The ability to stay healthy when you’re a student is vital. Missing classes and falling behind can be devastating to your education. But, staying healthy is not easy to do when you are immersed in the post-secondary population. Here are a few key pointers to try and keep yourself healthy and present in your studies.
Get more sleep- There are many things to keep you up at night, finishing off that essay, cramming for that exam or spending time with your friends, but you need to get a good night’s sleep to keep your body and brain working properly.
Lack of sleep impairs attention, concentration, and reasoning, basically everything you need to be a productive student. It also weakens your immune system making you more likely to end up with the latest virus.
It’s pretty straight forward, get home earlier, put down the highlighter and turn off the tube. Your body needs those eight hours.
Eat something green- Trying to find time to get some healthy food in you is not always easy. Avoid processed foods as much as possible; eating items with ingredients that you can’t pronounce is not going to keep the illness away. And ingest as many fruits and veg as you can!
Amp up your vitamin C and find some vitamin D- Take your vitamins! Not just when you are feeling lethargic, take them all the time. Try to incorporate as much vitamin C into your daily life as possible, buy a box of oranges, substitute your Coke at lunch for an apple juice…just get some goodness in you.
In the winter months especially we find ourselves lacking the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D. Decreased levels that are linked to lowered immune systems. With many benefits, vitamin D speeds up the absorption of vitamin C and helps keep your mood up and your body strong.
Binge selectively- for most post-secondary students alcohol is a reoccurring substance on most weekends (and some weekdays too). There is always a social event or party that your friends will convince you to go to. It is important to try and keep your alcohol ingestion down, not only will it impair your ability to eat right and get a good sleep but studies show that excessive alcohol is toxic to immune systems.
Kill those germs- When you are constantly touching surfaces that many other student have come in contact with, you are bound to pick something up. Sanitize and wash your hands consistently to protect yourself and others from spreading germs everywhere.
Get movin’ but not too much- Moderate exercise gets your antibodies and white blood cells moving, which helps battle stress, sickness and will boost your mood. Just don’t get too carried away, high intensity activity can actually decrease the movement of white blood cells and up your chances of illness.
Health first- When you do start to feel that fever hit make sure to take care of yourself. Stay home, coming to class when you are feeling awful doesn’t benefit anyone, it slows your recovery time and increases the chances that you will spread your sickness to others. Take advantage of on campus health care. Lethbridge College has an on-site clinic, making it convenient and an easy way to see the doc between your hectic class schedules.
What are some of your routines for staying healthy? Please share below.
Image from spcbrass via Flickr
