Groups promote health

With leaflet-filled plastic bags, students walked around the annual Pitt Wellness Fair… With leaflet-filled plastic bags, students walked around the annual Pitt Wellness Fair yesterday, visiting booths that gave out everything from nutrition pointers to spinal assessments.

Sponsored by UPMC and other community businesses, the Wellness Fair brought Pitt clubs and local organizations to the event that spanned the Ballroom, Kurtzman and Assembly rooms.

Junior Jason Zaleski, the president of Pitt’s Exercise Science Club, said that the fair allowed their club to show students that they can stay fit outside of the weight room.

“We’re about promoting physical activity,” Zaleski said. “We attend lots of conferences, getting people aware of problems across the country.”

Students in the club gave free blood pressure readings, stressing that exercise will help decrease high blood pressure. Along with promoting a healthy lifestyle, students in the club also handed out information about the exercise science major.

“We like skating or rock climbing,” Zaleski said, pointing out that these activities provide alternatives to more common methods of staying fit.

Among those tables supporting alternative recreations, Venture Outdoors, a non-profit organization that has — for about five years now — tried to make Southwest Pennsylvania a region where people can enjoy activities like kayaking, hiking and biking.

Membership Coordinator Allison Ruppert said that the program tries to develop healthy lifestyles through outdoor recreation and noted, “We cater to beginners.”

Fred Goss, an exercise physiology doctor and co-director of Pitt’s wellness program, said that this fair, in its 17th year, provides a good way to make the University community aware of wellness issues.

“We’re trying to make them more aware of outdoor wellness activities,” Goss said.

Brandy Balash, a Pitt freshman, said that maintaining alternative exercise routines — including Pilates — prompted her to attend the fair.

“I was supposed to be here for my Pilates class. If I didn’t have to, I’d probably be here anyways,” she said.

Balash added that Pilates “allows you to work out differently than what [you] would do at the gym.”

Besides exercise, booths informed fair-goers about the importance of healthy diets.

Since today is the last day of National Nutrition Month, the fair took care to recognize this with free fruit from Pitt’s food services and a table from the Allegheny County Department of Health, which explained the effects of poor nutrition, something attendees appreciated.

Sophomore Damian Clossin found nutrition awareness important.

“To be honest, I was spending some time between classes and thought it would be interesting,” Clossin said, adding that he had an interest in skin treatment, though. He specifically wondered “what foods to eat for healthier skin.”

In providing a comprehensive view of wellness, the fair included a dance from the Pitt Dance Ensemble as one of a few fitness-centered acts.

Senior Dyana Murrell, a member who choreographed the dance, said that the ensemble showed how dance goes hand-in-hand with exercise.

Before the performance, the seven dancers, dressed in ties, sleeveless undershirts and black slacks, stretched to give the audience a taste of what’s behind dancing.

“[Stretching] makes the body warm and loose, so you’ll be more flexible,” Murrell said, stressing that the actual dance, which moved to the beat of “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics, involves lots of jumps and lots of fast movements — another form of exercise.

The fair offered more dimensions of wellness, such as mental health, with a table from UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

Research Project Assistant Beth Wesesky said that they have gathered findings relating drug abuse to depression among college students.

“What we’re finding is that many college students use alcohol and marijuana to treat depression, and, really, all that does is make your depression worse,” she said. “A lot of students self-medicate with marijuana and alcohol.”

Throughout the fair, tables and booths offered drug addiction information as well as cholesterol screenings, providing attendees with multiple ways to get or stay healthy.