Laci Green, a self-pronounced sexuality geek and YouTube star, started off the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) Month of Healthy Living with a bold interactive talk on the importance of sexual health. This talk was the preliminary event to a month put on by the students’ union that is chalked full of health-themed lessons to ensure Mount Allison students stay sexually, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and academically fit.

This week marks the first annual Pride Week put on by Catalyst MTA, a queer-straight alliance group on campus. Attending the queer-themed trivia night at The Pond on Thursday night 10:00 pm is highly recommended. Remember to show your pink patriotism all day Friday and wear your rosiest garments for Holding Hands Day. 

To assist you, Get REAL will be selling hats Thursday and Friday of this week in preparation for Pink Day. Accepting and supporting our diverse population at Mt. A is a huge contributor to health and wellness as a whole!

Nutritional awareness begins October 15, so keep your eyes peeled for fun reminders on portion control and what specific coloured foods our diets should see more of. Nutrition is the premium gasoline in our engines and remembering to eat with our stomachs and not with our brains is a huge challenge. Remember to load your plate with fifty per cent vegetables, legumes, and/or fruits, twenty-five per cent with a protein like grilled chicken or side of roasted tofu, and twenty-five per cent with a non-refined, preferably whole grain, carbohydrate. 

Nutrition week also includes a blood drive at the Civic Centre on October 15, and Relay for Life on Friday October 18. 

Finally, mental health awareness will begin during the last week of October with a few pending events on promoting life balance, and drugs and alcohol awareness. It’s also a good idea to attend meditation yoga at the Athletic Centre from 5:00-6:30 pm on Sunday October 27. Or you can always kick it up a notch and attend the campus-wide dodgeball game on Sunday October 20 at the Athletic Centre Gym. E-mail saccampuslife@mta.ca to register your team today! 

Additionally, all residence Academic Mentors will be hosting study/help sessions throughout October to keep your academic health just as strong and prosperous.

Keep your eyes open for updates from the MASU Facebook and Twitter log (#livewell) and remember to take responsibility for your health and wellness to ensure a successful and well-balanced school year. 

Stay healthy folks!

This week your biggest bodily issues (that maybe you didn’t even know existed) are explained and broken down into why it happens and what you can do about it!

Iron Man

Iron is one of the main deficiencies in many people’s diets and the leading cause for people to choose that “comfy couch with a bowl of popcorn watching Orange is the New Black for five hours a day” option. If this sounds all-too familiar, you may be lacking a fundamental mineral that can boost your energy levels and give you the power to get up and get physical. If you are woman with a heavy menstrual cycle or an avid vegetarian, you are at the most risk of the sluggish effect. Ensure red meats are introduced into your diet more often or even fish and poultry. If you don’t agree with meats, then soybeans, lentils, spinach, and fortified cereals should be on that grocery list. Lastly, orange juice is known to assist in the absorption of iron so don’t be afraid to get your juice on in the morning!

Calm, cool, and collected

 Refined carbs, refined carbs, and refined carbs. These little devils that contain white flour (like cookies, breads, and cereals) are stripped of any nutritional value and cause blood sugar levels to skyrocket. Once this occurs, excessive insulin is released to counter-react the sugars and you may feel anything but calm, cool, and collected. Hello jitters! It doesn’t even end there. Once your blood sugar plummets again you go right back to feeling like a dead slug with no inhibitions. This is a vicious cycle that too many of us allow ourselves to get trapped in. So, remember to stick to unrefined carbs like brown rice, whole-grain pasta and bread, or even quinoa and amaranth! These whole grains will help you keep naturally balanced between calm and energized.

Sharpest tool in the shed

A lack of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12 may not be the sole reason you failed that calculus test, but they may have a contributing factor! Omega-3 is loaded with DHA, which promotes healthy neuron firing. This comes in handy when writing tests and your attention and memory are vital contributors. Vitamin B12 is linked to confusion and numbness. How to fix this? Again, fish comes up as a hot contender. Eat salmon, mackerel, trout, and tuna to ensure you stay sharp, clear, and in control (especially around mid-term season).

Bloated like a balloon? Are cramps cramping yours style? Stay tuned for next week’s article to hear how these adversities can be tamed. Until then, take this advice seriously and challenge yourself to implement a few of these points! Stay healthy folks!

– See more at: http://argosy.ca/article/weekly-wellness-tips-kick-your-meal-plan-back-shape#sthash.2bzBiOOD.dpuf

Maintaining a healthy sex life is crucial in many emotional, spiritual, and, of course, physical ways. As humans, we rely greatly on the sense of touch and on physical actions to release endorphins that provoke a euphoric state. What if we could combine this blissful activity with a rigorous and efficient workout to maximize the time spent with loved ones?

Sexercise is characterized by combining sexual intercourse with simple other activities that amplify calorie burn, increase flexibility, and raise the heart rate. All of these provide huge health benefits, and the moment your heart starts racing, your blood starts flowing, calories start burning, and things ‘heat up’ in more ways than one.

Whilst in the sack, ensure you are an active participant, not a not-so innocent bystander. Help each other out with the workload by following the ‘give and take routine’. This involves alternating sex positions so that each partner gets an even workout, and one partner isn’t stuck with a muscle cramp halfway through. Remember to engage your core during any act. This will tighten that mid-section and burn fat like nobody’s business. Yoga can also be integrated into the bedroom’s activities by incorporating any positions known by one or both partners. This will also greatly increase flexibility and can initiate a more spiritual intimate time.

Now women, remember to tighten those Kegel muscles anytime you can, as this strengthens vaginal muscles and boosts arousal.

For men, next time you are at the gym, make sure to loosen those hips through running, spinning, squats, and lunges, as this will promote blood flow and increase libido.

Additionally remember that stretching is crucial. If it doesn’t fit into your foreplay routine, ensure after trying any new sexercises that you give your muscles a nice stretch to release any tension or stiffness.

Stay healthy folks!!

Célina Boothby is Mount Allison University’s Health Intern

Just what e-cigarettes are and the role they play in our health varies greatly, depending on whom you speak with. There is great debate as to whether these are small health devices that can condition heavy smokers into weaning themselves off consistent smoking, or whether these machines have become gateway devices for many younger and more curious members of our society.

In a recent Centers for Disease Control & Prevention study, there has been a rise in middle- and high-school students trying such e-cigarettes. With eighty-eight per cent of today’s adult smokers beginning when they were adolescents, many health professionals are worried that e-cigarettes could be that initial exposure to tobacco related products that spark a lifetime of addiction. Health Canada told stores to pull e-cigarettes that contain nicotine off their shelves in 2009, but people are still purchasing them online.

Contrarily, others are praising e-cigarettes. Due to the fact that the harmful part of cigarettes is during the combustion of the tobacco and up to 4,000 other toxins, e-cigarettes eliminate that aspect, while still providing a nicotine fix. Nicotine isn’t everything though; the physical habit of smoking a cigarette is what people crave just as much. These e-cigarettes can provide an alternative to this familiar action of puffing, but without the harmful effects. So these little devices are eliminating virtually all the chemicals, all the smoke, and are not poisoning the people around us.
Evidently, there are many different positions on the pros and cons of e-cigarettes but always remember it is up to each individual to make an informed decision. Stay healthy folks!

– See more at: http://argosy.ca/article/weekly-wellness-e-cigarettes-rise-popularity#sthash.TeTM04tR.dpuf

College life opens up many new and exciting freedoms for young adults. You are finally on your own and you should be excited to start this new chapter! But let’s remember during this chaotic educational experience to stop and reflect on what our bodies are telling us.

“Dorm life” can shock your healthy routine and throw you into a downward spiral of bad food choices and lack of overall physical activity. Meal plans force you to eat the food provided, you have limited space in those closet-sized dorms, and the roommate may not always appreciate with your early morning workout.

But fret not: the freshman fifteen is an elective experience, if you so choose. 

The American College of Sports Medicine found that both male and female college students eat approximately 500 additional calories between the hours of 8 pm and 4 am. That’s the time when our noses are pressed to our books, and we feel a study break should be rewarded by a quick chip or cookie pit stop. Instead of reaching for salty and sugary options (that really only leave you feeling unfulfilled and craving more) we should snatch foods that are low in calories but contain an amino acid called tryptophan (that releases the feel-good hormone). Things like bananas, oats, poultry, and honey all contain this magic amino acid that will get you through that Anthropology paper and on your way to catching some much needed sleep. 

Try some of these super easy and nutritional snacks:

1/4 cup plain oatmeal (74 calories) with one extra small mashed banana (73 calories) = 147 calories

1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt (100 calories) sprinkled with 1/8 cup granola (60 calories) = 160 calories

1 slice whole-wheat toast (100 calories) topped with half an ounce shredded mozzarella cheese (36 calories) = 136 calories

A small handful of unsalted, raw nuts (almonds, peanuts, even pumpkin seeds) for some good proteins.

As a rule, keep snacks before bedtime limited to around 150 calories or less. Carbohydrates will release that amino acid called tryptophan, which will give you a mood boost but still allow you to sleep when that holy time comes. Try and choose whole grain options, as these will provide you with more fibre and vitamins. Also, remember to get up every once and awhile and take a brisk walk down the hall and back to get those endorphins rolling again and keep you awake! The body always appreciates physical activity.

Stay healthy folks!

A Canadian campus survey, conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, reported students at Atlantic Canadian universities are almost fifteen per cent more likely to encounter problem drinking than the rest of the country.

Alcohol stems back to the Neolithic Era and has remained a prominent part of society to this day. This depressant is deeply rooted in society and is very common at social gatherings.

In September 2011, nineteen year old student Jonathan Andrews died after a night of dorm room drinking games during his first week at Acadia University. According to Maclean’s magazine, he had told his parents that he wanted to “make as many friends during the very important first few weeks on campus.”

In 2010, Maclean’s also stated that Queen’s University felt the wrath of alcohol when Cameron Bruce fell out of a sixth floor window of his residence building during orientation week. Later that year, another Queen’s student, Habib Khan was killed after falling through a rooftop skylight at Duncan McArthur Hall. In addition, at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, rookie volleyball player Andrew Bartlett died when he tumbled down a set of stairs in October 2010 after a team initiation party.

So how safest to consume alcohol? Of course, Orientation Week is a huge social gathering time where alcohol has a huge presence. This transition time can trap many first year students (who possibly have never tried alcohol, let alone experienced intoxication) into a corner where their morals and self control are put to the test. This is not to say that you can never indulge in the experience of social drinking, but I am hoping to influence your decisions as to the extent of intoxication that is achieved during this time of the academic year.

Residences are the primary place of alcohol consumption for first year Mounties because of age restrictions. Every residence holds similar rules regarding consumption of this powerful beverage, but here are a few simple tips to follow to ensure the ‘Three Stooges’, Mo, Jack, and Jose are your friends, not foes.

Keep a running tab on how many drinks you’ve consumed in one night and on a weekly level, just to put things in perspective. Remember alcohol is packed with calories too!

Nobody likes to party on an empty stomach so ensure a starchy meal is enjoyed before the festivities begin in order to aid your body in soaking up the alcohol.

Know your body. Sometimes the alcohol takes time to set in so beware when taking shots and you appear ‘to not feel it yet’. It will inevitably ‘hit you’ and this is usually how students pass their limits.

If you can, go dancing, go running, or go skipping (in a safe manner) to keep you distracted from staying idle and drinking due to boredom.

Lastly, at the end of a big night, drink plenty of water, since alcohol will dehydrate you, to avoid the infamous hangover the next day.

Remember Mounties, university is the time for new experiences and to grow as a person. Make sure to look out for each other as we are a tight-knit family and want to share a responsible relationship with the ‘Three Stooges’.

– See more at: http://argosy.ca/article/weekly-wellness-3#sthash.TYBKwG6A.dpuf