In the eve of mornings getting colder, day(light)s feeling shorter, and warm sweaters being taken out, sickness often plagues students in this season. With the responsibility of being a young adult also comes the task of making sure you have clean sheets, washing your hands ALL of the time, hydrating, and staying clean. Completing or not completing all of these simple responsibilities can contribute to two possible outcomes: being sick and staying healthy. If you are feeling a cold starting to congest in your chest, take some precautions to stop it in its tracks.
First, make sure everything is clean. Simply wiping off door handles with anti-bacterial wipes, changing your sheets, and cleaning everything you come in direct contact with will help tremendously with avoiding an oncoming sickness. Thomas Hotard, senior, says, “Wash your hands.” Even if not trying to avoid sickness, washing hands should already be a developed habit. Depending on the amount of people in one household, a lot of germs can be spread through anything hands touch.
In addition, it is always good to load up on Vitamin D when your body starts feeling a little down. Buying flavored packets (such as Emergen C) filled with a loads of Vitamin D and adding it to water at every meal for a few days will replenish the immune system and help fight off sickness. While loading up on vitamins isn’t going to guarantee a completely clean bill of health, The Greatist writer, Emily Flaherty, says it has proven to contribute to lessening the severity and chance of catching a cold.
Bundling up during the cold winter months is also a great way to stay healthy. While that one minute walk from the car (or five from Scott) to the school in the morning seems short, it is important to wear a warm jacket. Even if it will take up half of the locker, it’s worth not having a cold. Also, especially boys, wear some pants. No one is fooled, those legs have got to be getting cold on subzero Iowa mornings. It’s okay to be warm rather than looking ‘tough.’
Bring those shorts out for exercising though, because boosting the heart rate and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a great way to keep a healthy body. The winter months here in Iowa can sometimes tend to be depressing and cause people to cuddle up on their couches and watch TV for the majority of the season. Hannah Gorsline says, “Exercising and eating good really helps me prevent getting sick.” Exercising can not only be good for physical health, but also mental. Endorphins released while exercising create an energy bodies love, which causes people to feel better and happier. Exercising can mean being happy, healthy, and most importantly, sickness-free.
Finally, one of the biggest tips is to hydrate. Drinking water helps flush out the body, which will hopefully flush out all of the bad bacteria floating through the body faster. Keep a water bottle with you throughout the day, and refill it as often as possible. Even though drinking a lot of water can seem like a tedious process, the benefit will affect you more.
Hopefully after all of these tips, students are left feeling prepared for the harsh winter months ahead of us. Don’t hesitate to take precautions when you get a runny nose, stay out in the cold for an extended period, or develop a cough. Take symptoms seriously to avoid a week of emptying tissue boxes, and make winter more bearable.
