If you’re apply­ing to col­lege for the first time, there’s a good chance you’re still liv­ing at home and under the ten­der lov­ing care of your par­ents. If you acci­den­tally swal­low a chicken bone, they’ll prob­a­bly take you to the doc­tor. If you eat too much Taco Bell, they prob­a­bly have alka seltzer and Pepto on tap. If you sprain your fin­ger from repeat­edly click­ing “Show More Wall Posts” for 23 straight hours, well, you can get help for that, too.

Even for stu­dents who plan to con­tinue liv­ing at home dur­ing col­lege, mak­ing the tran­si­tion to col­le­giate life bring many adult respon­si­bil­i­ties, one of the most impor­tant being: YOUR HEALTH.

And as “sick sea­son” whips around the cor­ner with Swine Flu scares at every turn, it’s more impor­tant than ever to make sure you’re aware of how to keep tabs on stay­ing healthy dur­ing the fall and win­ter sea­sons, when col­lege tends to start.

In terms of avoid­ing haz­ards and acci­dents (like chicken bones and Face­book stalk­ing), we’ll save that for another time.

Health pre­cau­tions up to YOU in college:

(Your poli. sci. pro­fes­sor won’t be dol­ing out the cough syrup before midterms, trust.)

Wash your hands.
It may seem obvi­ous, but you'd be sur­prised at how many grimy door­knobs, slick used book­cov­ers, and grimy desks are home to thriv­ing colonies of immune system-eating bac­te­ria. Anti-bac hand gel may suf­fice, but wash your hands in every sink you come across, and be thank­ful you don't have micro­scopic, X-ray vision. You'd prob­a­bly puke.

Get to know your cam­pus health center

Most col­lege cam­puses pro­vide health ser­vices to their stu­dents! No, not just a rinky dink lit­tle health office with an ancient school nurse who still has tongue depres­sors from when your par­ents attended your high school, but a real, med­ical facil­ity. Granted, these col­lege health cen­ters can range from small doc­tors offices to full-blown hos­pi­tals, but it’s a resource you can’t ignore. Stop by the health cen­ter at col­leges you’re con­sid­er­ing, and take a look at the ser­vices from which you may ben­e­fit, such as yearly check­ups, flu shots and antibi­otic pre­scrip­tion. They might even be free.

(Plus, akin to the mes­sage of an ear­lier BG blog post about find­ing an on cam­pus job, work­ing a stu­dent job in the stu­dent health cen­ter is a great option if you’re con­sid­er­ing a career in med­i­cine, nurs­ing or health in general.)

Drink water.
You may think that the 8-glass-a-day rule is as out­dated as that oh-so-deceitful food pyra­mid (11 serv­ings of carbs a day? Really, food pyra­mid?) that you learned about in 6th grade health class, but then again, you may have blocked that semes­ter from mem­ory after watch­ing that gory birth video.

Any­way. Just like what­ever sys­tem you cur­rently have at home for keep­ing hydrated, invest­ing in a Nal­gene water bot­tle, or one of those cool metal ones, is a good way to take per­sonal steps to avoid dehy­dra­tion. Drink­ing enough water can keep your immune sys­tem up as viruses and colds fly around stu­dent envi­ron­ments, as well as keep­ing your hear clear and alert.

Sneeze into your elbow.

Class­rooms are a breed­ing ground for campus-wide flu epi­demics, kinder­garten and col­lege alike.

Con­sider this.

Stu­dent sneezes into hand. New stu­dent enters class­room. Sneezy stu­dent greets new stu­dent. They shake hands, become best friends and begin shar­ing sto­ries of their lives. AND SHARING SWINE FLU!

Okay, that was a lit­tle intense, but here’s another scenario:

Stu­dent sneezes into ELBOW. New stu­dent enters class­room. Sneezy stu­dent has Swine Flu and rubs hands all over new stu­dents face. New stu­dent doesn’t get sick.

Okay, now, Swine Flu MAY still be con­ta­gious with­out the coat­ing of a fresh sneeze, but you get the point. Tak­ing note of how and when oth­ers (and your­self) can be con­ta­gious is a very adult way of look­ing at your health. Col­lege is a great place to take that step.

Wash your hands. (Did I men­tion this already?)

Invest in a small pharmacy.

A per­sonal, healthy phar­macy. Keep some Dayquil and Ibupro­fen on tap for emer­gency morn­ings when you've gotta make it to class, but as a daily rule, immune-system boost­ers are a good way to keep your defenses up. For example:

• Emergen-C — (Lit­tle pack­ets of cit­ric good­ness are easy to pour into the near­est water bot­tle. Check their Web site for free sam­ples! Tan­ger­ine and Rasp­berry are like heaven in a cup, but beware of Lime… it's eerily rem­i­nis­cent of luke­warm bathwater.)

• Vit­a­min Water/Naked Juice/Odwalla/etc. — (It may be hard to break out of your sug­arized, caf­feinated death drink that comes with every meal, but if you can sup­ple­ment one of these with a more nutrient-filled bev­er­age, it can do won­ders with­out for keep­ing your body at least some­what nutrient-filled.

• Mul­ti­vi­t­a­min, any­one? — While likely the most unre­al­is­tic, if you a) have access to a bot­tle of mul­ti­vi­t­a­mins and b) you're not ashamed to pop one before every break­fast, you're prob­a­bly not going to get sick. Sim­ple as that. A mul­ti­vi­t­a­min may even boost your ten­den­cies toward lack of sleep, dehy­dra­tion and stand­ing in the way of oth­ers’ sneezes.

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

While these are rudi­men­tary, I-already-know-this pro­ce­dures, chances are, you may not yet be in a posi­tion where you’re fun­da­men­tally in charge of your health. While for many stu­dents, going to col­lege does not com­pletely sever the bond between you and the pro­tec­tion of your fam­ily home, it is the first step toward gain­ing autonomous respon­si­bil­ity over your health.

So, enjoy the high school years, and start think­ing now about how to enjoy the col­lege ones, because tak­ing care of your­self is the most impor­tant part of mak­ing sure you have a great experience.

Oh yeah, one more thing.

WASH YOUR HANDS! And then go con­sult a ther­a­pist about the pos­si­bil­ity of OCD.