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Volu me 105 Issue 29
Radiothon will benefit Hawai‘i AIDS cause LYNN NAK AGAWA News Editor
Life Foundation’s mission is to fi ght AIDS in Hawaiʻi and the Pacifi c, and will be featured on the radio this Friday to raise awareness and money for the cause. On Friday, Oct. 8, Star 101.9 is holding its second annual radiothon to help with AIDS prevention, treatment, and awareness. The event, called “Stars Against AIDS,” will benefit the Life Foundation, a local organization that provides free HIV testing and services for those living with HIV/AIDS. “ T here will be live on-air inter views with Life Foundation clients, staf f board members, volunteers, and there will po tentially be an on-air rapid test, the administration of a HI V test and an explanation of the process,” said K andice Johns, event manager. Life Foundation works with 769 HIV-positive men, women and children to ensure they receive proper medical, fi nancial, and emotional care. As of Dec. 1, 2009, 4,015 AIDS cases have been
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Volunteers staff the phone bank at last year’s radiothon. This year’s event will take place on Oct. 8 on Star FM 101.9
confi rmed in Hawaiʻi. “Star 101.9 has about 70,000 listeners, so it’s a really great way to reach out to people and for people to learn about Life Foundation,” she said. “The purpose is twofold — to spread education and awareness of our services and raise funds for our services,” said Johns. The phone bank will be staffed by volunteers, including students from UH Mānoa’s Public Relations Student Society of A merica (PRSSA) and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). T here will be prizes for those who raise the most money. T he grand prize is a trip to L as Vegas for t wo. “ We’re tr ying to make it f un for the volunteers,” said Johns. “We are encouraging people to call in. It’s a great opportunity to hear directly from people who have been affected by HIV/ A IDS,” said Melanie Moore, director of communications. The Star 101.9 hotline can be reached at 808-853-3232. Donations may also be made online at www.lifefoundation.org.
Early female development linked to height, body fat in UHM study C HRIS M IKESELL Senior Staff Writer Young girls with higher body fat or height have a greater chance of getting their period early, according to a UH Mānoa study presented last Friday. “Most girls are tending to reach menarche earlier these days either be cause of higher nutrition or lower phys ical activit y,” said Vinutha Vijayadeva, the author of the study and a junior
researcher in the Human Nutrition, Food and A nimal Sciences department. “ T hey tend to have more body fat than girls from, say, the 1990s.” Vijayadeva said that she found that both girls with higher percentages of abdominal body fat, as well as girls who were taller, were more likely to experience menarche - their first menstrual cycle - earlier in life than other young girls. The study was conducted over three years with Asian and Caucasian popula-
tions of girls in Hawaiʻi between the ages of eight and 10 years old. One of the challenges of drawing conclusions from this research, Vijayadeva said, is that it is difficult to determine what the correct age is for a young girl to reach that point in her development. “What we are trying to focus on here is the optimal range of girls reaching menarche,” said Vijayadeva. “Reaching menarche early is bad, reaching menarche late is bad, so what is that optimal
level? That is what we’re trying to explain, which is difficult because there have not been many studies previously that have focused on these aspects.” Vijayadeva said that determining a more ideal menarcheal age range is critical because menarche signals the body to begin producing the hormone estrogen. The earlier it occurs, the longer a young woman is exposed to the female See Menarche study, page 3