It’s easy to overlook your health when you are going through college. Not only will classes, assignments, and looming deadlines keep you busy and preoccupied throughout most of the year, but the majority of students are also quite young. And if you’re in your 20s or even your late teens and have never been seriously ill in your life, it’s easy not to worry about your health beyond looking up where you land on a BMI calculator.
However, being able to keep tabs on your health is a skill worth having during your college years. Not only so you can spot when something is going wrong, but so you can get ahead of potential future problems.
Health and future risks
It’s much easier to permanently damage your health in your 20s than most people realize. Obvious candidates like drinking, smoking, and drug abuse can all cause lasting damage, but it goes beyond that. Chronic stress and lack of sleep can both have long-term consequences to your mental and physical health. And even something as simple as brushing your teeth can affect you for all your life.
It’s often easy to get caught up thinking that if you pay the dentist they’ll make problems disappear. But dental work doesn’t last as well as your own dental structure, which means you’ll need more dental work down the line in order to maintain the repairs made today.
Finally, there are a plethora of medical problems that can be uncovered and treated much earlier when students a) pay attention to their own health and b) don’t skip on those regular appointments we should all be getting every year. And encouraging students to do both is an effort that both university staff and the student body can undertake together.
Staying on top of your health
The crux of the issue lies in one of the most boring facets of medicine: maintenance and regular check-ups. It’s important to get your bloodwork done, your eyes checked, and your teeth properly inspected and cleaned at least once a year, if not more.
There are also a variety of ways you can check for health problems and take better care of yourself. We already mentioned proper oral hygiene, but there is also a lot to be gained from spotting and treating caries early, so regularly inspecting your teeth is a good idea.
Keep an eye for other signs of health problems, such as trouble sleeping, recurrent headaches, unexplained pains, and more. It’s too easy to focus on your studies and hopes that minor symptoms go away, but recurring issues can be a sign of a deeper underlying condition.
The consequences of poor health
Exercising and healthy dieting, of course, also count as maintenance and self-care, and they can offer a variety of benefits for students in particular. Chief among them is their benefit to mental health, given that dietary changes and an active lifestyle can help mitigate the negative effects of stress, anxiety, depression, and more. It’s not a cure necessarily, but it does often help.
Staying healthy can also improve your energy levels and help improve the quality of your sleep, both of which can have a positive impact on your academic performance and overall quality of life.
On top of that, there are other benefits to becoming active in your younger years. It’s generally easier to achieve and maintain great cardiovascular health if you start exercising when you’re young, even if you stop doing it for several years before starting up again. Muscle memory is a real thing, and it can benefit you for the rest of your life.