Keeping Behrend healthy by Sarah Orr staff writer Located in the Carriage House, the Health and Wellness Center caters to a myriad of student needs. Open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, the center offers an array of services to Penn State Behrend students. Included are onsite li censed laboratory services such as strep throat, pregnancy, cholesterol, and STD test ing, monospot, nebulizer and STD treat ments, blood sugar, Tuberculosis screening, urinalysis, anemia screening, emergency contraceptives, and Depo Provera. There are many immunizations administered at Health and Wellness, such as Tetanus, Measles/Mumps/Rubella, Meningitis, Flu, Hepatitis B, and Varicella shots. They also give physical examinations for driver’s license, employment, sports, and women’s gynecological care. If a student has contracted an illness, but cannot afford health care, they can still be examined and treated at the Health and Wellness Center. The bill will be put on the student’s semester bill, and the student will be given a receipt to turn into his/her insurance company. Complete gynelogical and STD care is provided at the center. They provide full initial and annual exams and checks about STDs to both males and females. They also offer free HIV counseling and testing. It is held completely confidential. Parents of students are not privy to their sons’ or daughters’ medical records without the consent of the student. A student allowing parents to be made aware of the information must sign a release form. The Health and Wellness Center also provides complete health care to victims of rape. The staff can give the victim treatment without accessing the student’s insurance. The student may seek care on or off campus, and it will be funded by the University; however, if the student wishes to pursue off campus treatment, he/she must inform Health and Wellness so that arrangements can be made for payment to the hospital. They are a valuable service on campus that students can take advantage of if the need should ever arise. Meningitis vaccinations, call for an appointment Flu vaccinations (soon to come) Demonstrations and booths for the Great American Smokeout Thursday, November 16, outside Bruno’s and other spots on campus On The Lighter Side Kyiec*. November 16 I first heard about the Great American Smokeout Day last year when I was in New York City. People were handing out pamphlets and asking me to quit smoking. I kindly replied that I didn’t smoke. The people thanked me and told me to pass on the literature to someone who needed it Apparently, I had been oblivi ous to the whole Smokeout day because this year it celebrates it 24th year in existence. Started back in 1977 by the American Cancer Society, the Great American Smokeout is the one day every year that more people quit smoking than any other day, This month at the Health and Wellness Center including New Year’s Eve, the great resolution day. Everyone over the age of ten knows the dangers of smoking. And sure, ok, not everyone that smokes is going to die from lung cancer or emphysema, however, the nicotine addiction that smoking causes is what is hard to be released from. I never used to think that the addiction would be hard to kick, and being a non- smoker myself I frowned upon people who couldn’t quit. Then I witnessed first hand a long term smoker trying to beat the addic tion. My father had been a smoker since his early teens, and now being in his late forties, he admirably decided to quit. The decision to quit was the easy one; Healthy living ' *?tvf 'iWermf; the cami / ' ' v i W 0 As Coordinator of the Health and Wellness Center and a full time Certified Family Practitioner, Patty Pasky McMahon provides the students, faculty, and staff of Behrend with the highest quality medical care. She demonstrates on a pig’s lung the effects of smoking for National Smokeout day. in college anti for life is your chance to make a change the act itself was what he found to be impossible. Time after time he “quit smoking,” only to be banished to the front porch to smoke in the cold once again. He claims that my mother’s and my own whining about the house reeking forced him outside, and rightfully so (here comes the statistics you were waiting for): every year about 3,000 nonsmok ing adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke. I didn’t want to die from something that I didn’t even participate in! So to the porch he went. Finally, on the seventh or eighth try, he succeeded in quitting. Unfortunately for everyone in my family, all the side effects of quitting smoking - t PHOTO BY JEFF MILLER came along soon after. The extreme irritability, the insane mood swings and the general meanness that turned our house into a warzone was not a wel come thing. But for all the fighting and temper tantrums that occurred the first couple months or so after he quit, it was worth it. The money that we saved from cigarettes made my brother and me happy (thank ya daddy) and it made all of us happier that he gave up a very disgusting habit. So why should you do it? Even if you don’t have anyone in your family that cares about you enough that you want to do it for, do it for yourself. It will make you feel better and you’ll save a ton of money. Also, you’ll be Breaking the habit, students quit smoking for their health by Sarah Orr staff writer We have all heard the warnings; we’ve all seen the signs. We all know that smoking can be detrimental to our health. The Surgeon General warns against it in large printed let ters on every pack of cigarettes. Smoking can lead to such diseases as lung cancer and em physema. So why do so many people still do it? And hard how is it to actually quit? This was the query posed when asking two Penn State - Behrend students, Ryan Ferguson and Kristin Rodgers, how they extinguished the habit. They each took a different approach and for different reasons, but both seem to be succeeding where many others have failed. Ryan Ferguson is a semester student at Behrend who is majoring in Business/ Economics with a Finance minor. He is a resident of Almy Hall and had been smoking for six years before he finally decided to quit. It all started at a karate tournament when Ryan was 15 and a sophomore of Clarion Limestone High School. Outside, a friend offered him a cigarette, and he accepted. The reasons that Ryan offered as to why he continued to smoke ranged from "peer pressure” to “just something to do.” He was smoking up to a half pack a day to feed the habit, usually Camel Lights, Camel Red Lights, or Salem Lights. The approach that the he took to quit is sometimes referred to as “cold turkey.” Ryan decided to stop smoking without any outside help. Although he has on occasion lit up since, he vows to make sure that smoking is no longer a part of his life. The biggest reasons Ryan cited when asked why he quit were health concerns and money matters. He says, “ it is definitely worth quitting. You feel a lot better, and you have a lot more money than you ever did.” Kristin Rodgers agrees with Ryan’s perspective, although her main motivation for dropping the addiction was more health related. Kristin is a 5 1 * 1 semester English major Want to advertise your (hCeafthy Suisness? T’fie tfeaftby Livingpage is a montbfy suppfement and is read by over 3,700 students.lt wiffrun again in December. Send in your ads now! Caff 898-6488 Do you have a human interest story? Or know of one that you woufd (ike to share? (EmaiC or caCC us here at the (Beacon. befircoCh @ aoC.com or 898-&4BS saving thousands of innocent lungs from consuming your secondhand smoke. If you have read any of my other editorials, you know my tremendous pet peeve with breathing re respirated lung air. Thursday, November 16, is this year’s Great American Smokeout Websites for further information , ,.-.y f. measures. S'" V.' ■' f . •; . ’jyw.langwse.orf * about all sort* of air quality control programs, lung diseases tad cool health tips. " www.quitsKaokin9.com Really cool site with tons of information to help you quit smoking, T r foq of any product that you could imagine using to help ybu quit smoking; Message boards, newsletters and lots of fun stuff. at Behrend and a resident of Ohio Hall. She had been a smoker for almost six years. She also started at age 15 as a sophomore in high school Kristin doesn’t remember the very first time that she smoked, but she does know that it was about a year before she first realized that she was addicted. At this time she became aware that she no longer just wanted cigarettes; she needed them. The hold was not only physical, but psychological as well. Kristin used a different method to stop the addiction. She used the patch as a method of control. It can be obtained through prescription only and is very expensive. It provides a steady stream of nicotine throughout the day to help calm the cravings for another cigarette. Kristin feels that this has helped her keep things under control, but it has still been difficult to break the mental addiction. Kristin also said that she began to notice the effects of quitting about three days later when she developed a cough that lasted for about a week. She now has improved lung capacity and breathing, which she uses to exercise. The hour a night that she once spent smoking with friends outside is now spent running. Although she does feel much healthier, Kristin said, it is clinically proven that it takes fifteen years from the day that you quit to be at the same health level as a non-smoker. Kristin has also slipped up a few times, but says, “it is a okay to fail. Don’t give up. Even though you may slip up once or twice, do not let it discourage you from trying to become a healthier person by quitting.” So, whether you are male or female, use a prescribed medication or quit “cold turkey,” or do it for financial reasons or health concerns, the benefits of quitting the habit of smoking are evident. Let’s hope this has helped to clear the air. day. Why not join the hundreds of thousands of other people that will quit that day? What do you have to lose? Not much. What do you have to gain? Added lung capacity, more money, better smelling breath, whiter teeth...the list goes on and on. Go on, take the plunge. To your health!
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