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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
HEALTH
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University brings light to eating disorders
LOGAN SCHLOSSBERG
news@kansan.com
Eating Disorder Awareness Week not only aims to prevent eating disorders, but also body image issues. To help this cause, the University will have "Celebrate Every Body Week" from Feb 24-28, where students will be able to write positive messages on Post-it notes at various locations around campus. Each of the Post-it notes will then be hung up throughout the University.
The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) says that the rate among college students has risen from 10 to 20 percent in women and 4 to 10 percent in men.
Sophomore Erin Langhofer from Overland Park has struggled watching a friend suffer with an eating disorder.
"It started on a trip to South America," Langhofer said. "My friend didn't eat anything there because she didn't like the food. After losing weight on the trip, she came back to Kansas realizing she liked to have control over being skinny."
NEDA says that given that eating disorders are the mental illness with the highest mortality rate, early detection, intervention and treatment is crucial for the best chance of a patient recovering.
For students at the University, getting help for an eating disorder is more difficult. The closest in-patient clinics are in St. Louis or Tulsa, Okla. HCA Midwest, an in-patient treatment facility in Kansas City, Mo., closed
in August of 2012 due to a decrease in patients needing medical treatment.
"She told me about her eating disorder and it was very helpless for both her and I!" Langhofer said. "These facilities would help her while keeping her information confidential, and now that they're gone she would have to travel far and tell her parents."
Around 20 percent of individuals struggling with anorexia will die from the disease, according to NEDA.
Kelsey Fortin, a health educator at the University, works with students that have eating disorders. She knows students need help when they come in and are constantly obsessed with food and how much they consume.
"The number one thing I would say is that students have to realize that they have an emotional tie to food," Fortin said. "I help them target that connection."
Fortin says that the media is a big aspect in why these eating disorders happen because the people we see on television or in magazines portray the "ideal" image of being skinny instead of the healthy image.
NEDA says that the average American woman is 5'4" tall weighing 165 pounds, while the average Miss America winner is 3 inches taller and weights 40 pounds less.
"Often times what we see is not how people really appear, but because this is what we are used to we don't really realize that these models have been edited so much," Fortin said.
Centre released that hospital admissions for eating disorders rose by 16 percent from 2012 and children age 10 to 19 accounted for more than half of the patients.
The United Kingdom's Health and Social Care Information
"Every body is different. You have to not think about comparing yourself to someone else. Think of yourself as being healthy not being skinny." Fortin said.
If you or someone you know needs information or help regarding an eating disorder, call NEDA's toll-free, confidential helpline from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday or Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (800) 931-2237.
Edited by Callan Reilly
EATING DISORDER FACTS
- National eating disorder awareness week is Feb. 24 -
March 2.
- The closest eating disorder treatment facilities are in St. Louis and Tulsa, Okla.
- About 20 percent of individuals with anorexia will die from the disease, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. (NEDA)
- 30 million people are affected each year by eating disorders nationwide. (NEDA)
- The average American woman is 5-foot-4-inches and weighs 165 pounds. The average Miss America is 5-foot-7 and weighs 125 pounds. (NEDA)
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust, died in London on Sunday morning at the age of 110.
Oldest-known Holocaust survivor dies at 110
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor, died at age 110 on Sunday, a family member said. The accomplished pianist's death came just a week before her extraordinary story of surviving two years in a Nazi prison camp through devotion to music and to her son is up for an Oscar.
Herz-Sommer died in a hospital after being admitted Friday with health problems, daughter-in-law Genevieve Sommer said.
"We all came to believe that she would just never die," said Frederic Bohbot, a producer of the documentary "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life." "There was no question in my mind, 'would
she ever see the Oscars"
the film, directed by Oscarwinning filmmaker Malcolm Clarke, has been nominated for best short documentary at the Academy Awards next Sunday.
Another producer on the film, Nick Reed, said telling her story was a "life-changing experience."
Even as her energy slowly diminished, her bright spirit never faltered," she said. "Her life force was so strong we could never imagine her not being around."
Herz-Sommer, her husband and her son were sent from Prague in 1943 to a concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin Theresienstadt in German where inmates' were allowed to stage concerts in which she frequently starred.
An estimated 140,000 Jews were sent to Terezin and 33,430 died there. About 88,000 were moved on to Auschwitz and other death camps, where most of them were killed. Herz-Sommer and her son, Stephan, were among fewer than 20,000 who were freed when the notorious camp was liberated by the Soviet army in May 1945.
Yet she remembered herself as "always laughing" during her time in Terezin, where the joy of making music kept them going.
"These concerts, the people are sitting there, old people, desolated and ill, and they came to the concerts and this music was for them our food. Music was our food. Through making music we were kept alive," she once recalled.
The Brave New World of Political Communications: Lessons from the Obama Campaigns
Spring 2014 Study Groups
with Dole Fellow Mark Sump
Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns launched a new era of political communications, taking direct voter contact and mobilization of voters to levels never seen before. These innovative strategies created two historic victories and generated a 60-percent voter turnout rate for the first time in many decades. This spring, Dole Fellow Mark Sump delves into these political communication methods to reveal how they resulted in two Obama victories.
The following Wednesdays from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Dole Institute
Feb. 26 Sump and guest,political consultant Ken Strasma,will discuss how modeling and targeting are used in political campaigns.Join us for this conversation with Barack Obamas 2008 modeling guru.
Come late, leave early, but don't miss it!
March 12 Sump will host a video conference with Paul Begala, political consultant and commentator. They will discuss how media coverage of political campaigns has developed in the past few decades and where the money goes.
March 5 Sump and guest, media consultant Matthew MacWilliams, will discuss social media and new mediums of political communication.
March 26 Sump and guest, Democratic political consultant Michael Whouley, will discuss getting out the vote and how to target specific individuals and demographics. Join us for this conversation with this key strategist from Bill Clinton's 1992 election victory.
April 2 & 9, TBA
All programs are free & open to the public.
Dole Institute, University of Kansas, West Campus
Offering student leadership and networking opportunities
www.DoleInstitute.org 785.864.4900 Facebook/Twitter
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