Healthy UNH Blogger: Maura Donovan
Find Out What Fall Foods Can Better Your Health It's always a good idea to eat locally and seasonally, but do you know why? Eating locally can benefit the community you live in, therefore putting money back into things that you care about most. Eating seasonally means that foods are grown and harvested around the same time that you are eating them. Benefits of this include saving you money and getting the best tasting, healthiest foods on the market, because they are at the peak of their supply... Read More
Find Out Whether Or Not Your Morning Cup Of Joe Has Any Health Benefits We all do it, probably every day, first thing in the morning. We drink coffee. For most people, including myself, it is ingrained into my morning routine and I don't dare leave the house without atleast one cup of coffee. However, a recent study that examined a wide body of research has shown that having three to four cups of coffee per day is more likely to benefit your health than harm it. While this might seem all... Read More
Find Out How To Make The Most Of Your Eight Hours Leading a healthy life can seem simple, move your body, eat right and get enough sleep. If you’re anything like me, it can be easy to prioritize work, school, and other obligations and end up putting sleep on the back-burner. This could leave you feeling irritable, run down, and have a negative effect on work and school. So, why is sleep so important to living a healthy life? Sleep is important because: Improves concentration and productivity... Read More
If You Don't Have Time For The Gym, Walk To Better Health For most people, it can be difficult to get to the gym everyday, or even a few times a week. However, we all know how important exercise can be to a healthy body and a healthy life. So, what's the solution? According to Harvard studies, walking for 30 minutes a day, five times per week can better your health immensely. During the studies over 400,000 participants were tracked, and it was found that walking as little as 5.5 miles per... Read More
Find Out More About How To Appropriately Manage Stress Levels The stresses of work, school, family, and friends can take a toll on your mental well-being. The feeling that you don’t have enough time to get work done, and the guilt of not being able to spend time with your loved ones is enough to put a lot of pressure on someone. However, there are ways to become less stressed about certain situations. In order to know what is making you the most stressed you must first identify the stressor. Is... Read More
What Is Health Equity and How Can We Achieve It? Healthy People 2020 defines health equity as the “attainment of the highest level of health for all people.” Health equity means effort to ensure that all people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives. This may seem like a great idea, but how do we attain it? According to the CDC, health disparities or inequities are types of unfair health differences closely linked with social or environmental... Read More
Unintentional injuries are the 3rd leading cause of death in NH, behind cancer (as the #1) and heart disease (as the #2). As a nation, there were 161,000 people who died from preventable unintentional injuries, according to the American Public Health Association. Most leading causes of death have been on a steady decline, aside from unintentional injuries which has been on a rapid increase in the last few years. These increases in unintentional injuries are most likely due to increasing opioid... Read More
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines environment, as it relates to health, as all the physical, chemical and biological factors external to a person, and all the related behaviors. Environmental factors play a crucial role in a persons health and well-being, potentially more than genetics will. The environment impacts our health in many ways including: Air pollution Inadequate water sanitation (hygiene) Chemicals and biological agents Radiation (ultraviolet and ionizing) Community noise... Read More
Why It Is Important To Take A Sick Day Getting sick is never convenient, especially with tests and projects, a full day of work or even taking care of children. However, as much as you might want to power through your cold or flu, it is extremely important to take a sick day when necessary. Taking a sick day can prevent the spread of infectious diseases, such as the common cold, the flu or the stomach bug. Also, a sick employee or student, is never a productive one. When sick, the body is... Read More
Normalizing Mental Health In our society, there is a stigma around mental illness and poor mental health. This stigma being that people with a mental illness are somehow not the same as people without a mental illness, and are at a disadvantage. However, this is not always the case. Stigma involves stereotypes, prejudice, and discriminations towards people who are not like the “norm”, and then separating them as someone who is different. Mental illness can include: Depression Anxiety Bipolar... Read More
Name: Maura Donovan
Home Town: Bedford, NH
Major: Nutrition and Dietetics
Graduation Year: 2019
What do you do to make a Healthy UNH? I belong to the Student Nutrition Association which promotes health and wellness on campus and I am a part of Nourish UNH, a peer education group.
Favorite Food: Peanut Butter
Favorite Movie: Gone Girl
Favorite Book: The Girl On The Train
What place in the world do you most want to visit & why: I would like to visit Australia the most, it seems like such an interesting and beautiful place!
Favorite Dining Hall and why: Hoco because of the variety
What do you love about UNH? I love the UNH campus the most, its so pretty during every season. I also love that I see so many familiar faces all over campus, despite it being a big school.
As a Healthy UNH Intern, What are you most excited about? I am excited to research topics that I am interested in, and learn more about my field of study that I might not learn in class!
