Office Hours: The Power of Prevention

Quotes about health and wellness by famous, smart, influential people are endless. Every “celeb” seems to have made a statement about the importance of health— physical, mental, or spiritual— at some point in their life. “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver,” said Mahatma Gandhi.

My favorite health-related quotes are the ones related to prevention, like this one, by Ben Franklin: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

(He was actually referencing the need to prevent fires, but give me some slack as I think it works quite nicely here.) Or Joan Welsh’s “A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs.”

When our car dashboard flashes, “Maintenance required,” many of us head right over to our local mechanic for an oil change and/or tire rotation. We know it may help us avoid a huge repair expense down the road. But, when it comes to our own health, we don’t always see it in the same way.

We have multiple opportunities each and every day to take care of ourselves—by the food we eat, the sleep we experience, the exercise we do, the mindfulness we practice. And yet, we are more inclined to “fix” ourselves when we need a cure rather than proactively invest in maintaining our health so we might not need one at all.

The college students I have worked with during my life have been such a joy—brilliant, achievement-oriented, devoted to making a positive difference in this world—still they, too, are not always focused on their overall health, even though all the research shows that better nutrition, focused sleep, regular exercise, engagement with a community— are all components of a healthy life that enables us to maximize learning.

Students are actually coming to college today with more chronic illness and more mental health challenges than ever before. 

In fact, even though they know better, many college students sacrifice their health in multiple ways, developing destructive habits that they carry into adulthood.

As college administrators, my colleagues and I recognized just how important it was to demonstrate that our university cared about students’ health and well-being.

So we created a facility and program that enables them to fully understand and engage in all aspects of their health— a holistic, comprehensive, integrated approach that focuses on prevention. 

We wanted the building to be a place where students gathered not just because they didn’t feel well but to study, to meditate, to enjoy a massage, (yes there really are massage chairs in the building), join a drum circle, or learn about tea. We even placed a grand piano in the lobby of the second floor.

Yesterday, as I walked into the building, beautiful piano music filled the atrium! I’m thrilled that students use this building the way we intended—for more than just visiting a doctor, dentist, therapist, or pharmacist. It’s helped them to see that their health and wellness is multi-dimensional. We did this at Duke a few years ago, and we are not alone in the college world—many campuses all over the country are offering similar wellness programs.

My question is: why wait until a student is 18, in college, to introduce the idea of prevention? Why not teach this concept to young children so that by the time they’re students in college they’ll not need a space like ours as they’ll already have made the space inside themselves. Who knows? Maybe they won’t need quotes by Benjamin Franklin because they’ll go and write their own.