West Newsmagazine 11-15-17

26 I HEALTH I
November 15, 2017
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
CELEBRATING 18 YEARS
CHESTERFIELD
20 16 17
trot
OF FAMILY TRADITION
As the U.S. marks its annual Great American Smokeout day, a new Canadian program
centered around running may offer a model for smokers who want to quit for good.
health
capsules
By LISA RUSSELL
Taking up running helps
smokers kick the habit
The 2017 Great American Smokeout, an
annual American Cancer Society event
encouraging smokers to simply quit for a
day or make a plan to quit for good, takes
place Thursday, Nov. 16. While rates of
cigarette smoking have dropped significantly,
from 42 percent in 1965 to about 15
percent today, more than 36 million Americans
still smoke cigarettes, and use of other
addictive tobacco products – including
cigar, pipe and hookah – is on the rise.
Those who continue to smoke know how
dangerous, and potentially deadly, the habit
is; still, many find quitting to be nearly
impossible. But a new quitting method
recently introduced by Canadian health
authorities may offer up to half of smokers
an increased chance of success: running.
That was the conclusion of a new study that
found that about half the people who completed
a 10-week running program were
able to kick the habit successfully.
Last year, 170 smokers across Canada
registered for the new program, called
Run to Quit, offered through a partnership
between the Canadian Cancer Society and
a nationwide running and fitness retailer.
The weekly sessions included classroom
time divided between running instruction
and strategies for quitting smoking, plus an
outdoor walking/running component that
culminated in a 5K run.
Of the 72 participants who stayed in the
program for the entire 10 weeks, 37 had quit
smoking, which was verified through carbon
monoxide testing. The number of successful
quitters held steady six months later. Even
among those who did not quit completely,
more than 90 percent of those who participated
said they were smoking less.
“This shows that physical activity can be
a successful smoking cessation aid and that
a community-based program might offer
that, because doing it on your own is very
difficult,” said Carly Priebe, a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of British Columbia
and lead author of the study.
Currently, a formal quit-smoking program
related to running, similar to Run to
Quit, does not exist in the U.S. However,
for smokers in the West County area who
may want to give its methods a try, several
local running groups are open to novice
runners and walkers who wish to get more
physically active for any reason. The Chesterfield-based
Fun Run Club of Greater
St. Louis [www.funrunclub.org], along
with area Big River Running and Fleet
Feet stores and the informational website
www.stlouisruns.com, are just a few local
sources of information about how to get
started with a community-based running
group.
Teens now delaying
adult behaviors
Today’s teenagers are in no big hurry to
grow up compared to past generations – at
least in terms of such developmental milestones
such as working, driving and dating.
A new study, conducted by researchers at
San Diego State University and Bryn Mawr
College, examined how often current teens
engage in these activities compared to
their predecessors, and found that today’s
adolescents are less likely than teens who
came of age during the past four decades to
take part in adult behaviors.
“The developmental trajectory of adolescence
has slowed, with teens growing up
more slowly than they used to,” said Jean
M. Twenge, a professor of psychology at
San Diego State and the study’s lead author.
“In terms of adult activities, 18-year-olds
now look like 15-year-olds once did.”
The researchers analyzed how often
teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19
take part in several specific activities that
mark the transition from childhood to
adulthood: dating, working for pay, going
out without parents, driving, drinking
alcohol and having sex. They looked at
seven large surveys, conducted between
1976 and 2016, which included 8.3 million
teens. The survey groups proportionally
represented the U.S. population in terms
of gender, race, socioeconomic status and
geographic region. Their findings – that
teens who have reached adolescence since
Today’s teens are waiting longer than
previous generations to make the transition
into adulthood, a recent study showed.
2010 are waiting longer to embrace adulthood
– held true across all demographic
groups, and suggest a broad-based cultural
shift, they concluded.
This trend cannot be explained by saying
that today’s teens are simply busier with
homework or extracurricular activities, the
study also showed. Time spent on those
activities has actually decreased since 2010
among eighth and tenth graders compared
to previous decades, while holding steady
among high school seniors.
“Our study suggests that teens today
are taking longer to embrace both adult
responsibilities and adult pleasures,” added
Heejung Park of Bryn Mawr College, a coauthor
of the study, which was published
in the journal Child Development. “These
trends are neither good nor bad, but reflect
the current U.S. cultural climate.”
The nearly universal use of smartphones
and increasing amounts of time spent
online, which allow most teens to socialize
from the safety of their homes, may be part
of the explanation, Twenge said. Overprotectiveness
on the part of their parents may
be another. Twenge also has authored a
new book on teenagers who are part of the
generation born after 1995, titled “iGen:
Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are
Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant,
Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared
for Adulthood.”
Scientists explore revolutionary
new diabetes treatment
Controlling type 1 diabetes and some
cases of type 2 diabetes may someday be
as simple as ABC. A new type of treatment
using artificial beta cells – ABCs – is being
tested in mice by scientists at the University
of North Carolina, and those tests show
promise for potential human trials.
ABCs may represent an easier and less
painful treatment option for the more than
six million people in the U.S. alone who
now use insulin to treat their diabetes,
delivered either by daily injections or via
a mechanical pump. By contrast, artificial
beta cells, which mimic the insulin-secreting
beta cells normally present in the pancreas,
would automatically release insulin
into the bloodstream when glucose levels