As a student (or just adult in general) staying healthy is critical in order to be at the top of your game. Preventing disease is much easier and cheaper than managing a disease once you have it. Check out these simple strategies for keeping disease at bay.
Tip #1: Avoid Smoking
Smoking is the most preventable of all leading causes of disease for Americans. By not smoking, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, and hundreds of other health problems.
Tip #2: Exercise for 30 Minutes Each Day
Performing some kind of aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes each day keeps your heart healthy and lowers the risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), atherosclerosis (hardening arteries), obesity, and many other undesirable health issues. Exercise also lowers stress levels significantly.
Tip #3: Drink in Moderation (If You Choose to Drink)
If you choose to drink alcohol, do so in moderation. Moderation is defined as up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men. A drink is defined as a 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 ½ ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. Anything more than moderate drinking can be very harmful to your health, especially over years.
Tip #4: Manage Your Weight
People who maintain a healthy weight are more likely to feel better – physically and psychology – and are less likely to contract diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. Maintaining a healthy weight is easier with regular exercise and a good diet. Watch fat, sugar, and alcohol intake and make an effort to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats or fish for the majority of your meals.
Tip #5: Minimize Fat Intake
Fat is not bad in and of itself. Fat can be harmful, though, if we consume too much of it or the wrong kinds. If you minimize the bad fats in your diet (trans fats, saturated fats, hydrogenated fat, and some polyunsaturated fats) you can reduce your risk of many problems related to heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, and many other health problems. You will also have an easier time maintaining a healthy weight and as most of us will eventually realize, as we age, maintaining a healthy weight gets harder each year.
Tip #6: Eat Fruits, Vegetables, and Grains
Eating sufficient fruits, vegetables, and whole grains provides your body with vitamins, minerals, and fiber needed to reduce the risk for many diseases. Take the advice from America’s nutritionists and eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables each day. It sounds like a lot, but the serving sizes are not that large. For example, an official serving is one medium apple or one half cup of cooked broccoli. That isn’t much when you eat an apple for a snack or see the broccoli on your plate.
Tip #7: Minimize Caffeine Intake
Not only does caffeine have addictive qualities that keep you on caffeine highs and lows, but there is much research that shows it can accelerate bone loss over time (osteoporosis). Think about cutting down or switching to decaffeinated or non-caffeinated drinks—or even just plain water. If you do drink caffeine drinks, be sure to drink the recommended eight glasses of water throughout the day.
Tip #8: Visit a Doctor
This is an easy recommendation to achieve. Regular, physical check ups by your doctor can help you screen for potentially serious health problems and many health issues can be better treated if caught early.
Tip #9: Wear Sun Block
When out in the sun, wear a sun block. The sun’s UV rays can cause skin cancer.
Tip #10: Get Sufficient Sleep
No doubt the life of a student could fill up well over 24 hours in each day! Sleep is important for good health, however. Many research studies have suggested that people who are tasked mentally do much better after restful sleep and that sleep deprivation lowers ability to concentrate, mental attention, good judgment, and test scores. It may also be linked to irritability, relationship problems, and stress as well as increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and other medical conditions. Make a point to get sufficient sleep.
Excellent Online Resources
There are some excellent online resources at your fingertips to help you in learning about and managing your healthy behavior. Check out the following resources. They really are very helpful.
MyPyramid.gov
An excellent website to help you maintain a good diet. Maintaining a good diet is pretty easy and doesn’t mean that you can never eat pizza, beer, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies again. Moderation really the key and we can all eat pretty much anything we want if we follow the guidelines over the long term. There really is no “bad” food; it is all about how often and how much you eat of it.
By using the MyPyramid Plan and the MyPyramid Tracker, you can manage your food consumption and learn some very helpful information about diet and exercise.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans:
These recommendations summarize basic tips for diet and exercise related behaviors. Check them out.
WebMD.com
This site provides excellent information for a variety of health concerns. It is especially helpful if you are already dealing with a disease and want some tips on managing it. Use the search tool to access the information you need.
Health and Wellness Websites
Student Health Zone (studenthealthzone.com) - This is a great site for students that provides simple guidelines for all types of health and wellness questions.
Wellness.com - a comprehensive website that helps you on your “pursuit to health and happiness.”