Although college students may feel invincible, their lifestyles could be having a negative impact on their health in the long run.
According to Bill Jackson, associate director of campus recreation for lifetime wellness and fitness, the first and most important part of feeling young and healthy is to stay active through exercise.
"You can be active by walking to class, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from where you're going to shop and walking, so there are many ways to be active, but staying active is extremely important," Jackson said. "I think it's at the top of the list."
According to Jackson, the Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes to an hour of moderate intensity exercise at least five days a week.
Auburn provides numerous ways for students to stay active through intramural sports, club sports, group fitness activities, personal training and free play at campus recreation.
"These activities are varied enough that everyone should be able to find something that they enjoy doing that will keep them active," Jackson said.
Jackson said he thinks the second most important thing students can do to stay healthy is to abstain from using tobacco products, followed by getting enough sleep.
"I think that's probably where college students fail as much as anything else is trying to burn the candle at both ends by staying up late partying or studying," Jackson said. "Research is fairly clear that at least seven consecutive hours of sleep per night is what most people need to maintain their health."
Jackson said that although college students may get seven hours of sleep in a 24-hour time span, it is the consecutive sleep that is most important.
Poor health habits will begin impacting a person's health almost immediately, and it is important to establish a healthy lifestyle at a young age.
"One thing I always tell students is you have more free time at college than you will ever have again the rest of your life because once they leave college and get a full-time job, get married, have children and other responsibilities come in, if they have not developed a healthy lifestyle, the chances of them doing it after they graduate is probably very small," Jackson said.
According to Jessica-Lauren Roberts, dietician and nutrition adviser for the lifetime wellness and fitness program on campus, diet also has a huge impact on how a person ages and that person's quality of life.
She said two critical aspects of diet are staying hydrated and eating fresh food that is as close to its natural state as possible.
"Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that help eliminate free radicals and reduce our risk for aging as well as G.I. problems that you hear about as people start to get older," Roberts said.
Diet also affects a person's appearance from gaining weight and building muscle to how your skin, hair and nails look, Roberts said.
"If you're looking for a way to make yourself look pretty by what you eat then you can always use the motivation that there are good fats and those help you with appearance," Roberts said.
Proper hydration is essential for flushing out toxins in the body and adding moisture to the skin to decrease wrinkles, said Robin King-Grant, a nurse with New York Life and a nursing degree from the University of Mississippi.
"It's important not to expose your skin to sunlight for more than 20 minutes per day maximum, and if you need to go out for longer than that wear a sunscreen," King-Grant said.
She said a sun protection factor of at least 30 is recommended.
Although sunlight can have adverse effects on aging, such as being the primarily contributor to skin cancer and wrinkles, 20 minutes of sunlight every day is needed to live a healthy lifestyle, Grant-King said.
Roberts said there are people that may be able to eat foods that are poor for their health and not actually gain weight, but those foods are still damaging.
"Saturated fats are over time accumulating in their bodies and clogging their arteries, and then at 45 they end up having a heart attack or something of that nature--they're not seeing the warning signs," Roberts said.
Roberts said that prevention is much better than treatment, and therefore it is critical that students establish healthy habits now.
It is also important for students to familiarize themselves with their family history in regards to high blood pressure, diabetes and other health issues, as well as have routine physicals, Roberts said.
"There are 10- and 12-year-olds that are being diagnosed with high cholesterol," Roberts said.
A genetic predisposition to these conditions means it's even more crucial for students to be proactive and begin the prevention process.
Although these conditions can be a result of genetics, the most likely cause is being overweight, Grant-King said.
Roberts, like Jackson, also said getting enough rest so that the body can repair itself plays a major role in living a healthy lifestyle, and sleep is also an important part of the fat burning process.
Grant-King said drinking, tobacco use and a general sense of feeling invincible are the most common and most destructive unhealthy habits she sees in college students.
"Everybody gets old," Jackson said. "Just because today you don't think that's an issue, what you're doing today is going to going to have an impact on your body five years, 10 years or 50 years from now."
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