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The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 05,2 008
ALCOHOL FLUSH
From Page 4B
"It's not something that typi-
cally pops out of nowhere unless
your family members had never
consumed alcohol before, but that's
kind of a stretch," Desprez said.
That wasn't the case, though, for
LSA sophomore April, who would
only give her first name because
she is under 21 years old. She was
adopted.
The first time she drank her
sophomore year of high school, she
experienced the reaction. She said
that when she drinks, it makes her
so red that it's physically uncom-
fortable. "Most Asian people get it,
but not as bad as I do," said April,_
who is Korean.
But April has figured out a par-
tial remedy to the flush: Pepcid AC,
30 minutes before her first drink.
She said the over-the-counter
heartburn medication has reduced
her outward symptoms from red
I
So. You want
one good reason
to earn a pharmacy
degree from the
University of
ich igan ?
Here are 12 good reasons, for starters:
1. Respect: 50 percent of the students admitted to
our professional degree (PharmD) program are
cross-campus transfers - many from LSA
2. Unparalleled career choices
3. Financial support unequalled by any other U.S.
pharmacy school
4. Continuous growth potential
5. Outstanding pay
6. Job security in economically uncertain times
7. The power to apply medical knowledge at
the forefront of technological innovation
8. Life and career mobility
9. Membership in an influential alumni
network spanning the globe
10. The prestige of owning a degree from one
of US News & World Report's top-ranked
pharmacy schools
11. Unlimited opportunities to improve people's
lives
12. One-to-one learning with world-renowned
faculty
If you've had health-care patient experience, and
if you've taken Chemistry 130, 210, 215, or 260;
Biology 171, 172, 173, or 305; Physics 125, 126,
140, or 240; or Calculus 115 or 116, you're already
on your way to a pharmacy degree at U-M.
To learn more about the PharmD program at the
University of Michigan, visit the University of
Michigan College of Pharmacy Web site at
www.umich.edu/-pharmacy. Or contact Assistant
Dean Valener Perry at 734-764-5550 or by e-mail
at vlperry@umich.edu.
four future never looked brighter.
blotches on her face, neck and chest
to a pleasant, slightly pink glow.
Rackham graduate student J.C.,
who's 28 years old, takes a much dif-
ferent approach to her alcohol flush
syndrome than most people with
the condition. While a bad experi-
ence the first time she drank made
her swear off alcohol completely,
she'd never admit it.
J.C. only agreed to give her
initials because she thinks future
employers and colleagues in her
native South Korea might think
less of her for not drinking.
"What's really interesting in
those societies is that people over-
come their limitations by putting
a lot of pressure on themselves,"
J.C. said.
In Korean society, she said there
is often heavy social pressure in
work environments to demon-
stratesuperior drinking abilities.
"They would probably regard
my explanation as a kind of
excuse," she said.
In South Korea, about five col-
lege students die each year after
being pressured by older students
to binge drink, J.C. said.
"They don't take the symptoms
seriously so they usually don't take
them to the ER or get them medi-
cal help," .C.. said.
That pressure landed J.C.in the
hospital when she was 19. At an
initiation party for new students
at her university in South Korea,
two professors and 10 to 15 upper-
classmen forced SO underclassmen
to take turns chugging buckets of
alcohol.
"We did not have any right to
say no," she said.
s.c. doesn't know for sure how
much she consumed, but estimates
that it was about the same quantity
as two standard bottles of beer.
"There was a really huge social
pressure that I felt," she said.
"Because of that I just plugged my
nose and finished it."
That night, J.C. spent the night
in the emergency room. Because
of her body's genetic inability to
process alcohol, she ended up with
severe hemorrhaging in her stom-
ach lining.
While J.C.'s experience was
extreme, conflict also exists at
the University between the com-
mon alcohol flush syndrome and
social expectations for drinking
in college. For many students,
abstaining from alcohol - no mat-
ter what it does to their bodies
- doesn't seem like an option. But
with friends who respect limits
and understand the issue, college
night-life can still be an option,
with or without the booze. And as
long as it doesn't put people in the
hospital, there's nothing wrong
with a few blushing beauties in the
kegline.