The general physical check-up that was carried out on this year’s freshmen earlier this semester reveals an alarming sign on their body weight which in turn is a reflection of their life style. According to the health reports on 5063 students compiled by the Office of Student Affairs, it is found that nearly half of them (49%) suffer from either overweight or underweight issues. One fifth of them require Hepatitis B inoculation whereas 83 students were identified as carriers who have been subjected to regular treatment and check-up ever since.

At a closer look at the statistics on weight, those who suffer from weight problems, 24 percent of them are underweight, whereas 25 percent are overweight. Among the overweight, 42 of them have obesity and 214 of the underweight are seriously thin. The causes for overweight are well known such as consumption of fatty and greasy food and a sedative lifestyle. Conversely, the causes for underweight are more perplexing. According to the analysis of some students on their peers, it seems that a distorted body image is involved. They said that even when some of their classmates learned that they had standard weight, they still wanted to lose weight.

Apart from weight, blood and urine tests also indicate some degree of abnormality in students’ dietary habits. The most worrying is that 234 students have been diagnosed with chronic hepatitis viral diseases, but other types of abnormality have also been detected and if not dealt with appropriately, chronic diseases can easily develop from them. These abnormalities include urine sugar (N=70), urine protein (N=321), cholesterol level (N=573) and uric acid (N=416). The last one affects men more than women (15.3% to 0.85%) and is attributed to high purine in their daily diet. Rich foods such as liver, sardines and even asparagus contain a high level of such nutrition. Apparently, the best way of preventing all these above ailments is to maintain a healthy weight, lower stress level and exercise regularly. The golden rule is always that prevention is better than cure.

Sanitation and Fitness Section, who organized the check-up, has already distributed the results to each freshman class concerned. Should any query arises, students can turn to them for further explanation. The section also organized another check-up in October in which 126 people participated. The results are equally alarming as nearly half of them (45%) demonstrate high cholesterol and uric acid levels. Chang Yu-ming, the head of the section, reminds all faculty, staff and students alike to ensure a balanced diet and lifestyle.(~Ying-hsueh Hu)

UPDATE： 2010/09/27 CLICKS： 1361 DOWNLOADS：