College life may be a fun and exciting adventure to look forward to, but it’s far from the easiest stage in life. The average college student must learn strong multitasking and time management skills in order to keep up with tests, assigned readings, papers and projects all while working a part-time job in order to pay for bills, gas and groceries.

There are many techniques a college student can employ in order to handle today’s fast-past lifestyle; for example, study groups can be extremely beneficial for cutting down on work load. But there’s another aid students are getting their hands on, and it’s called the “The College Study Drug,” also known as Adderall.  The following is an infographic from LearnStuff.com with statistics concerning the drug.

Adderall is a prescription drug used to treat those who have been diagnosed with ADHD. It helps those who have issues with concentrating to tune into the task at hand.

So what’s the problem? The prescription drug is being abused by millions of college students across campuses all over the country. It’s been found that Adderall can be as addictive as cocaine and meth, and not all of those taking the drug actually have a prescription for it.

Another major issue is the drinking problem for those taking the drug. Nine out of 10 students who are illegally consuming Adderall are also binge drinking. In addition, it’s been found that abusive Adderall takers are more likely to to abuse other drugs as well.

Below is a list of statistics regarding the abuse of “The College Study Drug.”

• Since 2007, prescriptions for ADHD have risen 26%
• 8% of American children have ADHD
• 7 million students are abusing their ADHD treatments
• Emergency calls about students misusing ADHD drugs are up 76% since 2011
• 12% of high school seniors, 40% of college students, and 50% juniors and seniors have used a prescription stimulant

By sharing alarming findings such as these, we can inform college students about the dangers of Adderall and other addictive drugs. In doing so, hopefully they will stray far from their path and toward healthy habits instead.

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More Than 100 College Professors Sign Letter to Legalize Marijuana

How to Stay Healthy in College

How to Manage You Time in College

*Photo from learnstuff

More than 100 college professors signed their names on a letter advocating the legalization of marijuana. The letter was released yesterday by the campaign Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

The letter was signed by professors from all over the nation, including several from the state of Colorado, as reported by Matt Ferner of The Huffington Post.

The release of the letter coincided with President Obama’s campaign stop at Colorado State University yesterday, during which he aimed to discuss issues that affect college-age voters, such as college tuition.

However, the supporters present were hoping to rally some discussion about Amendment 64 instead – the amendment that’s seeking to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults, jut like alcohol.

Colorado isn’t alone in its push for legalization. Washington and Oregon have marijuana legalization initiatives on their November ballots as well.

So, why are so many college educators from across the nation in support of these initiatives and nationwide legalization? The professors range from law, health, economics, and criminal justice fields, and all seem to have strong feelings on the subject. Read the rest of this entry »

A majority of college parties involve alcohol, and it is rather a hot topic for college students. According to DoSomething.org, about 30,000 college students require medical treatment after overdosing on alcohol each year. Most college students binge drink, which is the consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks in a row on at least one occasion. Mary Hartley, RD, the nutrition expert for DietsInReview.com, confirms that, “it is a big problem among teens and adults.”

Binge drinking can do more than speed up the process of intoxication. According to Mary, “Young people frequently combine drinking and high risk activities and so heavy drinking carries a risk of serious injury due to falls or wrecks, as well as pregnancy, or sexually transmitted disease, date rape, and even death from alcohol poisoning.”

Binge drinking can also lead to alcohol abuse. Because alcohol is a normal part of the lifestyle, college students aren’t likely to stop drinking because of warnings of dangerous risks. However, they can certainly be more informed and be safer when they do imbibe. Read the rest of this entry »

Stay in school. Get an education. Knowledge is power. All of these phrases are instilled in children from preschool on. It’s great advice and can definitely lead to some smart choices in life. But now it’s been found that getting more education can not only improve your life, but make it last a little longer.

A study published in the August issue of Health Affairs shows that the life expectancy of those who are poor and less educated has increased only slightly over the past several decades. The research also shows that in some cases, the life expectancy for those who don’t finish high school is getting shorter. Within this study, the researchers examined the trends in life expectancy from 1990 through 2008 paying special attention to how someone’s age, sex, race and education affected their longevity.

Lead author of the study Jay Olshansky stated in a news release, “There are essentially two Americas. The most highly educated white men live about 14 years longer than the least-educated black men. The least-educated black women live about 10 years less than the most-educated white women.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been hoping that our public schools have been doing a better job of teaching students about the ways to prevent pregnancy and spreading STDs, then I’m sorry to tell you that this does not seem to be the case.

As reported by The Huffington Post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study of the data from public high schools in 45 states. This was part of the organization’s biennial School Health Profiles. The organization found that between 2008 and 2010, 11 states saw decreases in the number of schools that taught this information to middle school students. There were no states that saw in increase in the teaching of these important topics. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people think that school is a place where children should be kept safe. However, as Jesse Michener, a mom of three children who attend Tacoma Public Schools in Washington, recently found out, this is not always the case.

Last week, Michener’s daughters Violet and Zoe spent the day outside for a field day. However, after five-hours outside in the sun without any sunscreen the girls were very sunburned.

“Two of my three children experienced significant sunburns,” Michener wrote on her blog. “Like, hurts-to-look-at burns.”

Michener is upset not only because her children got sunburned, but because the school district has a policy that does not allow teachers to apply sunscreen to the students unless the students have a doctor’s note. In that case, the teachers still cannot help students apply sunscreen; they must do it themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

A scary number of American students are obese or overweight, and it’s easy to think of reasons why. I have heard horror stories of kids who will only eat McDonald’s Happy Meals instead of healthy meals, and elementary schools that feed their students food that has the nutritional value of garbage.

However, something that we might not think of right off the top of our heads is the food that students buy for themselves from vending machines that are found in their school cafeterias. Now, the Obama administration is tackling this culprit in its fight to make children healthier. The administration plans to propose new rules concerning vending machines and the foods that are offered through these devices within the next several weeks. Although the exact rules have not been announced, many health advocates think that these rules will reduce the amounts of fat, salt, and sugar that foods and drinks sold in vending machines can contain.

Vending machines do a surprisingly large amount of business in schools. According to the National Academy of Sciences, more than $2 billion worth of sugary treats and sodas are sold in our nations schools through vending machines. So it makes sense that the industries that profit from these sales – such as candy and soda producers – would not want vending machines to be banned from schools.

Christopher Gindlesperger is the director of communications for the American Beverage Association. Gindlesperger says that companies in his industry, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have already taken steps to make the offerings in school vending machines healthier.

“Our members have voluntarily reduce the calories in drinks shipped to schools by 88 percent and stopped offering full-calorie soft drinks in school vending machines,” he said.

Many vending machines also now offer some healthier options for children, such as trail mixes and dried fruit. Unfortunately, these products are often placed beside unhealthy treats, like candy bars and cookies. A study conducted between 2006 and 2010 found that when students had the option between the healthy and unhealthy foods, snacking behavior did not change, which means kids were still choosing the unhealthy treats.

So what should schools do in order to help kids makes healthy choices? Should they just remove vending machines entirely? Although this seems a little drastic, it might not be a bad idea.

Roger Kipp is the food service director for the Norwood School District in Ohio. In 2010, Kipp took out the vending machines in his schools and replaces them with an area in the school cafeterias where kids could buy healthier snacks, such as fruit, yogurt, and wraps.

“It took a while, but it caught on,” said Kipp. “You have to give the kids time. You can’t replace 16-years of bad eating habits overnight.”

Via The New York Times

With childhood obesity reaching all-time highs, the government has tackled the school’s hot lunch, and is now after its next big culprit: The vending machines.

Since children receive 19 to 50 percent of their food while at school, the Obama Administration plans to set rules for what can and can’t be sold in the vending machine. These guidelines will likely be released in the next few weeks.

One in five children is overweight. Since statics such as this have tripled in the past 30 years, nutritionists say that vending machines, supplied with potato chips, cookies and soda, may contribute to the obesity epidemic.

Representatives from the food and beverage industries say that many of their snacks are healthy and should not be banned. They say they support vending snacks that are in good nutrition.

“But we are a little concerned that they might make the rules too stringent,” James A. McCarthy said, president of the Snack Food Association, a trade group in Washington.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seventeen percent of American children are considered to be overweight or obese. Of course, this statistic in and of itself is disturbing, but the manifestations of this fact are also quite mind-boggling. For example, there was recently an advertising campaign in Georgia that targeted these overweight children. Now, many schools are having to make big changes in their classrooms in order to make sure these students are comfortable.

In many schools across the nation, bigger and stronger chairs and desks are being put into classrooms for the overweight children to use because they cannot fit in normal-sized school desks. Even in schools where this is not an immediate problem, it probably will become one in the future, and because of this, furniture manufacturers are increasing the standards size of their school desks in order to accommodate the growing students.

Taylor LeBaron was an overweight child who dealer with ridicule from his classmates about his weight. When he had trouble getting out of his desk, the situation just got worse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shelby Kaho is a college sophomore and a professional blogger for CeliacsInTheHouse.com. She has also not eaten anything that contains gluten for the past six years. In case you are wondering why Shelby has given up cakes, breads, and other products that contain gluten, it is because she is a celiac, which means she has a gluten allergy/intolerance.

In order to raise awareness about living gluten-free, Shelby recently wrote a series of blogs for DietsInReview.com. Her recent articles on this website have address concerns that celiac college students face, such as how to avoid eating gluten on their college’s campus.

Voicing Concerns Made Dining Safer for One Gluten-Free College Student.
In this article, Shelby shares her story of when she first moved to college and had to face a dangerous place for celiacs: the campus cafeteria. Shelby says that although her school promised to help her stay safe by providing foods that were gluten-free, the cafeteria workers were uneducated about what “gluten-free” really means and accidentally cross-contaminated her food with foods that contained gluten. Luckily for Shelby, her efforts and wiliness to work with the cafeteria staff and dining manager paid off and her dining hall is much safer for celiac diners. At the end of the article, Shelby offers advice for celiac students who are trying to fit in and feel included on their school’s campus.

Read the rest of this entry »