health
The dark side of running
Students who jog to keep in shape may be putting themselves at risk of developing health problems.
Charles Walther of Pittsburg and Jeanette Bergman of Shawnee jog in Anschutz Sports Pavilion. The December graduates exercised early yesterday morning. Anschutz is open every day from 6 to 8 a.m. and 7 to 10 p.m..
By Cathleen Siechta Kansan staff writer
Amy Soft / KANSAN
Cathy Chun runs because she wants to get a good workout. She runs because it eases her tension. She runs because she wants to keep her body in top form.
"I know why it happened," Chun said. "I did a different workout, went up more hills and on different surfaces. The doctor said it wasn't too severe, but I need to keep off of it for awhile and then start out slow when I start running again."
Stress fractures are just one of the perils faced by the many people who work out by running. Though running is good cardiovascular exercise and an effective weight loss aid that conditions several muscles, it can be detrimental to runners' health.
"Running is good for a lot of things, but if it is approached too intensely, it can cause problems like fatigue, tendinitis in the knees and shin splints," said Larry Magee, staff physician at Watkins Health Center.
Shin splints, also known as medial tibial stress syndrome, occur when the muscles in the back of the tibia, the inner and larger of the two bones in the lower leg, become inflamed. This inflammation usually is caused by the muscles absorbing too much shock during running.
Other problems associated with running are the possibility that runners could trip and fall, causing severe injury to themselves, or the danger that a runner could be struck by a car. Magee said that he would rather not see runners on or near streets because of this risk.
Magee also said asphalt and concrete were poor running surfaces that could increase the likelihood of injury.
"Ideally, runners should find a surface with good footing," Magee said. "They need shock absorption, like a cushioned or rubberized indoor track. The problem with tracks is that they're usually circular, and if you run in a circle, you overload the muscles on one side of your body. I usually suggest that runners run half of the track one direction and the other half the other direction."
But there are some health risks involved with running that only female runners face. Overdoing any exercise regime can cause drastic changes in a woman's menstrual cycle.
Henry Buck, a physician at Watkins Health Center, said that some women may experience amenorrhea, an abnormal suppression or absence of menstruation, if they run in excess.
"It's very similar to what happens to a woman who is anorexic or bulimic." Buck said. "A combination of low body fat and stress can cause the hypothalamus and pituitary gland to not release the estrogen hormones that stimulate the ovaries. If ovulation doesn't occur, menstruation doesn't occur. The lack of menstruation, however, is merely a side effect. The problem is that low estrogen in women can lead to osteoporosis."
Buck said that in severe cases of osteoporosis, women's bones may become so weak that they require estrogen supplements.
Regardless of the potential risks, many students say the opportunities to be outdoors and to exercise alone are reasons for making running their exercise of choice.
"Running is one of the few cardiovascular exercises that allows you to get out and by yourself," said David Montgomery, Springfield, Mo., senior. "I like running because you can enjoy the outdoors and really think about things while you're exercising."
Chun said she would be running again in a month.
"Running is just the perfect basic exercise," she said. "It involves no coordination, it's a physical as well as a mental workout, and you don't need any special expensive equipment for it. Just shoes."
personalities
Students remember 1969 Vietnam escape
Special to the Kansan
Bv Mac Engel
March 14, 1969, marked the beginning of the end for Americans in the Vietnam War. It was the first day of major withdrawals of American troops from Vietnam.
But that day was just the beginning for Vietnamese families who still were struggling to survive and fighting to leave their homeland. Some University of Kansas students who were part of the escape from Vietnam were too young to remember. But they have heard the nightmarish stories from their families.
Hanh Phan, Overland Park sophomore, was not even a year old when she and her family of nine fled Saigon in April 1975.
After the United States pulled the remaining Americans out of Vietnam, Hanh Phan's family decided to leave Saigon.
Tam Bui, Overland Park sophomore, also left Saigon with his family in 1975. Bui's father, like Phan's, worked in the army. When the North Vietnamese invaded, his family was forced to leave.
"My father was a liaison officer in the U.S. Embassy, and he had the chance to leave and took it," Hanh Phan said.
The Phan family originally planned to leave for the United States via airplane. With Salignon shambles and time running out, the Phan family's hopes of escape were doused momentarily when the airport was shelled and they were forced to take the more dangerous—but popular—method of escape. They traveled by boat.
"The communists were taking over Vietnam, and we had no choice," Phan's father, Giol, said. "If I would have stayed the Communists would have killed me."
"Everybody was escaping by boat, but the boats were only supposed to fit 3,000 people." Gioi Phan said. "It was more like 5,000 people, it was so packed. It was terrible."
"There was nothing left," Tam Bui said.
The trip to America was often filled with hardship, Tam Bu said.
"It was crowded, and these people were crammed into these little boats," he said. "There was not much food. Anything we ate was from fishing."
The boats were so crowded that Hanh Phan nearly fell off. But her family faced a more serious problem when she became ill.
"I was 10 months old and had a really bad
"I don't feel I have missed anything.I am Vietnamese and American."
Hanh Phan
Overland Park sophomore
It was in the Philippines where Gioi Phan met up with a former American colleague from Vietnam who assisted the family in preparing for life in the United States.
fever." Hanh Phan said. "I almost died. We had to stop in the Philippines so I could go to the hospital."
Despite having a job and speaking fluent English, adjusting to American life was difficult for the Phan family. Gloi Phan had to work two jobs day and night to support his family. The rest of the Phan family had to learn English.
"He knew a teacher in Missouri, and she helped set us up with a sponsor in Kansas City," Giol Phan said. "I was lucky, the day after I arrived in Kansas City I had a job."
"I worked very hard," Gioi Phan said. "I am very proud of the fact that I did not need welfare to support my family."
With the trade embargo against North Vietnam recently lifted, Giol Phan said he wanted to return to Vietnam to visit the relatives he left behind. Since he left Vietnam, he has kept in contact with them through letters and telephone calls.
The Bui family arrived in Kansas City with almost nothing. They also faced a language-barrier problem.
A church in Kansas City Kan., helped the Buis begin their new lives. Both of Bu's parents are employed, and Tam Bui is one of three Buis who are students at the University.
Hanh Phan said that she had no regrets about leaving Saigon and that her parents were grateful to see their children grow up and become successful.
"Other than the culture, the language and my ancestors I don't feel I have missed anything." Hanh Phan said. "I am Vietnamese and American. My parents made the right decision."
entertainment
First openly gay comic finds successful career in entertainment world
NEW YORK — "My whole life people called me a dyke," the chunky, funky Lea Delaria was saying one recent night as she waited for her dinner in a Times Square restaurant.
"There was a point in my life where I went, 'Oh, big insult,' " she added, emphasizing the sarcasm.
Delaria, who talks faster than an auctioneer on ampathemes, broke ground last year on "The Arsenio Hall Show" by becoming the first openly lesbian stand-up comic to do gay material on a late-night show. She enceased April's gay-right march in Washington and served as the host of television's first all-homosexual comedy special in December on Comedy Central.
Herstage show, "Silent Night Homo Night," ran for six weeks in London, where she also did an all-gay Christmas special for British television. Her guest roles on the prime-time series "Matlock" and "The John Larroque Show" aired last month. Also last month, she went Down Under for gigs in Australia.
Despite her gangster-like, chalk-stripe, dark suit and nose ring, DeLaria can come across as elf like. She kids about how she's often mistaken for a man and that "open lesbians" are her favorite kind.
She's been featured on "The World According to Us," the all-female sketch show on Boston's PBS station, for which she won a local Emmy.
The 38-year-old DeLaria, who's been doing stand-up comedy for 12 years, said she decided a long time ago who she is and what her act would entail.
"This is who I am, when I'm up there. This is it. I'm a big, butdyck Thats that who I am. And I'm a friendly one," she said, laughing.
Because her sexual orientation is right out there, she's surprised by the mainstream acceptance she's getting.
"Now my shows have so many straight people in it, and they totally get it, and they laugh at everything I
do," she said, sounding amazed
And she is amazed — "fabbergast-ed" — over the growth of her career.
"Things are just snowballing," she said. "I'm just rolling down that hill. And wherever it rolls, I'll follow."
Daily Variety has said her "manic, campy style hints at a combination of Bette Midler and Robin Williams," while her performances have attracted protesters — sometimes by the busload with signs reading: "Lea DeLaria is going to hell."
Her high-energy stand-up act plays to stereotypes while simultaneously trying to shatter them.
DeLaria, a Belleville, Ill., native who's relocating from Boston to the West Coast, said her two sisters, brother and her parents are "very supportive." (Her mother has said: "I don't believe in homosexuality. But she's my daughter, and I believe in her.")
Since even her parents know — one of the final frontiers for many homosexuals — DeLaria said it's inevitable that she would focus her material on the pre-eminent part of her persona.
"If you're a comic, you have to talk about who you are. People go. 'Why did you decide to talk about being queer?' How could I not? Oh, I pass. Oh, I could walk out and pass. Yeah, I'm not fooling anybody. If I walked out on stage and didn't talk about being queer, eventually they're going to go. 'Look at that big buildyke. Why doesn't she talk about it?'
"But it's the same thing about being Italian or being a woman. These are all aspects of my life. Queer isn't the only thing that I am. I talk about the things that I am — coming from a working-class Italian family, being raised in a Catholic environment, going to Catholic school, tons of women's things, too."
Since casting actors for movies and television are calling more and more, it is possible DeLaria will forsake stand-up?
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
"I think my agents and my managers see me getting away from it more than I do," she said.
MARCH 9.1994
PAGE 9
People and places at the University of Kansas.
calendar
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Lecture - Carlos Villa, artist, on his work, 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Spencer Museum Auditorium.
at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.
Reading - Gus Lee,
author, 7:30 p.m. Monday
The Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.
Exhibition - Sacred and Profane: Two Books
in Black and White, Jan. 23 - March 20 at
Spencer Museum of Art.
Program - Women and Breast Cancer, 7 p.m. Thursday at the Pine Room in the Kansas Union.
Program - Diet is a Four-Letter Word, 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Pine Room in the Kansas Union.
Exhibition - Imagery and Form, Feb. 15-March 10 at The Lawrence Arts Center, 200 W. Ninth St.
PERFORMANCES
Concert Series - New York Opera in "Madame Butterfly," 8 p.m. Thursday at the Lied Center.
Visiting Artists Series- Aurora Duo, viola and harp, 7:30 p.m. Friday at SWarthout Recital Hall.
University Theatre Series - "The Grapes of
University Theatre Series - "The Grapes of Wrath," 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday at Crafton-Preyer Theatre. $8 public, $4 KU students, $7 senior citizens.
Spring Concert - KU Concert Choir, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday at St. Lawrence Catholic Center, 1631
Crescent Road.
Informal Concert - University Dance Company, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Elizabeth Sherbon Dance Theatre.'
Student Recital - Scott B. Murphy, composition, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Swarthout Recital Hall.
Doctoral Recital - Ian Coleman, composition,
7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Swarthout Recital
Hall.
University of Kansas Opera - "Don Giovanni"
by Mozart, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lied
Center. $6 public, $3 students, $5 senior
citizens.
Doctoral Recallt- Soon Jung Lee, plano 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Saworth Recital Hall.
Lawrence Community Theatre presents "The Roar of the Greesepaint, The Smell of the Crowd," 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday; 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, $11, $9 public; $10, $8 students and senior citizens.