6A the university daily kansan
news
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Binge drinking troublesome for most women
By Matt Rodriguez
mdrroguez@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The scene plays itself out every weekend.
A woman hangs out with the guys at a bar or a party. And in order to impress the men, she goes drink-for-drink with them and ends up regretting the whole night.
Natalya Stoylar, Overland Park senior and bartender at The Roxy in Overland Park, has seen the scenario a number of times.
"For some people, going to a bar is all about a game of setting impressions," Stoylar said. "You don't have to drink to impress them, (men) you have to understand your body works differently."
The number of women who are drinking to the point of intoxication has risen in the past 20 years, according to research done by Sharon Wilsnack, professor of
"This is just good sense and good health. If you know how to handle your alcohol, you'll have more fun"
Sharon Wilsnack
Professor of neuroscience, University of North
Dakota
neuroscience at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Science and several other doctors. With more women drinking today, they need to be aware of how alcohol affects their bodies, Wilsnack said.
It's a biological fact that women are unable to keep up with men when it comes to drinking. Women and men's bodies react to alcohol in different ways
to alcohol in different ways
it all comes down to science.
When a woman drinks the
same amount of alcohol as a man does and she also weighs as much as the man, she is going to have a higher blood alcohol level, said Morris Faiman, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas.
Stomachs are like holding tanks for alcohol. The stomach and the liver have enzymes called Dehydrogenase. These enzymes help the stomach break down alcohol before it gets into the liver, Faiman said. The enzymes in women's stomachs are not as active as men's. Therefore, alcohol gets into women's bloodstreams faster than men's.
The second reason women become more intoxicated than men do is a women's body is made up of more fatty tissue as opposed to a man's, which has more muscle tissue. Muscle tissue contains more water and is able to dilute the alcohol. So women's bodies reach a higher blood alcohol level because they have less body
water.
Food also influences how alcohol affects the body.
Both Faiman and Wilsnack agree that during spring break students may not stick to their regular eating habits.
People should keep in mind that having food in their stomach is important when drinking because it can slow down the way the body metabolizes alcohol. And for women, a full stomach can help them absorb more alcohol and keep the alcohol in their stomach, allowing those enzymes to break down more alcohol Wilsnack said.
Wilsnack said according to her research, younger women prefer beer and wine, but with influences like HBO's Sex and the City, women are starting to move more toward mixed drinks such as the highly-popularized cosmopolitan. The main ingredients are vodka, juice, such as lime or cranberry, and triple sec.
Alcohol is alcohol no matter whether it's a wine or a shot of liquor, Wilsnack said. But what matters is the speed at which you drink the alcohol. People tend to drink liquor faster than a glass of wine, Wilsnack said. This can lead to trouble. Shots and mixed drinks have a higher concentration of alcohol and increase your blood alcohol level faster.
Wilsnack said people could be given all kinds of guidelines of noticing when they're drunk, but the best thing to do is slow down or stop drinking when you start to realize how drunk you are. The results of overdrinking, especially when a person is taking a lot of shots, can lead wind a person up in the emergency room or even dead.
"This is just good sense and good health," Wilsnack said. "If you know how to handle your alcohol, you'll have more fun."
—Edited by Kevin Flaherty
OVER: Binge drinking can lead to injuries, violence, arrests
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
American college ritual defined by extreme behavior like binge drinking.
For three days following his own spring break binge-drinking episode, O'Grady said he felt groggy, his throat burned and the thought of doing dishes made him queasy.
"It was like a three-day hangover—something I don't recommend doing." O'Grady said. "Stay away from cleaning utensils and degreasers when you're drunk off vodka."
The binge-drinking breakdown
Binge drinking is defined as drinking four or five drinks in one sitting, said Richard Yoast, director of the American Medical Association's Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. But this is a small amount of alcohol compared with what people are probably consuming during spring break. Yoast said.
"Many go just to be drunk the whole time." Yoast said.
According to the study done at Panama City Beach, Fla., the average man consumed 18 drinks per day, and the average woman reported drinking 10 drinks per day while on spring
break.
Of the 442 women and 341 men surveyed for the study, one in five men reported that he was always drunk, and 75 percent of the men reported that they were intoxicated at least once per day.
Forty percent of women reported being drunk once a day, and 3.4 percent reported that they were always inebriated. More than half of the men and more than 40 percent of the women drank until they became sick or they passed out at least once.
"Some students just see it as a release from the grind," Yoast said. "The risk is that it may give them a break from one thing, but create a new problem for them while they're there."
Binge drinking over spring break can have a variety of disastrous effects including injuries, overdoses, sexually transmitted diseases from unprotected sex, violence, arrests and drunk driving. Yoast said.
Would you like some spring break with that alcohol?
Alcohol plays a large role in many college students' spring break plans, said Jacquelyn McKinney, Springfield, Mo., junior. She said she and her friends chose to spend next week in South Padre mostly because it was within driving distance, but that she couldn't imagine a spring break without alcohol.
"People have been working their butts off all semester," McKinney said. "So they just want to hang loose, lay in the sun and just enjoy themselves."
Some student travel packages not only cater to the students who plan their vacations around alcohol, but also promote this mindset.
The Web site StudentSpringBreak.com advertises the slogan "Plan easy, party hard," and offers vacation packages for popular spring break destinations such as Cancun and Acapulco in Mexico, and South Padre Island in Texas. The site describes how "your yearly intake of alcoholic consumption could happen in one small week in Cancun."
Sean Keener, president of BootsnAll Travel Network, the parent company of StudentSpringBreak.com, said Cancun was its most popular package, and a lot of the reason students chose it was because they wanted to party. But the company takes a sort of tongue-incheek approach to its marketing, Keener said.
"I don't wish for anyone to get hurt or abuse themselves," Keener said. "It's about finding a balance."
Aubrey Volz, Topeka junior, said she went to Acapulco last spring break through a travel package with Student Travel Services. She said her package did not advertise excessive alcohol consumption, and she chose it for its convenience.
For a one-time fee of $150, Volz said she and her friends bought "party passes" that granted them access to clubs as well as unlimited alcohol.
"You're in Acapulco, so why would you not party all the time?" Volz said. "But I had to pace myself, otherwise I'd pass out by like 10."
The abundance and availability of alcohol in popular spring break locations promote heavy drinking, said O'Grady.
"If you go to Mexico, you're going to drink a lot of tequila. If you go to the Caribbean you're going to drink a lot of rum. If you go to Padre, they allow kegs on
the beach," he said. "It's pushed a lot more there."
Volz said that her trip did not revolve around alcohol, and she didn't think the constant access to alcohol necessarily promoted binge drinking.
"If you're going to drink like a fish in Acapulco, most likely you drink like a fish in Lawrence too." Volz said.
Jannette Berkley-Patton, Wellness Coordinator at Watkins Memorial Health Center said there was a misconception that the majority of college students travel to exotic locations and drink heavily over spring break.
She said for those who do choose to drink over break, it's important for students to watch out for each other and be aware of how to get help in a foreign country if something goes wrong.
O'Grady has his on thoughts about what will make this year's spring break trip to South Padre more enjoyable than his previous experience, and it's not abstaining from alcohol.
"There will be no soap in Padre," he said. "If it doesn't come out of a tap, I don't want anything to do with it."
Edited by Paul Kramer
COMMERCE: Bank was only one that offered all the services the University wanted
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
The money increases by about 1 percent, according to how much money is deposited at the Union branch.
That extra money differs from month to month, Goddard said. Some months the University generates the base $2,000, sometimes more, depending on the collective amount of money in the bank, she said.
The contract also promised the University $100,000 up front, money administrators reinvested in the University's general fund, Eakin said.
The exclusive partnership began when the University solicited a bank that would manage three services: a banking relationship, KU identification
cards and the smart chip system that was in place until last year, Eakin said.
In the summer of 1999, the University released an offer for bids. Administrators wanted all three aspects of the relationship to be included in one bid, rather than have three separate banks handle the different duties, Eakin said.
"We decided it would be useful if the ID cards were tied to a bank account. If a bank couldn't do that, we weren't interested," Eakin said.
thursday, march 18, 2004
Although many banks, like US Bank, bid on the separate parts of the contract, only Commerce had the capabilities to integrate the three aspects into one proposal, Eakin said.
with US Bank for faculty banking, Eakin said. US wanted to take over the smart chip operations, but did not want to establish an on-campus bank for students.
The next year, Commerce established KUIDs that worked as a checking card,and opened a branch in the Union.
The University holds a contract
Before the contract, the Kansas Union cashed students' checks for a fee. Eakin said the process was a hassle for both the students and the Union.
Now, students can cash checks and deposit money at Commerce if they have a checking or savings account at the bank, Eakin said.
And the more they deposit, the more money the University makes from the more than 4,300 student accounts open at the
Union branch, said Dianne Goddard, vice provost in the Comptroller's office.
Goddard said that number almost 18 percent of the student body, could be much higher.
"It's not as high as we'd like, but we haven't gone out and actively sold it that much," she said.
The single tool the University uses to recruit students for Commerce is the table set up at New Student Orientation, Goddard said.
The lack of advertising stems in part from the money the University misses out on, Goddard said.
Many universities charge students ATM fees, and use Mastercard or Visa on student ID cards, which generate their own revenue through contracts. KU does neither, Goddard said.
The agreement works well for students like Theresa Bird, Albuquerque, N.M., freshman. She had a Commerce account before coming here.
I don't want to charge students
to use the ATM if I don't have to pay at my bank." Eakin said.
"It was a lot easier keeping the same bank," she said. Bird said she would probably stay in the area and keep her account in the future.
But students who plan to move from the area after college can say goodbye to Commerce, which is only located in the Midwest.
"If I move to either coast, I'll have to change. That's kind of a pain," Rohner said.
Commerce declined to comment on its relationship with the University for this story.
Edited by Stephanie Lovett
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The man wanted in a string of sniper shootings that terrorized Ohio drivers was captured at a motel yesterday after someone spotted him at a Las Vegas casino reading a newspaper story about himself.
Salesman helps nab highway sniper
An unshaven and disheveled Charles A. McCoy Jr., 28, was arrested without incident less than 36 hours after Ohio authorities released his name as a suspect in the attacks.
The arrest brought relief to Ohio residents who have been living in fear since the 24 shootings began in the Columbus area last "In my heart and mind, I knew this was the man police in Ohio were looking for." Conrad Malsom Las Vegas resident
year. The gunfire pierced homes and a school, dented school buses, flattened tires and shattered wind-shields, killing one person.
Authorities have not offered a motive for the shootings and have not said how McCoy became a suspect. The Columbus Dispatch, citing unidentified sources, said a relative of McCoy's contacted police to say he could be a suspect and McCoy's father gave authorities a 9 mm pistol that was matched to some of the bullet fragments recovered in the shootings.
"Once he started hitting random other places, we felt like there was nowhere safe to go," said Aimee Wagner, 31, a chemistry professor who often travels Interstate 270 to teaching jobs in the Columbus area. "I'm just happy he didn't get the chance to take another person's life."
McCoy was taken to the Las Vegas FBI office, where detectives from Ohio were expected to arrive yesterday to question him.
Authorities said McCoy had been in Las Vegas for about a day, gambling at the Stardust hotel-casino and staying at the nearby Budget Suites motel, just across from a strip club.
Police credited an unemployed car and time-share salesman with helping them capture McCoy. Conrad Malsom, 60, of Las Vegas, said he recognized McCoy from news reports linking him to the Ohio attacks, and did his own detective work to locate McCoy's car parked at the motel.
"In my heart and mind, I knew this was the man the police in Ohio were looking for," Malson told The Associated Press.
Malsom said he met McCoy on Tuesday at the Sturdist sports book on the Las Vegas Strip. He said he offered McCoy a slice of pepperoni pizza and recognized him from a newspaper photograph. McCoy was reading a copy of USA Today, which featured the fugitive's picture, Malsom said.
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