Quitting smoking in packs
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat. We humans really are herd animals. We even give up smoking in packs – and not just cigarette packs. Researchers say that, if one person quits, the odds rise that other people in the same social circle will quit, too. Scientists at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego found that in a long-running study of residents of Framingham, Massachusetts. The research in the New England Journal of Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health. At UC San Diego, James Fowler says when one person quit, the idea seemed to spread through the group, so even people who the first quitter didn’t know were quitting. ``Because we are connected, our health is connected. One of the amazing things about the study is that you influence people who you may never have even met.’’ (8 seconds) Learn more at hhs.gov. HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss. Last revised: May, 27 2008 | 
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