Apart from avoiding crime and mishap, you also want
to stay as healthy as possible while you are abroad. Here are some
tips.
Obviously the normal admonitions about eating
right, about getting exercise, about getting sufficient rest, about
maintaining good personal hygiene and so forth continue to have
validity abroad. Because taking yourself abroad removes you from
daily routine in the most dramatic way, it may be difficult to
maintain the good health habits that you have formed at home. Do
make an effort to retain these habits. Not to do so is to make
yourself vulnerable to illness.
In connection with the preceding comments we want
to urge you to pay sufficient attention to stress as an element that
can undermine good health and weaken the immune system. For the
seasoned traveler and the novice adventurer alike, the business of
getting to and operating within a foreign country, of being very
much a stranger in a strange land, can be stressful. And stress can
be a highly corrosive, if subtle, health problem. Here the
admonition to “know thyself” has real force. If you recognize in
yourself a special vulnerability to stress—we all share this
vulnerability to some degree—it is imperative that you learn
effective stress-reduction techniques. Perhaps the simplest
stress-reduction measure is simply to share your concerns and
anxieties with others—with friends or program officials.
Although the state of one’s general health is
essentially a personal matter and a personal responsibility, we urge
you to be open with study abroad personnel about your pertinent
health history and areas of potential vulnerability. As part of your
preparations for a Chicago program abroad, you are asked to submit a
health questionnaire outlining chronic health problems, medications
taken regularly or sporadically, allergies, and dietary
restrictions. We expect you to take this questionnaire seriously and
complete it fully. Your answers will be held in confidence, shared
with study abroad personnel only on a need-to-know basis. Apart from
the questionnaire you should feel free to discuss any health
problem, current or potential, with the Academic Director of Study
Abroad in Chicago or the on-site director of your program. An open
and full disclosure in this regard is the best way to keep a health
problem from sabotaging your experience overseas.
In connection with the study abroad health
questionnaire and with the general proposition that the better your
health the more you're going to be able to profit from your studies,
we would like to suggest that you use your planned adventure abroad
as an occasion for a general physical check-up (including a good
look at your teeth). A periodic physical examination is, for all of
us, a prudent measure. For a student planning international travel,
even to a site not normally considered to present special health
risks, it is especially recommended. You can arrange for such an
examination at the Student Care Center (see below).
If you require a special medication, either in
regular doses or as a special remedy for medical flare-ups, you
should of course make sure that you have a quantity sufficient for
the duration of your program overseas. Going beyond this obvious
observation, we recommend that you take with you an extra supply of
the medication (say, half again the minimum amount needed). Why?
Because life is unpredictable, spills happen, bags are lost.
If you take a prescription medication be sure to
have a copy of the prescription on your person when you make your
way abroad. You might also wish to have a letter from your doctor
concerning the medication and your legitimate need for it. Such a
letter could be a potentially useful show-and-tell document for
customs officials.
Anyone who needs glasses needs two pairs of
glasses. If you use prescription glasses you should carry abroad
with you an extra pair as well as your optometrist's prescription
(this of course applies equally to contact lenses).
Most of the countries to which Chicago sends its
students require no special health precautions. Some do. Where
special precautions—especially prophylactic measures against endemic
disease—are required, Chicago requires program participants to
schedule a pre-departure appointment with the Student Care Center
(see below) or a family physician.
In many developing countries and in certain areas
of the developed world, travelers need to be wary of the local water
supply. If you are in such a region be sure to use bottled water
(for tooth brushing as well as drinking) and refrain from eating
uncooked food or food purchased from a street vendor (unless you
wash it thoroughly with bottled water).
In connection with the previous point, traveler’s
diarrhea is the most common complaint of those visiting a developing
country. Normally this is a temporary condition whose chief
danger—dehydration—is preventable by drinking plenty of fluids.
However, if you develop blood in your stool or an inability to take
in fluids, you must seek local medical attention immediately.
Good health includes good mental health. To
repeat what we said earlier, a full (confidential) disclosure of
continuing or potential problems is vitally important and indeed
expected. If you are or have been prey to emotional problems, we
urge you also to take the prudent step of consulting with a
therapist at the Student Counseling and Resource Service about your
travel plans and about how to insure a trouble-free experience
abroad. In regard to our earlier comments about stress, the
professionals at the SCRS can be helpful in teaching
stress-reduction techniques. The SCRS is located at 5737 S.
University Ave. To make an appointment call 773-702-9800.
We’re not doctors. To get sound advice before
departure consult the Student Care Center or your own physician. To
secure such advice as well as treatment while you are abroad, let
yourself be counseled by on-site personnel.
