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In our previous article, we spoke about student wellness and how to begin your wellness journey. In addition to the suggestions we provided, such as exercising and being gentler with yourself, we thought it would be important to remind students of the importance of regular physical health check-ups.

As a student with limited funds, visiting doctors for regular health inspections may seem like an option that is out of reach. However, there are cost-effective ways to take care of your health and we are here to shed some light on a few.

UNIVERSITY STUDENT WELLNESS FACILITIES

Depending on the university or college you attend, each campus offers some form of health service or counselling service. These services are meant to advance students physical, emotional and mental wellness. The services are centred on assisting students to make healthy lifestyle choices in relation to nutrition, sexual health, and stress management. With most students back on campus now, this option might be the most viable.

UNISA has a Student Health & Wellness centre that recognises the importance of healthy living for students and offers an array of programs and services designed to promote physical health and emotional and mental wellness. The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has a Student Counselling Reception that provides wellness activities and programmes that range from physical wellness to social wellness. At the Central University of Technology in the Free State, the Wellness Centre is responsible for providing services that range from health and psychological counselling services, social work services and academic support.

Additionally, the University of Rhodes has the Wellness Health Care Centre (HCC) which has a nurse on duty or on-call 24 hours a day. The HCC offers free admissions for all students and further provides support for students with stress, anxiety, and depression. The University of Fort Hare has a Student Counselling Unit that provides counselling for personal, emotional, spiritual, academic as well as social problems. Lastly, the University of the Western Cape has a Campus Health & Wellness Centre that has modern and well-staffed facilities for students’ health-related concerns.  

The universities and colleges mentioned above are provided as examples so that students begin to comprehend that student wellness is within their reach on campuses. With this knowledge, it is up to the student to do further research on what wellness services are offered at their specific university or college.

PHYSICAL HEALTH EXAMINATIONS

Understandably, most students are discouraged from taking more active steps with regard to their wellbeing because of monetary limitations.  However, pharmacies such as Clicks, Dis-chem and Local Choice have experienced nurses that provide consultations and offer basic medical care and advice regarding blood pressure, blood sugar, diabetes testing as well as cholesterol testing and monitoring. As of February 2021, a consultation with a nurse at Dis-chem costs R70, a blood pressure check is R35, a cholesterol test is R85 and a vitamin B12 injection is R60.

Importantly, certain Dis-Chem, Clicks and Local Choice clinics offer pap smears, breast exams as well as family planning services. These procedures may also be available at Marie Stopes clinics, mobile clinics and campus clinics. Numerous reports suggest that young people often think that cancer only affects older people and in a bid to debunk this – we encourage all our students to look into getting pap smears regularly in order to detect cervical cancer and any other conditions such as infections and inflammation. During certain months, Dis-Chem offers pap smears at their Wellness Clinics for just R180.

DENTAL SERVICES

Equally important to physical health is oral health. Because of a lack of awareness and information, most students associate dentists with medical aid or excessive fees. Would you believe us if we told you that there are government facilities that offer free dental services?

The government hospital in your area has a division dedicated to oral health and on top of this, there are government dental clinics such as the Cape Town Dental Clinic that offer free dental services. It is advisable for students to be proactive about their health and do further research on the free and affordable dental services that might be available in their area.

CONCLUSION

What we have emphasised with these articles is the importance of student wellness and how it encompasses both emotional and physical health. When in doubt about certain health-related concerns, always do your research and never let your social standing as a student hinder you from accessing free or affordable health services.

From the beginning of the panic that has been presented by the Coronavirus pandemic, a lot has been written and taught about the importance of wellbeing; and it’s with good reason.

The further you age, the more it becomes clearer with each gym, yoga, or therapy session that nothing else is as important as maintaining a steady bill of all-around health.

Wellness, then, is the daily practice of making judgments and taking action towards a healthy and satisfying life.

Wellness goes beyond mental health 

A great benefit of human health is that it does not carry a universally accepted definition. People have intuitive and thus different perceptions of wellness. This dynamic allows for a deeper exploration of the different branches of health – over and above your mental health.

Your wellness as a student also incorporates emotional stability, sleeping and thinking patterns, paying attention to nutrition, the ability to love and accept love easily, creativity, embracing change with grace, well-managed finances, and the consistent experience of calmness and balanced spirituality.

How regular exercise leads to solid health

Steady health and wellness might be less important to focus on when you’re young and athletic. However, it becomes critical as you continue to age; regular exercise and balanced nutrition go a long way in helping prevent an array of illnesses and act as an antidote for poor health habits.

Working out consistently may also help:

• Improve the quality of your sleep.

• Help keep your thinking, learning and judgment skills strong as you age. Exercise is famous for stimulating the body to release proteins and other chemicals that improve the structure and performance of your brain.
• Strengthen your muscles and bones. Activities that stretch and build muscles can help increase and maintain your strength.
• Reduce the risk of heart disease. Exercise strengthens the heart and improves blood flow; regular exercise can lower your blood pressure levels.
• Help control your weight. Along with diet, exercise plays an essential role in maintaining weight and preventing obesity.

Think about this for a moment: do you pay attention to wellbeing after a major health incident, OR, do you carry a consistent focus on your health?

From our related article on the topic, we established that taking a proactive approach to health is a much better play.

How to exercise

Reading this article all this way is the first step on your journey to an improved body, mind, and spirit.

The 5-minute workout film (visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLLScgWQcHc ) is a basic representation of a workout because before you can pursue fitness, there needs to be consistency; fitness is much a mental game as it is physical. You need to teach the mind to make a switch, to ditch old/negative habits, and adopt healthy patterns.

After a few weeks of following the home workout, the body will indicate that it’s ready to take on more reps. That is the moment you will begin to have a more focused relationship with consistent exercise, meditation, and fitness.

To that end, please take the following pointers into consideration:

Throw out the now-or-never approach

The practice of gradually adding minimal amounts of pressure to your exercises will have a great effect on your mental, emotional and spiritual health in the long run.

Be gentler with yourself

The most important rule as you improve your relationship with your health: never be harsh with yourself about your body, your current fitness level (it’s a reality that can always be changed), or your lack of self-discipline during some weeks.

It is important to learn to see previous mistakes and unhealthy habits as teachable moments, not moments to throw in the proverbial towel.

Other helpful guidelines:

• Monitor your expectations well.
• Interrogate the underlying reasons why you want to be healthy and fit.
• Expecting explosive results in a short space of time will only lead to frustration.
• Never focus obsessively on results, rather focus on nailing down consistency. Everything else will follow at the back of that.

More than anything the past year has made us think deeply about the relationship we have with our health. Up until then, many of us have never really felt forced to introspect the relationship we have with our health. That decision has always been left to our parents and guardians to handle; book us doctor appointments when we are ill, force us to eat our vegetables, go to the dentist and finish our medication. But what happens when you start becoming young adults, move away from home and you don’t always have guardians around to keep you accountable. Essentially when you transition into adulthood and you have to start being accountable for your health. Being healthy does contribute to our energy, productivity, and even happiness. But have you ever taken the time the time to think about how proactive or even reactive you are about your health?

Proactivity vs Reactivity

The main difference between being proactive and being reactive regarding your health is that reactivity is activated action in response to a pain, symptom, or warning sign, whereas proactivity is conscious action irrespective of any trigger.

Proactivity is essentially a state of mind that forces us you to be conscious and in tune with your body. Being proactive is the practice of considering these health choices BEFORE problems arise rather than after. To put it simply, proactivity is getting up and being active because you know that exercise brings with it many benefits, and eventually you’ll reap the rewards. Proactivity is also making informed, timely choices about your nutrition and physical health.

Things to consider for being more proactive:

Maintain a physically active lifestyle

Maintaining a physically active lifestyle is important, whether it’s running, jogging, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking instead of taking public transport just to keep your muscles moving. It’s no secret that being mobile has copious benefits not only on your physical health but your mental health too.

Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine

Another form of proactivity is getting the COVID-19 vaccination. You’re choosing to be proactive, because once again “prevention is better than cure”.  Once you receive your first shot, your body begins producing antibodies to the coronavirus. These antibodies help your immune system fight the virus if you happen to be exposed, so it reduces your chance of getting the disease.

It’s true that you can still become infected after being vaccinated, but once more of the population is vaccinated, those chances are further reduced thanks to something called herd immunity. So, getting vaccinated not only reduces your chance of being infected but also contributes to community protection, reducing the likelihood of virus transmission.

Being open to Therapy or Counselling – even if you’re not struggling from a mental illness

When people think of therapy, they think of this intense process that is meant for people who might be clinically depressed, going through a traumatic experience, or suffering from anxiety. According to Business Insider in an article titled: 9 reasons, you can benefit from therapy even if you don’t have a mental illness, “Therapy promotes tools that can improve your relationship with yourself and your brain, something that everyone can benefit from”. It can also serve as a mirror, an objective mirror to openly discuss your feelings in a judgment-free zone, a zone that is not always something we’re privileged to have.

It can also help you navigate big life decisions. In between the transitioning from a high school student to a tertiary student to an employee, there are major life decisions that need to be made. Maybe you just need someone to help you weigh a decision about work, relationships, varsity, and even family. It can also help with having uncomfortable conversations – learning how to express yourself. Expressing your expectations, needs, and dissatisfaction to those around you.

Another misconception is that therapy is about negative issues only. In most cases, talking about the positive things in your relationships and in your life that make you happy, can allow you to be even happier about them. In other words, help you see things that are good as great because we often tend to downplay the big accolades in our lives.

Reactionary

In contrast, reactivity is taking action only when you’re in pain. Prioritizing your health after symptoms develop is being reactive. Being proactive gives us an option to potentially avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy body, to begin with.

What do you think sounds more beneficial for your overall health and wellbeing? As you consider this question, remember that both proactivity and reactivity are largely a state of mind. If you tell yourself that you want to be in tune with your body, it will happen. However, if you are nonchalant about your body and mental health, this might have negative effects later in your life that could have been easily prevented.