Research shows the campaign led to millions of attempts to stop smoking and more than 1 million long-term quits  read on >

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will stop airing its “Tips From Former Smokers” ads at the end of September, ending a 13-year campaign that helped millions of Americans quit smoking. Launched in 2012, the campaign featured real people sharing the devastating health effects of smoking — and pointed viewers to free resources like the 800-QUIT-NOW helpline.  Independent research from RTI International showed that calls to the quitline surged whenever the ads ran and dropped sharply when they paused, CBS News said. One success story is Leslie Allison-Seei, who quit smoking after more than 40 years. In 2014, she began coughing up blood and was rushed to the hospital, where her doctor urged her to stop immediately.  “You’re done smoking as of today,” she recalled him saying. With nicotine patches, quitline support and a coach named Lori, Leslie quit the next day — and hasn’t smoked in over 11 years, according to CBS News. Research shows the campaign led to millions of attempts to stop smoking and more than 1 million long-term quits between 2012 and 2023.  It also saved billions of dollars in health care costs by preventing smoking-related illnesses. But funding for the program has been cut as part of a broader restructuring of the CDC’s chronic disease programs. Without new support, the ads — widely considered one of the…  read on >  read on >

Struggling to cope with today’s catastrophe-filled world? Changing your mindset can help protect you from the stress caused by disease outbreaks, wildfires, earthquakes, political uproars and traumatic life events, researchers say. People given a one-hour class in shifting their mindset — to see growth opportunities amidst chaos — wound up with lower levels of depression and stress months later, researchers report in the October issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. “We would have liked to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic, but it came regardless,” said senior researcher Alia Crum, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University in California. “In the post-pandemic era, we face a choice: We can let it recede into memory, leaving us depleted and disillusioned, or we can choose to look back, learn from it, and grow – both personally and collectively,” Crum said in a news release. Mindsets are the core beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that serve as a foundation for how people see and engage with the world, researchers said in background notes. These mental “lenses” can dramatically change how events affect a person. For the study, the research team tested the potential of altering a person’s mindset by showing two groups different videos. In all, 226 people were shown videos explaining how mindsets can be powerful drivers of health and well-being, highlighting the ways that people can…  read on >  read on >

Struggling to cope with today’s catastrophe-filled world? Changing your mindset can help protect you from the stress caused by disease outbreaks, wildfires, earthquakes, political uproars and traumatic life events, researchers say. People given a one-hour class in shifting their mindset — to see growth opportunities amidst chaos — wound up with lower levels of depression and stress months later, researchers report in the October issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. “We would have liked to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic, but it came regardless,” said senior researcher Alia Crum, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University in California. “In the post-pandemic era, we face a choice: We can let it recede into memory, leaving us depleted and disillusioned, or we can choose to look back, learn from it, and grow – both personally and collectively,” Crum said in a news release. Mindsets are the core beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that serve as a foundation for how people see and engage with the world, researchers said in background notes. These mental “lenses” can dramatically change how events affect a person. For the study, the research team tested the potential of altering a person’s mindset by showing two groups different videos. In all, 226 people were shown videos explaining how mindsets can be powerful drivers of health and well-being, highlighting the ways that people can…  read on >  read on >

Two-thirds of women in their child-bearing years have an increased risk for birth defects due to a lifestyle factor they can change, a new study says. These risk factors — low levels of vitamin B9 (folate), unmanaged diabetes or exposure to tobacco smoke — increase the odds of a serious birth defect in any child they might have, researchers said. Heart defects, cleft palates and defects of the brain and spinal cord are among the problems that could be headed off if women took steps to improve their health prior to pregnancy, researchers reported today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Every growing family hopes for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby,” said lead researcher Arick Wang, a senior health scientist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “Understanding modifiable risk factors for birth defects helps families, health care providers, and public health professionals make data-informed decisions that can lead to healthier pregnancies and babies,” Wang added in a news release. For the new study, researchers analyzed data for nearly 5,400 women of reproductive age, gathered between 2007 and 2020 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. About 66% had at least one known risk factor for birth defects that could be addressed, results show. These include:  Low folate status: Roughly 4 out of 5 women got less…  read on >  read on >