Health + Wellness
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Health App Encourages Calling it Quits
Tech plus mindfulness helps extinguish smoking
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.
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K9s For Warriors Helps a Whidbey Island Veteran Get Back Out Into the World
With his service dog Atlas beside him, Navy veteran Justin Hughes is finding his workdays—and everyday outings—easier to navigate.
When Justin Hughes gets frustrated while on his computer at work, a nose sometimes appears between the armrest and the back of his chair. It belongs to Atlas, his service dog, who has been resting on a bed behind him. Hughes runs simulators for the military, and irritation can build before he recognizes what’s happening….
Seattle Sauna Festival Returns to Ballard for Another Round
Mobile saunas from around the Northwest will gather at the National Nordic Museum November 7-8.
In Seattle, November is usually something to face in a raincoat. At the National Nordic Museum, you can meet it in a bathing suit. The Seattle Sauna Festival returns to Ballard November 7-8 for its second year, bringing mobile saunas from around the Northwest onto the museum grounds. Visitors can try several, cool off in…
Seattle Is Changing the Conversation Around Death
Death is one of life’s few certainties, yet it remains remarkably difficult to talk about. Across Seattle, a growing network of practitioners, advocates, and entrepreneurs is trying to change that. From grief walks to death doulas, Seattle is building a new language around loss, and one woman wants to bring more of that conversation into…
