The Beach Health Blog

Are you moving into the residence halls as a freshmen? Are you transferring over from another school?  Moving out or moving in and looking for a roommate? Are you hoping to make new friends? With students from over 90 countries and 37,000 students, Cal State Long Beach is the place to be! Here are tips and tricks to help you take that first step to meeting new people and establishing friendships that will create great memories! Go to places that you enjoy and find interest in:   It would be beneficial if you shared some interests with your new friends. This allows you to initiate conversation and spiral into other topics that you are both excited about. Explore!   Don’t limit yourself, get out of your comfort zone. Try something new to make new friends. Maybe you always wanted to learn to rock climb or surf. Take a class at the SRWC or a PE class.   Get involved: Joining campus organizations, Greek life, or clubs has many benefits. Obviously, a group that interests y

This semester seems as though it is zooming by with papers, exams, and all the other things we have to do. But it’s time to empower ourselves by taking care of our sexual health. Here are a few steps to gain control over one’s sexual health     Step 1: Learn more about it ●                 Learning about your sexual health is important, but sometimes family and friends can give out false information. Also, if you use the Internet, you might find some unreliable sources. Try to stick to reliable information such as: ●              www.bedsider.org ●             Centers for Disease Control at: www.cdc.gov/sexualhealth ●       American Sexual Health Association at: ashasexualhealth.org ●             Also the Student Health Services (SHS) offers a Sexual Health Awareness Workshop. This workshop covers safer sex, various contraceptive options, and information on sexually transmitted infections (STI’s). Call today at 562-985-4609 to make an appointment.        Step 2:

If you’ve ever felt your heart pound prior to a big presentation or your face warm after saying something embarrassing, then you’re already familiar with how powerful that thoughts can be on the body. The “nocebo” effect (“I will harm”) and the “placebo” effect (“I will please”) have been regarded as such powerful forces that credible scientific research often require control groups to rule out results that may have been altered by them. Studies have shown time and time again that the effects of the mind over our bodies are profound. So the question arises; what implications does this have on our health? When thinking negative thoughts, we can cause our bodies to release chemical signals that do harm. In a 1997 study conducted by neurophysiologist Fabrizio Bendetti, consenting patients were injected with normal saline but told that it was a pain-triggering medication. Some of those patients also received anti-anxiety drugs to block negative thoughts. Only the group that did not