We have seen the effect that the pandemic has had on American businesses. Alcohol sales in the U.S. have increased drastically since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and remain higher than when the year began.  With limited social gatherings, work from home, less daily commute, and online social interaction, much of the world has struggled with quarantine.  The change in everyday life, let alone the upcoming holiday season, has had negative effects on mental health.

In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted a survey on the impact of the pandemic guidelines on Americans’ mental health.  The study found that 53 percent of adults reported that their mental health has been negatively affected by COVID-19 and the resulting economic recession.  These effects roll over into basic well being like quality of sleep, eating, and increased alcohol consumption.

Effect on Teens

Due to social isolation, loneliness has become a topic of concern throughout the world.  Feeling alone, especially for teenagers, can be very detrimental to mental health.  Adolescence is a very foundational time, considering that the frontal lobe is known to not fully develop until the age of 25.  The frontal lobe determines decision making and higher executive functions.  As a result, the first two decades of life are extremely important for social development.  The KFF poll determined that 67 percent of parents will be concerned about their children’s emotional and social well being.  However, the University of Rochester Medical Center determined that parents can overwhelm their children which actually has the opposite effect on how willing they are to open up to their elders.

Young adults’ mental health is also affected by the pandemic and isolation because they are already highly susceptible to anxiety and depression.  In 2018, 12 percent of polled 12-17 year olds reported that they already have anxiety and/or depression.  Growing up, I remember these years being when my social life began to take off.  The increased interest in dating, socializing, and extra curricular activities built the foundation for basic social skills that I will have for the rest of my life. When teenagers are taken away from friends, family, and other social support figures, the mental health and social anxiety that may already exist, becomes much worse.

Grown-ups

Older adults have evidentially seen negative impacts on their mental health due to COVID-19.  The causes slightly differ from young adults, however, because many are worried about job instability.  Older adults have lived through multiple recessions and know how insecure the job market can be.  With many layoffs throughout American industries, many feared for their career.

On the other hand, there are many adults that work in health care and nursing, where they are literally risking their lives every day.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has determined that older adults see worse symptoms of coronavirus that are worsened by underlying conditions, even with something as common as asthma.

As the added stresses of the pandemic flipped many people’s worlds upside-down, we saw that adults began to turn to alcohol.  In April 2020, the World Health Organization saw that alcohol sales had risen by 54 percent the previous month, so they put out a warning message to the public about the dangers of consumption during a pandemic.  On average, alcohol was consumed one more day per month for 3 out of 4 adults according to a study conducted by the RAND Corporation American Life Panel (ALP).

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every American industry has been impacted.  With more people working from home, we have seen a change in consumer habits.  Are we buying more at the grocery stores because we’re home more, or are we eating out more now that there are more delivery options? Are we spending more on entertainment because we’re in our homes more or are we spending less because we’re not going to the movie theaters? These are the types of questions that spark my interest during a pandemic, so let’s dive in.

According to an article by J.P. Morgan Research, many consumers were buying in bulk in the beginning of the pandemic.  Take new parents for example.  Adults with young children were stocking up on baby food in fear that their loved one wouldn’t have proper nutrition.  With industry and consumer adjustment to the pandemic, these habits known as “panic buying” have fortunately slowed down.

So which products did we buy more of and which were we scrapping?

Must-Haves

Wash your hands

To no one’s surprise, home cleaners and soap were very limited at the store.  Shelves were completely clear, or cleaning supplies was limited to one per customer. Dettol and Lysol saw a 100% increase in sales in the U.S. from January-March 2020.  Other cleaner companies like Henkel saw hand soap sales exceed 74% in the first quarter of 2020.

Time to cover those roots

Due to the closing of hair salons, hair color sales in the U.S. increased as well.  When salons officially closed down in most states, those who rely on hair treatments turned to their local CVS.  L’Oreal and Henkel saw their sales climb to 30% in the second quarter of 2020.

Morning cup of Joe

As work from home quickly became the new normal, Americans had to break out the ole Keurig or french press.  U.S. coffee products like Starbucks-at-home saw their sales climb to about a third in 2020.  In addition, Nescafé and Coffee-Mate’s U.S. sales grew at “double-digit” rates in the first 6 months of this year.

Ditched During Lockdown

Au Naturel

With more working from home, bars and restaurants closed, and no social gatherings, cosmetics took a huge hit during the pandemic.  Though I previously mentioned L’Oreal’s increase in hair color sales, their beauty market “had fallen 13-14% in the first half of the year”.  The closing of salons also pushed luxury and professional beauty sales to fall around 25%.

Quiet on the Set

Spending from the U.S. media and entertainment industries have decreased drastically.  This article from eMarketer predicts that digital ad spending from the media will fall by 9.3% and entertainment’s will fall by 6.9% by the end of 2020.  Instead, this surplus should go directly towards gaming and video streaming.  Additionally, it is estimated that the media and entertainment industries will designate most digital spending on mobile ads, 59.1% and 78.5% respectively.

To put the U.S. entertainment spending in perspective, the industry will spend 7.03 billion dollars on advertising in 2020, which is 6.9% less from last year.

Fortunately, most states are seeing an improvements in COVID-19 cases and deaths.  However, the lasting impacts from the pandemic on U.S. businesses will continue to be detrimental to the economy.  Please continue to wash your hands and wear your mask.

I chose to take a freshman year seminar with a Human and Health Development focus because I wanted to learn more about what that college consisted of, and what majors students were leaning towards.

 

 

 

Throughout the semester, we discussed many topics that were familiar to me, but I was able to learn in depth the causes, symptoms and treatments are for each topic.

When we discussed sleep, for example, I already knew that I should be getting 8 hours of sleep, but I was unaware just how much sleep can impact your body.  When discussing stress, I knew first hand, the symptoms of stress but I learned a new meditation technique called Gatha.  I have taken many yoga classes, so I knew that meditation was a great stress reliever, but Gatha was a method using poems, which I have never done before.  Nutrition was something that was very familiar to me, but I was still able to learn more about alternative ways to get all the required daily nutrients.  I also learned the different options that Penn State specifically had to offer, especially when choosing meals at the dining hall and around campus.  During the alcohol presentation, I learned exactly how to calculate my BAC, what symptoms come with each stage, and the quantity of alcohol that would increase my BAC over time.  

One of my favorite lessons that we had was when we were discussing exercise techniques.  While watching the marathon movie, I loved seeing how motivated each athlete was and how marathons affected their lives.  I think it is important that people see that film because it could give them motivation to do something outside of their comfort zone, even if it’s not exercise related.  In addition, I thought it was very exciting to get out of the classroom when we did the “Exercise is Medicine” class.  Even though it was a very hot day, I liked that I got a bit of my workout in in the morning.  I actually found that I was immediately more alert in my next class and felt overall more energetic. The students that volunteered for the event were very motivational which crucial to my personal workout.  

Another positive aspect of this course was the peer lessons.  When discussing sleep, stress and nutrition, we were able to work face to face with other students that knew the material really well.  I also thought this was beneficial because we were able to learn what career path they were on and hopefully be able to relate to the direction they were going.  

When enrolling in the course, I signed up for a Health and Human Development class, even though I am undecided because I wanted to see if I could be interested. After taking the class, I know that I am very interested in Health and Human Development because of the topics, professors, and attitude.  I am overall very happy with this course and I would easily recommend it to any freshman that is interested in Health and Human Development.

Consumption of alcohol has many negative effects on a the body including slow reflexes, worsening vision and poor judgement.  Over consumption of alcohol can cause much worse effects including nausea, depression and even loss of consciousness.  In order to reduce those symptoms, it is very important to know how different quantities of alcohol can affect your body.  

The most important factor when consuming alcohol is time.  Although factors like food and water consumption are what most people think are most important, the time elapsed while drinking alcohol is crucial to your blood alcohol content (BAC).  Your BAC can be calculated by determining gender, weight, quantity of drinks and time.  For example, for a 120 pound female would have a blood alcohol content of 0.10 after 3 drinks in one hour.  With that BAC, she would be legally impaired, experiencing fatigue and impairment of speech, vision and reaction time.  If she drank slower, over a 2 hour period of time, her BAC would only be at 0.08, and could be experiencing balance impairments.  However, men are slightly less affected by alcohol due to their genetic makeup.  A 140 pound man that has had 3 drinks in one hour would only have a blood alcohol content of 0.06, being more talkative and relaxed.  Similarly to woman, his BAC would be only 0.05 if he had 3 drinks over a 2 hour period of time.  

Another common misconception with drinking alcohol is portion size.  Especially with more inexperienced drinkers, the quantity of “one drink” can be easily misconceived.  In a college atmosphere, it is common to have a 16.9 oz water bottle filled with alcohol. What most people don’t know is that a common sized water bottle contains up to 11 shots of hard alcohol.  Standard drinks can be distorted when not measured properly, which is where many people end up drinking more than they should.  One shot is about 1.5 ounces of 40% alcohol, one glass of wine (5 ounces) is 12% alcohol, and one can of beer (12 ounces) is about 5% alcohol.  Being aware of the alcohol content of each drink can help to control the side effects of drinking.  

 

Because alcohol is a depressant, it can have many long term effects on your heart, liver and immune system.  Drinking in excess for extended periods of time can cause major damage to the heart and increase the likeliness of heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure.  Over time, alcohol can also greatly impact your liver. The liver is the organ that flushes out any toxins in your body.  Because alcohol is a toxin, your body immediately rejects it via the liver.  Therefore, if you’re constantly drinking, your liver isconstantly working to clean your body, eventually causing inflammation and other diseases like fibrosis.  In addition, excessive drinking can also weaken your immune system, which makes is more susceptible to disease.  When you drink, your body is less efficiently able to fight off infections and illnesses, which can have a long term impact on your immune system.

The effects that alcohol has on the body includes both short term and long term.  Drinking should be done in moderation so you have constant control over what and how much you are drinking.  If following these guidelines, drinking alcohol will have less severe effects on the body.  

Stress. Most people when they hear the word “stress”, become anxious because it has a bad reputation. However, in small doses, stress is good for the body and mind.  When under pressure, you can actually be more motivated and your brain can process more efficiently.  But where does the line cross from motivational stress, to stressed out?

The threshold for stress varies from person to person, but the effects of stress are most clearly portrayed through students.  According to the National College Health assessment done in 2015, 30% of students reported that stress had negatively affected their academic performance within the past year, and over 85% had felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do at some point within the past year.  As a result of high stress levels, students’ academic performance levels are much lower.

Stress can be shown through cognitive, physical and emotional behavior.  Cognitive symptoms, including worrying and the inability to concentrate as well as emotional symptoms like irritability  and moodiness are some of the most common signs of stress. These underlying symptoms can actually play a part in larger health problems like depression and a weakened immune system.  Over stress can also lead to behavioral changes such as loss of appetite, loss of motivation and the use of depressants such as alcohol.  

Many diseases and illnesses are the result of over stress including diabetes, obesity, and depression.  In order to prevent over stress, it is very important to learn the best way for your body to relieve it.  

Fortunately, there are many techniques to help manage and relieve the body of everyday stress.  A practice known as Gatha meditation is proven to help control and reduce stress levels. Meditation, specifically Gatha, focuses on mindfulness and being in the present.

Gathas are short poems that can be recited at anytime to help raise awareness of the body and be mindful of breathing.   For example, the following poem may be recited after waking up:

Waking up this morning I smile
knowing there are 24 brand new hours before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment,
and look at beings with eyes of compassion.

Stress can often numb our senses and allow ourselves to be more anxious than necessary.  

Anxiety can easily be overcome by concentrating on your breathing in stressful situations.  Beyond the psychology of breathing techniques, taking deeper breaths can increase oxygen flow into the brain, allowing it to be more efficient.  

Similarly, “unplugging” yourself from your phone or laptop, even for 10-15 minutes, can reduce stress levels.  When we are constantly tuned in to the rest of the world, we lose sight of what matters.  If you are looking for a fast way to destress, “unplug” and focus on what your priorities are.  

Although everyday stress is very common, it is important to learn how your body prefers to relieve it.  Using methods like meditation and using less technology can reduce unnecessary strain on the mind, and allow you to be more efficient and productive throughout the day.  

Everyone knows an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but how many people actually follow through with healthy eating? People know a healthy diet is beneficial for your overall health and weight, but what does a “healthy diet” consist of?  Although eating healthy is easier said than done for most people, it is the gateway to a longer, healthier life.  

Weight gain can take serious tolls on the body and cause it to age faster than it should.  Managing weight starts with a healthy, well-rounded and consistent diet. Contrary to popular belief, it is important to fuel your body with all the necessary food groups, including starchy carbs like pasta.  A well rounded diet includes, grains, fruits and vegetables, protein and dairy.

Starchy foods generally should take up about one third of the plate, which can include pasta, potatoes and rice.  For a gluten free option, quinoa has large amounts of fiber and can act as a great substitute to other grains.  Additionally, the average person should consume five servings of fruits and vegetables everyday.  Although five servings may seem daunting, it is not as hard as it sounds.  One serving could be one apple, a slice of melon or four tablespoons of broccoli.  They can be easily incorporated in meals, such as a sliced banana on cereal.  Protein can actually help with weight loss because it can boost your metabolism and decrease your appetite.  Some of the best (and tasty) ways to consume protein is through beans, fish, eggs, nuts and red meats. Fish contains omega-3 (or fatty acids) which are one of the only fats you do not want to cut back on.  Omega-3 can actually prevent diseases such as depression, anxiety and arthritis, as well as improve brain, bone and joint health. Nuts (such as almonds) and legumes (such as peanuts) contain about 3 to 9 grams of protein per serving.  It is important, though, to consume the correct portion because a single serving can contain 115 to 190 calories.  A single serving of nuts or legumes is about one handful.  Milk and dairy products such as yogurt are other great sources of protein and calcium to keep bones strong and healthy.  For lactose-free options, I have found that almond or soy milk are great alternatives that have many of the same health benefits.  

In addition to consuming this well rounded diet, it is crucial that meals are consistent, which means never skipping meals.  Inconsistency in meals can actually lead to weight gain instead of weight loss. Now I bet you can hear your mother’s voice: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, but she was right.  Eating after you wake up fuels your body with the right nutrients for the day and can actually help to wake up your brain to be more efficient.  Just by switching your morning muffin with oatmeal or a fresh piece of fruit, you can add more nutrients into your day and fuel your brain.  

Wondering why you’re feeling tired after 10 hours of sleep? Are you having trouble concentrating and become angered easily? These symptoms are the main causes of poor sleep.  

Say you have a lot of work to do which causes you to stay up on weeknights and you only get 5-6 hours of sleep on an average weeknight.  On saturdays, however, you are exhausted from the week, so you sleep an average of 10 hours on a weekend night.  Although you may be getting 10 hours of sleep one night, you’re body is not used to that amount, so while you may think that you are doing your body a favor by “catching up on sleep”, you are actually doing more harm than good.  When you sleep the extra 4-5 hours, you are breaking your body out of the sleep cycle that it is used to 5 out of 7 days of the week.  The most effective way to “catch up on sleep” is to increase your amount of sleep in small increments– usually 30 to 60 minutes– each night.  

Contrary to popular belief, taking naps is another common occurrence that can destroy your sleep schedule.  Though sleep deprivation can make you feel like you want a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day, it actually causes you to be more tired in the future. Instead, try a 20 minute power nap to rejuvenate– long enough to make you feel more awake, but not too long that your sleep schedule is messed up.   

Say, in another scenario, that you get an average of about 8 hours of sleep every night of the week, but you are woken up by your roommate turning on the lights in the middle of the night.  In this case, although you are in bed for 8 hours every night, you are not getting solid sleep.  Being in an abnormal sleep pattern is also an inefficient way for your body to rest.  It is important for your body to be in the REM cycle when you sleep.  The REM cycle is the deep sleep that you experience that occurs about 70-90 minutes after you fall asleep. Without being in the REM cycle, your body is not getting the energy and rest that it requires to function properly.

When your body is deprived of sleep, it can cause symptoms like irritability, high blood pressure, weakened immune system, trouble concentrating, weight gain or loss, and most commonly, fatigue.  Lack of sleep can also have many long term effects like diabetes and depression.  

When trying to get an efficient sleep, it is important that you are in a quite, dark area with little distractions.  The most effective way of improving your sleep is to establish a routine.  As your body develops a constant schedule, you won’t feel the need to take naps in the middle of the day.  In addition, try to ditch the electronics, ideally about an hour before bed.  When you look at your phone or laptop, your brain is immediately stimulated, which can make it harder to fall asleep.  Try to resist the temptation of scrolling through your Instagram feed one more time, and instead pick up a book.  Practicing these techniques can help you get a more efficient rest and feel better throughout your day.  

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