WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008 News WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
13
WATKINS
More women than men visiting health center
BY BRIEUN SCOTT bscott@kansan.com
When Javier Portillo left Watkins Memorial Health Center two months ago, he left worry-free, with a clean bill of health.
According to recent data from Watkins, more women than men made appointments to visit Watkins during the past 12 months. Women made 44,000 appointments at Watkins during the past year, while men made 24,000 appointments.
Portillo, Paraguay senior, said he routinely visited Watkins for checkups. But Portillo may be one of the few male students who visited the doctor.
Patty Quinlan, a nurse supervisor at Watkins, said birth control pills were the main reason female students went to Watkins, while many went in for annual wellness check-ups as well.
"For men, there has to be an incentive," Quinlan said. "If it doesn't hurt or there's no change, then there's no reason to come in."
Portillo said that his parents regularly made him go. But Portillo said he
thought there might be reasons men don't want to go to the doctor.
"We always feel like were invincible," Portillo said. "We think 'I'm a man' type of thing."
Molly Khan, Rochester, Minn., senior, said she went to the doctor four or five months ago for her yearly check-up, because she was concerned about her health.
"The way women are raised is to be more in tuned with their bodies, while men are taught to be strong," Khan said. "Men are less willing to admit something is wrong."
Myra Strother, staff physician at Watkins, said the reason women came in more was because they were more open about health concerns than men.
"Men are not comfortable talking about things like stress and anxiety." Strother said.
She said men didn't focus on future health issues like high blood pressure.
Strother said she wanted to see all students regularly. She said when students did come in she tried to get as much information about the student's lifestyle as she could, because Watkins' goal was to inform students on ways to lead healthy lifestyles.
"College is more of a marathon than it is a sprint," Strother said. "Students should put health first. If they don't, they may not make it through the school year."
One health case that Strother said has become more common among KU students is metabolic syndrome, which includes high blood pressure, high sugar level and cardio vascular problems. In addition, a study conducted by Strother and other medical researchers showed obesity had increased among college students.
Strother said diseases like metabolic syndrome were affected by students' lifestyles. She said smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise and unhealthy eating would cause problems in the future.
Portilla said he thought that the American culture played a role in healthy living.
"We are altering life. Everything is fast pace, fast food and fast everything," he said.
Edited by Rustin Dodd
MEDICINE
Migraine device could aleve anxiety
BY BRIEUN SCOTT
bscott@kansan.com
The University of Kansas Medical Center is working on a new device to help analyze migraines in women.
The device will allow researcher to better study estrogen in women and how it relates to migraines. It will allow researchers to put inflammatory solution, such as serotonin or directly on the dura mater, neurons that sense pain.
She said they were studying how estrogen can make cells respond and signal more pain than what's already there.
Nancy Berman, research director of Neurosurgery at the Medical Center, is conducting studies, along with other researchers, on ways to treat migraine patients and to understand why more women then men get migraines.
"We're studying if what's signaling pain inside cells common with pain in estrogen." Berman said.
According to the American Headache Society, about 22 million women are affected by migraines
in the U.S., which is three times the amount than men wo experience migraines.
Berman said that migraines are the most common neurological disease. She said migraines are a neglected in research because it's not considered as fatal as other diseases like Alzheimer, Stroke and Parkinson's.
"Migraines are probably not studied as much because it's a pain in women," Berman said.
Nick Stucky, M.D., Ph.D. student and member of research team, said they are studying the way estrogen influences the way neurons perceive change. He said estrogen changed neurons so that its stimulus is lower. He said estrogen could affect neurons all over the body.
"Like menstrual cramps—estrogen could play a role there," Stucky said.
Berman said one area where estrogen generates pain is in the head and the face.
"Why is there more pain in the head and face? Why not the uterus," Berman said.
Edited by Deepa Sampat