Mines promotes healthy lifestyle with Wellness fair

At the Mines’ Wellness Fair, health advocates from Golden and surrounding areas came to provide health tips and information, offer relaxation tips, and some gave out free massages. This year’s Health Fair featured over 40 stands ranging from physical therapists to nutritionists to cancer fundraisers.

A Body Mass Index (BMI) stand measured students’ BMI and gave them recommendations on what percentage of fat they had from essential fat, to obesity. “The average male student had 15% BMI and average female had 20% BMI,” said representative Ben Fox from the BMI stand. He also recommended that students need to workout more often, and be more active.

Golden Physical Therapy’s (Golden PT’s) stand handed out free t-shirts and had a raffle for a gift basket. According to Marlena Diedrich, Physical Therapist Assistant, students are “stressed,” which leads to “less eating, poor choices, and less exercise.” She also said that students “often lead a sedentary lifestyle due to their studies and need to get more exercise.”

According to Erica Shifflett from Golden PT, “The most common reason students come [to Golden PT] is due to injuries related to sports, such as ACL tears, ankle sprains, and other knee injuries.” When asked about what has been amazing in her work, she said, “People come in weak and unable to walk and after only three months of dedicated rehab are able to walk and more.”

Anne Wilfong, a nurse practitioner, demonstrated the effect of sugar content in common sodas, energy drinks, and coffee by displaying several cups filled with sugar next to the different beverages. Students often turn to these drinks as sources of caffeine to keep focused and stay awake during late night study sessions. And while energy drinks contained some of the highest sugar contents of all the drinks displayed, an average cup of black coffee contained approximately three times more caffeine than most energy drinks such as red bull and monster while having much less sugar. As a response, Wilfong recommended that students “get a good night’s sleep… drink less sodas and energy drinks to have lower sugar intake,” and that, “Coffee is good for you in moderation.”

At another stand, Carol Ann Bowles of The Greater Golden Chamber of Commerce said that Mines has “a great campus with dedicated students and an engaged community.” Furthermore, she recommends that students “connect with themselves and find their true path by relaxing and taking time to enjoy life.”