Freshers Flu - Fight it!

Freshers Flu

With this lovely statistic, what better way to start off the brand spanking, refurbished Lifestyle section – The Know. From now on, The Know will offer a new kind of advice to its readership. Each week The Know will give you the definitive guide to one particular area that may, by some very vague way, be relevant to the students of York.

The Freshers’ Fortnight is drawing to a close and, as I’ve already explained, you almost certainly have Freshers’ Flu. Let me share with you my knowledge, gathered by having it the last three years, so that you might be able to avoid making that trip to the health centre.

Freshers’ Flu isn’t really the flu. It’s just called that because the bright soul that invented it never managed to find any alliterative potential between students and a bad cold. I’ve looked Freshers up in my Oxford Colour Thesaurus and can’t do any better, so I think we’ll just have to stick with calling it a flu that manifests itself, is caused by, and is cured in exactly way same as the common cold.

It’s so prevalent in Freshers for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s caused by people from all over the world coming into contact with each other. Someone is bound to come to uni with a cold, and the intimacy of the halls (and some students) is bound to spread it like wildfire. That bit is not really your fault.

You’re far more likely to be getting Freshers’ Flu if your immune system is run down – a common case at the beginning of term. Drinking excessively and eating rubbish does this to your body. If your idea of getting five a day is through Apple Sourz and the salad with the burger you get from Efes on the way home from a heavy night’s drinking, then your chances of getting Freshers’ Flu skyrocket.

Let us now assume that you have had a brilliant first two weeks at York - you’ve met loads of different people, you’ve drank into excess every night and you haven’t been keeping up your vitamin intake. You’re sitting in your room, reading this, feeling crap with Freshers’ Flu. Never worry, The Know is here to provide you with the best tried and tested cures.

• Rest

You’re not going to like this one. The best thing to do excuse yourself from some of the partying and chill out in bed. Grab a packet of Lemsip from CostCutter, boil the kettle and lie in your room watching your favourite DVD. There is plenty of time for going out in the rest of term, so the sooner you relax for a couple of days, the better.

• Eat Well

Sometimes going out and drinking is simply unavoidable. But eating healthily if you’re starting to feel rough is absolutely essential. Try and squeeze plenty of fruit and veg into your day and eat some proper meals. It might now be the time to think about taking some vitamin tablets. These contain the all the important stuff you need for your immune system to get back up and running. If you’re feeling ill, now is the perfect time to persuade your new housemate to cook you that amazing meal they’re famous for.

• Avoid the Library

If Wikipedia is to be believed, the library could be up to 90% full of people sniffing and sneezing. Avoid like the plague. However much you convince yourself that you need to do reading before you the lectures take over, it’s just not worth it if you are already feeling ill. You could well end up picking up a new illness to go on top of the one you already have. And, for the sake of anybody that has avoided drinking heavily and eaten healthily for the last couple of weeks, don’t be passing it on to them in the libray.

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