How to Stay Healthy in the Dorms
Avoiding the Cold and Flu Season in College Housing
Achoo! This invaluable guide to surviving the crush and crowd of dormitory living will help you keep the sneeze, cough, runny nose and sore throat at bay.
Sickness carries a different significance in a dormitory. Friends and neighbors may express sympathy, but secretly want to run away and stay away. Without mothers with warm chicken noodle broth and doctors on a moment’s notice, illness becomes one of the greater burdens in college life. So what can one do to stay healthy?
Stay Alert
Cold and flu season lasts all year long when students are packed into a building, sharing bathrooms, cups and pillows. The most important healing tool is prevention. Notice when a floormate and especially a roommate starts complaining about a sore throat, coughing and other symptoms. Luckily, snooping is easier in such close quarters as well. Is there suddenly an influx of tissues in the trashcan? Be careful.
Wash Your Hands
The simplest method is the most effective. Wash the hands! However, many people think it sufficient to soap and rinse quickly after using the bathroom. Make sure to thoroughly wash hands many times a day, not only after using the toilet. If this is too inconvenient, pick up some cheap antibacterial hand wash and keep those fingers squeaky-clean.
Sleep!
Papers and midterms and parties, oh my! Without parents and curfews, it’s easy to fall into a destructive pattern of all-nighters alternating with 16-hour comas. But not only can this hurt schoolwork and increase your stress, it can reduce the power of the immune system. A May 2007 study at the Stanford University School of Medicine revealed a link between illness and sleep patterns by infecting fruit flies with different diseases. Do a body a favor and slow down every night for at least six hours.
Leave the Sickies Alone
When friends get ill, it's natural to want to be there for them – cheer them up, give them an encouraging hug, cradle their aching heads. But if a friend is really sick, avoid contact! Don’t desert them; feel free to drop off a card or bring over a water bottle, but make the encounters short and sweet. The sick friends will understand; often, they just want some peace and quiet. Now is the time to give them their space.
Heal Quickly
Oh no! Despite best efforts, the disease has conquered. Headaches kill on the walk to class and listening to long lectures makes the nausea even worse. What can one do? First, don’t be afraid of medication – Advil, Tylenol, choose a drug. The pace of college life is so fast that one often can’t afford to ignore school for two weeks, so drug up and face the music. But cut down on everything else! Sleep more, eat healthier, relax completely and if all goes well, improvements should show in no time at all. However, if symptoms persist or worsen, contact a doctor and make sure that nasty cold isn’t really pneumonia.
Feel free to seek out more information on the websites of the universities' health services. At UC Berkeley, the Tang Center can offer more of the same advice about preventing and healing colds and flus.
Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not providing medical advice. Those who are ill should consult a doctor before taking any medications.
