6.1: Making Healthy Choices- Eating, Exercise, and Drug Use
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Introduction
Before we explore ways to keep your body healthy, let’s do a little bit of investigation. Ask yourself the following questions, answering as honestly as you can:
- Do you sometimes find yourself feeling sluggish during the day, unable to finish writing that essay or start studying?
- Do you wish you had more energy to keep up with school, work, and family commitments?
- Does drug or alcohol use interfere with your ability to balance daily responsibilities?
Just like proper maintenance and quality fuel keeps your car running smoothly along the highway, our bodies also require care and effort to support all of the demands of today’s fast-paced lifestyle. Scientific data tell us that good nutrition and hydration improve cognitive health, including memory. Fueling our bodies is more than simply eating when hungry; proper nutrients—or lack thereof—affect how our brains function.
Whether you dream of running a marathon or would rather watch a movie marathon on the couch, you should know that exercise is a vital part of keeping both your body and mind vibrant. Regular physical activity boasts a variety of benefits, from disease prevention to improved mental focus.
Drug and alcohol consumption also affects both our physical and mental state of wellness. While occasional imbibing may reduce stress, prolonged overindulgence in any substance creates negative patterns and often leads to unhealthy consequences.
How do we find the balance between recreation and getting wrecked? What tools can we use to create positive physical behaviors for a healthy body? In this module, we explore ways to make good decisions about health choices that can positively affect your academic journey.
What is Good Health?
Some people see health as just a matter of common sense. These people might see little value in reading a health chapter. After all, they already know how to take care of themselves. Yet knowing and doing are two different things. Health information does not always translate into healthy habits.
We expect to experience health challenges as we age, although even youth is no guarantee of good health. Over the past three decades, obesity among young adults has tripled. Twenty-nine percent of young men smoke, and 70 percent of deaths among adults aged 18 to 29 years result from unintentional injuries, accidents, homicide, and suicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009).
As a student, your success in school is directly tied to your health. Lack of sleep and exercise have been associated with lower GPAs among undergraduate students. So have alcohol use, tobacco use, gambling, and chronic health conditions (University of Minnesota 2007).
Any health habit that undermines your success in school can also undermine your success in later life. On the other hand, you can adopt habits that sustain your well-being. One study found that people lengthened their lives an average of 14 years by adopting just four habits (Khaw and colleagues 2008):
- staying tobacco-free;
- eating more fruits and vegetables;
- exercising regularly; and
- drinking alcohol in moderation, if at all.
Health also hinges on a habit of exercising some tissue that lies between your ears—the organ called your brain. One path to greater health starts not with new food or a new form of exercise but with new ideas.
Consider the power of beliefs, some of which create barriers to higher levels of health: “Your health is programmed by your heredity,” “Some people are just low on energy,” “Healthy food doesn’t taste very good,” and “Over the long run, people just don’t change their habits.” Be willing to test these ideas and change them when it serves you.
People often misunderstand what the word health means. Remember that this word is similar in origin to whole, hale, hardy , and even holy . Implied in these words are qualities that most of us associate with healthy people: alertness, vitality, and vigor. Healthy people meet the demands of daily life with energy to spare. Illness or stress might slow them down for a while, but they bounce back. They know how to relax, create loving relationships, and find satisfaction in their work.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Health habits of adults aged 18–29 highlighted in report on nation’s health.” CDC.gov. www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2009/r090218.htm (published February 18, 2009; accessed March 15, 2011).
Khaw, Kay-Tee, Nicholas Wareham, Sheila Bingham, Ailsa Welch, Robert Luben, and Nicholas Day. “Combined impact of health behaviours and mortality in men and women: The EPIC-Norfolk prospective population study.” PLoS Medicine 5 (2008): e70.www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012 (accessed November 8, 2012).
University of Minnesota. “Health and academic performance: Minnesota undergraduate students.” University of Minnesota, Boynton Health Service.
boynton.umn.edu/sites/boynto...du/files/2017- 09/HealthAcademicPerformanceReport_2007.pdf (accessed April 10, 2009).
Opening Your Mind to Good Health
When you think about health, what ideas come to mind? Perhaps you think about a loved one who has faced an illness, or a friend who is into fitness. Health involves many different things and can be looked at in a variety of ways. To open up your inquiry into health—and to open up new possibilities for your life—consider these three ideas:
- Health is a continuum. On one end of that continuum is a death that comes too early. On the other end is a long life filled with satisfying work and fulfilling relationships. Many of us exist between those extremes at a point we might call average. Most of the time we’re not sick. And most of the time we’re not truly thriving, either.
- Health changes. Health is not a fixed state. In fact, health fluctuates from year to year, day to day, and moment to moment. Those changes can occur largely by chance. Or they can occur more often by choice, as we take conscious control of our thinking and behavior.
- Even when faced with health challenges, we have choices. We can choose attitudes and habits that promote a higher quality of life. For example, people with diabetes can often manage the disease by exercising more and changing their diet.
Health is one of those rich, multilayered concepts that we can never define completely. In the end, your definition of health comes from your own experience. The proof lies not on these pages but in your life—in the level of health that you create, starting now.
You have choices. You can remain unaware of habits that have major consequences for your health. Or you can become aware of current habits (discovery), choose new habits (intention), and take appropriate action.
Health is a choice you make every moment, with each thought and behavior. Wake up to this possibility by experimenting with the suggestions in this lesson.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders affect many students. These disorders involve serious disturbances in eating behavior. Examples are overeating or extreme reduction of food intake as well as irrational concern about body shape or weight. Women are much more likely to develop these disorders than are men, although cases are on the rise among men.
Bulimia involves cycles of excessive eating and forced purges. A person with this disorder might gorge on a pizza, doughnuts, and ice cream and then force herself to vomit. Or she might compensate for overeating with excessive use of laxatives, enemas, or diuretics.
Anorexia nervosa is a potentially fatal illness marked by self-starvation. People with anorexia may practice extended fasting or eat only one kind of food for weeks at a time.
These disorders are not due to a failure of willpower. They are real illnesses in which harmful patterns of eating take on a life of their own.
Eating disorders can lead to many complications, including life-threatening heart conditions and kidney failure. Many people with eating disorders also struggle with depression, substance abuse, and anxiety. They need immediate treatment to stabilize their health. This is usually followed by continuing medical care, counseling, and medication to promote a full recovery.
If you’re worried you might have an eating disorder, visit a doctor, campus health service, or local public health clinic. For more information, contact the National Eating Disorders Association at 1- 800-931-2237 or online at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.
Choose to Exercise
Our bodies need to be exercised. The world ran on muscle power back in the era when we had to hunt down a woolly mammoth every few weeks and drag it back to the cave. Today, we can grab a burger at a drive-up window, so we need to make a special effort to exercise.
Exercise promotes weight control and reduces the symptoms of depression. It also helps to prevent heart attack, diabetes, and several forms of cancer (Harvard Medical School 2008).
Exercise also refreshes your body and your mind. If you’re stuck on a math problem or blocked on writing a paper, take an exercise break. Chances are that you’ll come back with a fresh perspective and some new ideas.
If you get moving, you’ll create lean muscles, a strong heart, and an alert brain. If the word exercise turns you off, think physical activity instead. Here are some things you can do:
- Stay active throughout the day. Park a little farther from work or school. Do your heart a favor by walking some extra blocks. Take the stairs instead of riding elevators. For an extra workout, climb two stairs at a time. An hour of daily activity is ideal, but do whatever you can. Some activity is better than none.
- No matter what you do, ease into it. For example, start by walking briskly for at least 15 minutes every day. Increase that time gradually, and add a little jogging.
- Adapt to your campus environment. Look for exercise facilities on campus. Search for classes in aerobics, swimming, volleyball, basketball, golf, tennis, and other sports. Intramural sports are another option. School can be a great place to get in shape.
- Do what you enjoy. Stay active with aerobic activities that you enjoy. You might like martial arts, kickboxing, yoga, ballroom dancing, stage combat classes, or mountain climbing. Check your school catalog for such courses.
- Vary your routine. Find several activities that you like to do, and rotate them throughout the year. Your main form of activity during winter might be ballroom dancing, riding an exercise bike, or skiing. In summer, you could switch to outdoor sports. Whenever possible, choose weight-bearing activities such as walking, running, or stair climbing.
- Get active early. Work out first thing in the morning. Then it’s done for the day. Make it part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth.
- Exercise with other people. Making exercise a social affair can add a fun factor and raise your level of commitment.
- Join a gym without fear . Many health clubs welcome people who are just starting to get in shape.
Look for gradual results. If your goal is to lose weight, be patient. Because 1 pound equals 3,500 calories, you might feel tempted to reduce weight loss to a simple formula: Let’s see ... if I burn away just 100 calories each day through exercise, I should lose 1 pound every 35 days.
Actually, the relationship between exercise and weight loss is complex. Many factors—including individual differences in metabolism and the type of exercise you do—affect the amount of weight you actually lose (Brody 2006). When you step on the bathroom scale, look for small changes over time rather than sudden, dramatic losses. Gradual weight loss is more healthy anyway—and easier to sustain over the long term.
Weight loss is just one potential benefit of exercise. Choosing to exercise can lift your mood, increase your stamina, strengthen your bones, stabilize your joints, and help prevent heart disease. It can also reduce your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and several forms of cancer. If you do resistance training—such as weight machines or elastic-band workouts—you’ll strengthen your muscles as well. For a complete fitness program, add stretching exercises to enjoy increased flexibility (Harvard Medical School 2009).
Before beginning any vigorous exercise program, consult a healthcare professional. This is critical if you are overweight, older than 60 years, in poor condition, or a heavy smoker, or if you have a history of health problems.
References
Brody, Jane. “Exercise = weight loss, except when it doesn’t.” New York Times, September 12, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/he...n/12brody.html (accessed November 8, 2012).
Harvard Medical School. HEALTHbeat: 20 No-Sweat Ways to Get More Exercise. Boston: Harvard Health Publications, 2008.
Harvard Medical School. HEALTHbeat Extra: The Secret to Better Health—Exercise. Boston: Harvard Health Publications, 2009.
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs: The Truth
The truth is that getting high can be fun. In our culture, and especially in our media, getting high has become synonymous with having a good time. Even if you don’t smoke, drink, or use other drugs, you are certain to come in contact with people who do.
For centuries, human beings have devised ways to change their feelings and thoughts by altering their body chemistry. The Chinese were using marijuana 5,000 years ago. Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, wrote about a group of people in Eastern Europe who threw marijuana on hot stones and inhaled the vapors. More recently, during the American Civil War, customers could buy opium and morphine at neighborhood stores (Weil and Rosen 1993, 45).
Today, we are still a drug-using society. Of course, some of those uses are therapeutic and lawful, including taking drugs as prescribed by a doctor or psychiatrist. The problem comes when we turn to drugs as the solution to any problem. Often, the first response to the question, “Are you uncomfortable?” is, “Take something.”
We live in times when reaching for instant comfort via chemicals is not only condoned but encouraged. If you’re bored, tense, or anxious, you can drink a can of beer, down a glass of wine, or light up a cigarette. If you want to enhance your memory, take a smart drug , which includes prescription stimulants and caffeine. And these are only the legal options. If you’re willing to take risks, you can pick from a large selection of illegal drugs on the street. And if that seems too risky, you can abuse prescription drugs.
There is a big payoff in using alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, cocaine, heroin, or other drugs—or people wouldn’t do it. The payoff can be direct, such as relaxation, self-confidence, comfort, excitement, or the ability to pull an all-nighter. At times, the payoff is avoiding rejection or defying authority.
In addition to the payoffs, there are costs. For some people, the cost is much greater than the payoff. Even if drug use doesn’t make you broke, it can make you crazy. This is not necessarily the kind of crazy where you dress up like Napoleon. Rather, it is the kind where you care about little else except finding more drugs—friends, school, work, and family be damned.
Substance abuse is only part of the picture. People can also relate to food, gambling, money, sex, and even work in compulsive ways.
Some people will stop abusing a substance or activity when the consequences get serious enough. Other people don’t stop. They continue their self-defeating behaviors, no matter the consequences for themselves, their friends, or their families. At that point, the problem goes beyond abuse. It’s addiction.
With addiction, the costs can include overdose, infection, and lowered immunity to disease. These can be fatal. Long-term heavy drinking, for example, damages every organ system in the human body. And about 440,000 Americans die annually from the effects of cigarette smoking, including secondhand smoke (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2011).
Lectures about the reasons for avoiding alcohol as well as drug abuse and addiction can be pointless. We don’t take care of our bodies because someone says we should. We might take care of ourselves when we see that the costs of using a substance outweigh the benefits.
Acknowledging that alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs can be fun infuriates a lot of people. Remember that this acknowledgment is not the same as condoning drug use. The point is this: People are more likely to abstain when they’re convinced that using these substances leads to more pain than pleasure over the long run. You choose. It’s your body.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Tobacco-related mortality.” CDC.gov.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...ted_mortality/
(published March 21, 2011; accessed November 8, 2012).
Weil, Andrew, and Winifred Rosen.
From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know
About Mind-Altering Drugs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.