Speakers help focus campus on issues of health awareness

Top model gives the skinny on all those 'perfect' bodies in the media

Model Magali Amadei, right, addresses a Uris Hall audience, Jan. 28, while co-presenter and eating disorders specialist Claire Mysko looks on. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Briana Collins '03

With her sleek hair, striking bone structure, flawless skin and a smile that looks cut-and-pasted from Julia Roberts, it is hard to believe that top model Magali Amadei, whose image has graced the covers of Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Elle, has ever had a bad day. But the common belief among women that beauty equates with happiness is the misperception that Amadei tried to set straight in a lecture in Uris Hall Auditorium last Tuesday evening, Jan. 28.

She did so by sharing the story of her battle with bulimia.

The lecture, co-sponsored by Cornell Fitness Centers and the Cornell Panhellenic Association Delta Series as a part of Cornell's 22nd Health Awareness Week, was attended by a standing-room-only crowd of about 475 people -- mostly students.

Amadei and co-speaker Claire Mysko, former administrative director of the American Anorexia Bulimia Association, shared their personal struggles with bulimia and anorexia. Eating disorders on college campuses are rampant, Mysko noted, yet for most students, it's the "first time away from home, family and support system." Both Mysko, who is the online content manager for Girls Inc., and Amadei emphasized that having a strong support system is key to a bulimia or anorexia sufferers' recovery.

They were critical of the media's tendency to perpetuate images of "perfection" with the use of photo retouching and the implication that looking beautiful equates with happiness. "The message is," said Mysko, "if you've got a problem in your life, there's a product, diet, or exercise plan that you can get on ... and it'll fix your problems."

Amadei told how her unhealthy efforts to remain thin left her anything but happy. Although photos in magazines and advertisements depict her as carefree and vibrant, in reality her fight for perfection was leading her down a life-threatening road. "Most people thought I must have been very, very happy at that time in my life," noted the model. "But I wasn't."

Indeed, so unhappy was Amadei from hiding her secret, she said, that there were times when "the idea that the plane would crash would be a very nice thought in my head ... it would be such a relief."

Yet, despite vomiting as many as seven times a day, Amadei never told anyone of her problem until finally hitting rock bottom at a photo shoot for a French magazine. After taking 40 laxatives the night before, Amadei found herself curled up on the bathroom floor at the studio, shaking, sweating and unable to move because of severe cramps. The episode sent off an alarm for Amadei, who, at the age of 21, finally broke her own seven-year silence by telling someone about her problem.

Amadei's fight for recovery has been a long but sure one, and now she and Mysko have teamed up to share their stories with others on tour, on television and through magazine articles. Their hope is to educate young women about eating disorders and in doing so to shed light on the fashion industry's use of techniques, such as photo retouching, to rid even the world's best-known supermodels of the slightest imperfections. "We wanted to focus on some of the things [Amadei] has seen in the industry behind the scenes," said Mysko. "What you see in a magazine is not reality. Models in real life don't look as they do in the magazines."

Amadei hopes that if her audience remembers only one thing from her lectures, it is the message she reiterates time and again: "Just know that you don't have to suffer in silence."

"I think it was really important to emphasize that pictures are so retouched," said audience member Danielle Hawkins, a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "When you read through these magazines, you don't realize you have nine people in the editing room slimming down your thighs or making your smile bigger."

ILR major Lindsay Ulrey found the lecture universally important for all students. "Although it may seem that eating disorders usually apply to girls our age," said Ulrey, "it is the support system around the suffering people that help them through their hard time of recovering. In that sense, I think this lecture really did apply to all people."

Jenna Lewis '03, former vice president of the Panhellenic Association, and Barry Levine '04, director of Health Awareness Week 2003, organized the event.

If you think you have an eating disorder or someone you know does or if you would like nutrition information, contact Myra Berkowitz of the Cornell Healthy Eating Program at mjb20@cornell.edu, Beth McKinney of the Cornell Wellness Program at bm20@cornell.edu; or call Gannett Health Center at 255-5155 for an appointment.

Heimlich describes crucial health maneuvers during his campus talk

First-year student Laura Schoenle speaks with Dr. Henry Heimlich after his talk, Jan. 30, in Call Alumni Auditorium, during Health Awareness Week at Cornell. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Lissa Harris

Cornell alumnus Henry Heimlich, developer of the life-saving Heimlich maneuver, as well as the Heimlich chest valve and the esophageal transplant, told a campus audience Thursday, Jan. 30, that he has made it his lifelong mission to combat unnecessary death and disease.

Giving the keynote address in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall for Cornell's Health Awareness Week, Heimlich said, "We have the opportunity to save thousands of lives that have been, and are being, needlessly lost."

Heimlich, a 1941 Cornell graduate who earned his M.D. at Cornell Medical College in 1943, titled his talk, "Correcting Medical Mistakes that Cause Thousands of Needless Deaths." In it, he urged his listeners to adopt the simple mission of the Heimlich Institute, which he founded in the 1960s: Save lives. "Trying to save lives opens up doors that are otherwise locked to you," he said.

Heimlich's work has gained him respect and commendation worldwide: from the American Medical Association to the Iran News, which gave a Heimlich Institute's program a front-page headline during a period of intense anti-American sentiment in that country.

Although he is known around the world for his technique for helping choking victims, Heimlich has been the developer of many other ingenious medical inventions during his long career.

Heimlich described how his institute now is working on a controversial treatment for HIV: Infecting patients with a benign strain of malaria in an effort to boost their T-cell counts. Heimlich was inspired by the work of Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who won the Nobel Prize in 1927 for his successful use of malaria to treat advanced cases of syphilis. Heimlich reported that "malariotherapy" for HIV patients in China has shown promising results after a two-year study, and the institute plans to carry out long-term studies of the technique in Africa.

Of course, Heimlich is best known for his famous maneuver, which, he noted, also can be used during an asthma attack or administered periodically to asthma sufferers to keep the lungs clear of mucus. Also, the maneuver can be used to aid drowning victims because it is far more effective than mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in clearing the lungs of water. Although the American Red Cross has been training lifeguards to use the Heimlich maneuver since 1995, he said, many people still die from drowning each year because of widespread lack of knowledge of the technique's effectiveness. However, Heimlich noted, it took the American Red Cross 12 years to endorse the use of the maneuver for choking victims, despite the many lives that already had been saved by the technique.