Health App Encourages Calling it Quits
Tech plus mindfulness helps extinguish smoking
By Malia Jacobson May 17, 2016
This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.
A half-century ago, in the Marlboro Man’s heyday, nearly half of American adults smoked. Far fewer light up today, but the 20 percent who do face steep odds when they try to quit: According to the American Cancer Society, only 4–7 percent of efforts to quit smoking succeed without medicines or other assistance. Now, there’s an app for that. Last fall, psychologist Jonathan Bricker, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, received a $3.1 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study SmartQuit, a smoking-cessation smartphone app offered free to Washington residents through the Department of Health (doh.wa.gov).
Bricker is an expert in acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, which SmartQuit employs to help smokers mindfully accept urges to smoke without acting on them. According to the Department of Health, SmartQuit boosts quitting success rates threefold; the NCI grant will fund a randomized, controlled trial to yield greater insight into how this marriage of mindfulness and tech can help more smokers clear the air, for good.
Follow Us
Floating with Friends
The benefits of sauna go beyond the physical, and Seattle’s newest wellness experience—which glides around the waters of Lake Union—equally taps into the non-tangible positives.
It only took a few minutes to settle in before I knew—these are my people. I met Emma Griffith, one of the founders of Wild Haus Floating Saunas, on a crisp, clear, late-summer morning to chat about the project she helped start last January. In simple terms, the team of eight created two saunas on…
Dog of the Month: Charlie
A would-be space traveler with a complicated legal history.
Charlie is about 10 months old, though his foster parent describes him as an “old soul.” He loves being around people and other dogs, but his social calendar has been limited after an unfortunate encounter with a skunk before he was found just outside Yakima. He is also the recipient of a lifetime ban from…
The Neighborhood Gym Effect
Inside Seattle Strength and Performance’s small-group training model and welcoming approach to fitness.
On a regular Seattle Wednesday morning, a little wet and dreary, I walk into a small gym feeling unsure of what I’ve gotten myself into. It’s late January, a time when many New Year’s resolutions are failing and motivation to keep exercising may be going out the window. I work out consistently—lifting weights, going to…
I Experienced a Skincare Treatment on the World’s Most Expensive Bed
A Hästens pop-up is currently running at Penelope and the Beauty Bar.
Last week as I was heading out the door for an appointment at Penelope and the Beauty Bar—the spa inside the Fairmont Olympic Hotel—my fiancé yelled up the stairs, “You better not fall in love with that mattress!” I was on my way to experience the spa’s Oxygen Dome Facial as part of a pop-up…