GENERAL HEALTH during study abroad.

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. You may also wish to consult the web site of the federal government’s Center for Disease Control.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• A good general resource for students about to embark upon international travel is the Student Care Center, which is located in Suite R-100 (first floor, R corridor) in the University Medical Center. You can make an appointment by calling 773-702-4156. The SCC personnel are experienced in giving solid information and advice for international travelers and are happy to answer your general as well as site-specific health-related questions. You can also look to the SCC for a variety of laboratory tests, inoculations, and prescriptions.
  
  
• 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.