October 26, 2007
Vol. 135, Issue 17

(Joshua Chan)

Health and Wellness

Featuring tasty and nutritious recipes to help you stay happy, healthy and fit.

Working and playing hard

The infamous “work hard, play hard” atmosphere defines the university experience for many Queen’s students—a phenomenon that Health, Counseling, and Disability Services director Mike Condra calls “binge culture.”

Dealing with depression

Heather knew her depression was beyond the point of psychiatry and simple discussion when she felt like she was burdening her friends, whom she had turned to many times for support. The Sci ’09 student, who requested her last name be withheld, was prescribed the anti-depressant medication Effexor XR by a physician at HCDS this past September. She has been on the medication for just over a month.

How healthy is your plate?

Hotel Dieu nutritionist analyzes five days of student eating.

Alternative eating habits

For some, imagining a life without hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, bacon, veal, and other meats is unthinkable. For vegans and vegetarians, who choose to abstain from consuming meat and other animal products in their diets, it’s a reality. Vegetarianism has a number of derivatives, each with its own preferences to what products they consume, but all of them have one thing in common: they don’t eat red meat or chicken.

The winter blues’ big brother

It’s that time of year again, when the weather gets colder and the days get shorter. For many people, the grey weather will bring with it some seasonal blues. For some, feeling down in the winter is an understatement. According to the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA), an estimated two to four per cent of the northern hemisphere’s population suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of seasonal clinical depression that’s irritating at best and debilitating at worst.

Do-it-yourself health

As the school year progresses and work starts to pile up, so do our excuses for not taking care of ourselves. Home cooking becomes reheating and exercise becomes reading. It requires some energy right? Because October seems to bring with it the realization that all your healthy goals and resolutions for this university year won’t come to fruition, the Journal has put together 10 ways you can fit a healthy lifestyle into your busy schedule.

The student’s physician

Dr. Meredith MacKenzie knows student health. She has been seeing patients at Queen’s Health, Counselling and Disability Services (HCDS) since 2001, which makes her one of the longest-serving doctors at Queen’s Health Services. MacKenzie said she has stayed on at HCDS because she enjoys working with students.

Repaying your sleep debt

University students having trouble getting enough shut-eye may benefit from the wisdom of a toddler’s sleeping patterns: take regular naps. Meghan Perrott, Artsci ’08, said she naps to cope with late nights and early mornings. Perrott said she ensures that when she naps, she sets and alarm and typically sleeps for less than an hour.

Sweating underground

In a few years, the Queen’s Centre will be home to reputed world-class gym facilities: a 25-metre pool, basketball and volleyball courts with space for 2,000 spectators and 2,392 square-metres of cardio equipment, weights and strength training equipment. Until that time students will have to slog it out underground. To be fair, the PEC does have all the requisite equipment that a gym should have: weights, treadmills and workout machines.

Previously in Supplement