adolescent is divided into the so-called Tanner stages. James Mourilyan Tanner (1920-2010) was an English pediatrician who divided puberty into these various stages in 1969, incorporating individual and social as well as physical components. The development of the female breast, male genitalia and pubic hair is the main focus at the Tanner stadiums.

Brain and puberty

The external development and conversion processes do not stop at the control center brain. The initial firing for the construction site atmosphere during puberty under the skull seems to give estrogen, even in boys. It even kills some brain cells and compounds form back to make room for new functional structures. The transformation takes place from the back of the head in the direction of the forehead. Here sits the so-called prefrontal cortex. An area that houses the features assessment, risk assessment and planning of situations. This can lead to a lack of rational decisions during the construction phase. Among other things, the sleep hormone melatonin can be released in the brain about two hours later than normal during this time, thus ensuring the long-awaited awakening of adolescents - with the consequence that getting up in the morning is more difficult.

Puberty, symptoms and diseases

Almost every adolescent has - at least temporarily - from simple pimples to persistent puberty acne struggling with skin problems. Not a few young people complain of growing pains during puberty, which are felt in the limbs and muscles. The girls get their menstruation and often suffer from periodic pains.

In addition to more functional problems such as Scheuermann's disease (possibly with back pain) or Osgood-Schlatter's disease (possibly with knee pain or patellar pain), it can manifest as a manifestation of serious conditions such as type 1 diabetes, epilepsy, depression or thyroid disorders such as Example hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism come. It is conceivable that malfunctioning with a subsequent pathological manifestation can occur due to poorly reorganizing regulatory circuits.

There are in this context in science recurring explanatory models that also want to explain eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, self-mutilation, drug abuse or schizophrenia in puberty purely neurobiological.

Naturopathy and puberty

Functional disorders in the area of ​​muscles and skeletons can be found in Naturheilpraxis v. A. be greatly improved by osteopathy and other manual therapies. According to a classical homeopathic anamnesis, the constitutional remedy found can have a positive effect on various symptoms, as they can at the same time exist in adolescents at the same time. A pronounced puberty acne may respond as well to the use of detoxifying and diverting medicinal plants as to self-care or self-urine therapy. Besides, incompatible foods, e.g. kinesiologically tested and avoided. In many cases, skin complaints also improve over a regulation of the spotty intestinal mucous membrane (intestinal dysbiosis), which is often detected in skin symptoms.

Home remedies for puberty complaints

Typical pubertal symptoms such as growing pains or pimples can be alleviated with home remedies. In case of growing pains, homeopathy will be especially important Acidum phosphoricum or Calcium phosphoricum in the potencies D6 or D12 recommended for self-administration, the latter can also be taken as mineral after Schüßler. For external use, envelopes with Swedish bitters can be applied directly to the aching limbs. In the case of pimples and blackheads, masks and packs of healing clay are considered promising, with the healing clay absorbing toxins and alleviating or even preventing inflammation. (tf, jvs)