[pct-l] Calling all Women Hikers!

[dsaufley at sprynet.com (dsaufley@sprynet.com)]

Richard,

I can understand and respect your skepticism, but I would like to vouch for Dr. Michele Toms as being very legitimate, and not some nut job soliciting personal information.  

Thru-hiking is NOT like marathons or any other sports activity that have relatively shorter windows of training and event.  We're talking about doing a marathon every day, carrying 25-35+ lbs., every day for months.  While there are some corollaries , there are also differences.  How many marathoners do you know who sleep on the ground and eat trail food at the end of every day?  Very few other sports go on for five or six months, and I'll wager that no one has studied the effects of thru-hiking (specifically) and it's effects on women.  

As a woman, I'd like to know what Michele learns, so I heartily endorse Micheles quest for information and encourage female long-distance hikers to participate.  Michele is the real deal. 

Donna Saufley
aka L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: calliger@infolane.com
Sent: Oct 30, 2005 8:43 AM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Calling all Women Hikers!

hmmmmmmmmm...if I were a woman I would take this with
an HUGE grain of salt...not to be pesonal..just a healthy
educated (PhD type) skepticism...

If all the ladys that even think of answering this type of survey
would do a little research....just use google-- really easy and
fast you would see this is a well-worn research topic
in the field..starting way back in the 50's when women
athletics were in the germination stage so-to-speak for
the "modern" era. this includes the first woman's marathon
and olymic games entry, women in the western states 100 foot
race,...etc etc etc...

Be very skeptical..sounds pruirent? (sp) prurient?? (fishy!)
(sp?) to me!!

Richard

PS-

HYOH and again, nothing personal..just be cautious..
Caveat emptor on giving away pesonal information to an
unknow internet person..MD or not...this stuff is
none of his business especially with so much data
already out there about the topic...has he sent the
same thing to my runner's list? NO! To my mountain
climbing lists?? NO!  Has he published this before?
NO..not to my knowledge...has he done other studies?
Nope..not that I can find...

NOR DOES IT MATTER...sounds like physhing to me!


PPS-

All typoes and mispellings are the respobsibility of the
author (me!) 'casue my spell checker is acting up!

Ok..I am off my soapbox...and nothing again personal to
the sender of that note. It is just that there is soooo
much weirdness on net as you know!





On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 21:41:27 +0100 (BST), Michele Toms wrote
> Calling women thru-hikers! For squeamish men, read no
> further :-)
> 
> As a doctor and a thru-hiker, I have been interested
> in the health of hikers while on the trail.
> Anecdotally, it seemed that some women stopped having
> their periods, probably due to weight loss and
> excessive exercise. There is a recognised condition
> called Female Athlete Syndrome that comprises a triad
> of amenorrhea (lack of menstrual period), disordered
> eating and osteoporosis. I wouldn?t exactly consider
> that hikers have eating disorders in the conventional
> sense, but they can have a rather irregular diet.
> Osteoporosis is a real threat to the thru-hiker, as it
> can predispose to stress fractures.
> 
> I?m interested in collecting data in the form of a
> questionnaire from any female hiker who has hiked all
> or sections of the PCT, in any year. The more data I
> can collect the better. I am just as interested in
> replies from women who had no problems as well as
> those who did, so as not to bias the data. The
> information will be kept confidential and anonymous. I
> intend to write up a report which will be discussed
> with fellow doctors, and will make it available to
> hikers on request. It may help future women hikers
> intending on embarking on a long hike.
> 
> Please respond directly to me off-list if you would
> like to help with this study; it will involve
> approximately 10 minutes of your time filling in a
> questionnaire.
> 
> Dr Michele Toms (half of Dave-and-Michele)
> PCT ?05
> 
> 		
> ___________________________________________________________ 
> To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new 
> Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com 
_______________________________________________
> pct-l mailing list
> pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> unsubscribe or change options:
> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l

_______________________________________________
pct-l mailing list
pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
unsubscribe or change options:
http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l