Newspaper Page Text
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Kicking the habit will
improve your health
and your social life.
MAKE
SMOKE-FREE
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JANUARY GETS ITS name
from the Roman god Janus,
a fellow who had two faces I
one looking backward and the
other looking forward. Such a name I
makes sense; we reflect on the past
year while looking to the future dur
ing this month. And that makes Janu
ary the perfect time for making reso-
lutions. For the approximately one in five adults who
smoke, vowing to kick the habit should be at the top
of the list.
For a while, it looked like we had smoking on the
run. According to the Centers for Disease Control,
the percentage of adult smokers fell each year from
1997 to 2004, but then it leveled off. The most re
cent CDC figures (from 2006) suggest that we still
have about the same percentage of adult cigarette
smokers (20.8%) as in 2004. This recent stall is a
concern. Smoking continues to be the most signifi
cant modifiable cause of illness and death among us,
Smoking continues
to be the biggest
cause of illness and
death among us
that we can change.
problems smoking causes for the heart and lungs,
but consider what it does to other areas of your life,
as wefi. And think about the upside of a smoke-free
life. Cheek out what the data show (see box).
These research observations are not meant to be
little, but rather to inspire. A smoke-free life brings
with it much more than just better health; it also
28
USA WEEKEND • Dec. 28-30,2007
By DR. TEDD MITCHELL
so reversing this trend
once again is critical to
our nation’s health.
Here’s where the New
Tear’s resolution comes in.
Those of you who smoke
should take this oppor
tunity to reflect on rea
sons to kick the habit.
We’ve all heard about the
A NON-SMOKING WIN LIST:
1. Your appeal to the opposite sex could triple.
2. You could improve your sexual function.
3. Your wrinkles may appear smoother, and
your face may age better than a smoker's.
4. Others are more likely to perceive you as
more sophisticated than smokers.
5. Others will tend to view you as more
self-disciplined than smokers.
6. Others are more likely to consider you
wiser than smokers.
7. Others will tend to think you are more
desirable to date than smokers.
8. Even smokers tend to view non-smokers
more positively than they view themselves.
brings a better social life.
We live at a time when cigarettes’ detrimental ef
fects have been well documented and highly dissemi
nated. I would venture to say that nobody living in
the United States would argue that cigarettes are
good for you. That’s how far we’ve come over the
past half-century. But we appeal- to have hit a snag.
Let’s use January 2008 to turn things around. I hope
that when we look back in January 2009, we’ll see
smoking rates on the decline once more.
Tedi> Mitchell, M.D., president of Dallas' Cooper Clinic,
writes Health Smart every iveek.
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Dads help ADHD kids
A sports program keeps fathers involved
and learning to give positive feedback.
BY PEGGY J. NOONAN
Traditional treatment programs teach par
ents how to cope with their kids’ attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder but, unfortunately, dads tend
to drop out or not show up at all.
Adding sports to the mix gets fathers involved and
helps children and dads cope better, a study at the State
University of New York at Buf
falo found.
In an eight-week program,
ADHD kids ages 6 to 12 play
soccer and learn the game’s
rules and techniques as well
as good sportsmanship.
At the same time, dads at
tend classes in which they learn
effective coping strategies for
ADHD challenges. One impor
tant lesson: how to minimize
negative criticisms, “pay atten
tion to their child’s good be
havior and praise them when
they do things the right way,”
says Gregory A Fabiano, PhJ},
who developed the program
known as COACHES (Coach
ing Our Acting-Out Children:
Heightening Essential Skills)
with funding from the National
Institute of Mental Health.
After each lesson, dads and
kids get together to play a real soccer game.
It’s “set up to be just like a real little league,” Fabi
ano says. “The dads’ job is to coach the kids” using tech
niques that they have learned in class. For example, at
least five times per quarter, dads are to “catch their kids
being good and notice their appropriate behavior.... And,
of course, the goal is that they do those same things with
the child at home during the week.”
While kids are having fun playing, their negative ADHD
behaviors are reduced, so it’s easier for dads to see posi
tive results right away.
Fathers play key roles in children’s development, es
pecially, Fabiano says, when it comes to helping children
figure out the best ways to interact socially with other
kids their age. ca
X n If
ADHD KEYS
FOR PARENTS
• Reward kids
for being good,
• Establish
clear rules and
consequences.
• Be consistent.
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