It’s been almost a week since March Madness began, and literally everybody’s bracket by this point has already fallen apart. The NCAA Tournament marks the most basketball-dense period in the American sports calendar. 64 teams qualify for the most chaotic tournament in all of sports. As of today, only 16 teams remain. While this means over half of the tournament’s games have already been played, there’s still plenty of basketball left. With the National Championship game taking place on April 4th, for many fans, this means 13 more days of eating wings, drinking beers and watching hoops. While this gluttonous combination of activities makes for a great time, it pays quite the toll on the body.

Each year, Americans eat 120 million chicken wings and drink 220 million gallons of beer. One reason why this number’s so large is because fans tend to enjoy March Madness at sports bars, where people on any day of the week will enjoy beer and wings. Of course, the excitement of March Madness will elevate this behavior, resulting in an immeasurable caloric consumption each year. Financial experts also estimate that productivity plummets during this month, due mostly to employees constantly checking their brackets and coming into work still reeling from the night before. An MSN survey predicts that employers could lose an estimated $1.2 billion during March Madness.

Don’t be a statistic: make this March Madness healthy, productive and fun. While eating junk food such as pizza and wings is fine in moderation, it’s important that you mix in some fruits and vegetables to compensate for the void in nutrients created by your bar food diet. Also, while you’re not watching basketball, try to exercise as much as possible. You can even work out during the games! As everyone knows, the last two minutes of a basketball game can stretch as long as thirty minutes, so how about doing some push-ups and sit-ups during this time?

If you believe this March Madness has put a toll on your body, visit us at AFC Urgent Care North Andover, where one of our Providers can administer you a physical examination. For more information, call us at 978-470-0800. We look forward to helping you survive March Madness and advance into March!